From the GetReligion article Those consistently complex “Catholic voters”:
...let me once again share the four-pronged typology that a veteran priest here in Washington, D.C., gave me a few years ago. There are, he said, four kinds of Catholics in this country and, thus, four “Catholic votes” on almost any issue. Any news report that lumps these groups together isn’t worth very much.Related threads:* Ex-Catholics. Solid for the Democrats. Cultural conservatives have no chance.
* Cultural Catholics who may go to church a few times a year. This may be one of those all-important “undecided voters” depending on what’s happening with the economy, foreign policy, etc. Leans to Democrats.
* Sunday-morning American Catholics. This voter is a regular in the pew and may even play some leadership role in the parish. This is the Catholic voter that is really up for grabs, the true swing voter that the candidates are after.
* The “sweats the details” Roman Catholic who goes to confession. Is active in the full sacramental life of the parish and almost always backs the Vatican, when it comes to matters of faith and practice. This is a very small slice of the American Catholic pie.
Interesting. The Religion Forum has a few "I used to be Catholic till I saw the light" posters on it, I'm not surprised to hear that according to your quote, they're liberals.
“The “sweats the details” Roman Catholic who goes to confession. Is active in the full sacramental life of the parish and almost always backs the Vatican, when it comes to matters of faith and practice. This is a very small slice of the American Catholic pie.”
I don’t doubt that at all. In a celebrity culture how in the world can we expect people to follow the hard teachings of Christ when His farewell performance was such a downer?
(Please note that was a sarcastic remark about our culture. I know that Jesus’ death on the Cross was victory over death and was the greatest Love this world has known.)