WASHINGTON, D.C., November 19, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A report released by the Pew Research Center (PRC) shows that a majority of Catholics surveyed in Western Europe, the Americas, and across the world support either homosexual “marriage” or homosexuality as such — contrary to the official teaching of the Catholic Church.
The comprehensive report, released earlier this month, focuses on Catholics’ view on homosexuality. Compiling the results of studies conducted over the past few years, the figures demonstrate a wide-scale rejection of Catholic teaching on same-sex “marriage” and homosexuality, which the Church describes as “intrinsically disordered” and something that “can in no case be approved of.”
Views regarding same-sex ‘marriage’
The report mentions a 2019 survey, which highlighted that 61 percent of U.S. Catholics were in favor of marriage between two persons of the same sex. Thirty-one percent of Catholics were against the idea.
However, support for same-sex “marriage” among Catholics in the United States is somewhat dwarfed by the figures found in many Western European countries.
The Netherlands topped the table, with 92 percent of Catholics supporting same-sex “marriage,” followed by Belgium and the U.K. with 83 percent and 78 percent, respectively.
The European figures were based on a 2017 report, which also showed that among Christians regularly going to church, 51 percent favored abortion in the Netherlands, while in Belgium and the U.K. that number was 74 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
The 2019 report listed Switzerland, Spain, France, Austria, and Germany as having 70 percent of Catholics or higher who favored same-sex “marriage.”
However, PRC also noted that despite the high approval for same-sex “marriage” among Western European Catholics, acceptance was much weaker in Eastern Europe. In Slovakia, 54 percent of Catholics rejected it, ad the number increased to over 60 percent in Poland, Croatia, and Hungary.
Out of the remaining five countries surveyed, over 80 percent of Catholics rejected same-sex “marriage,” with 90 percent doing so in both Bosnia and Ukraine.
Homosexuality in general
Based on the findings of a 2019 global survey, which assessed Catholics in 22 of 34 countries in the wider survey, PRC was able to state that “even among Christians, Catholics are more likely to accept homosexuality than Protestants and evangelicals in many countries.” Furthermore, the survey concluded that 76 percent of U.S. Catholics held that homosexuality should be accepted in society.
Canadian Catholics were even more opposed to Church teaching in their views, with 87 percent supporting homosexuality. The result remained largely similar in the Americas as a whole, with Brazil, Mexico and Argentina all showing above 70 percent support for homosexuality among Catholics.
Once again, the Netherlands topped the scale, with 95 percent of Catholics supporting homosexuality, with Germany and Spain also having figures above 90 percent. Meanwhile, 86 percent of U.K. Catholics believed homosexuality should be accepted in society.
Out of the 22 countries in the survey, only five had a majority of Catholics who did not support homosexuality, with Polish Catholics evenly split on the question. The three countries most faithful to Catholic teaching were Kenya and Nigeria in Africa, as well as Lebanon in the Middle East.
PRC commented that based on the findings of the global survey, “Catholics within many countries generally are as accepting as their non-Catholic compatriots of homosexuality. This is not true in all countries, though. In Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and the Philippines, Catholics are somewhat more likely than non-Catholics to say that homosexuality should be accepted by society.”
Remarks attributed to Pope Francis (and, not denied by the Vatican) in support of homosexual civil unions have caused grave scandal to the faithful.
Please SIGN this urgent petition which asks Pope Francis to clarify and rectify these heterodox and scandalous remarks on homosexual civil unions, and which will be delivered both to the Vatican and to the Papal Nuncio of the United States (the Pope's official representative in the U.S.).
As the last guarantor of the Faith, the Pope should clarify and rectify these remarks, which go against the perennial teaching of the Church, even including the teaching of his living predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
"What we have to create is a law of civil coexistence [meaning civil union law, for homosexuals]...," Pope Francis is reported to have remarked, in what is arguably his clearest statement of public support for a practice morally prohibited by official Catholic Church teaching.
In fact, the Church has been crystal clear in Her opposition to homosexual unions.
Just in 2003, Pope Saint John Paul II approved a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, titled 'Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons' and written by Cardinal Ratzinger (now, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), which concludes with the following:
"The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself."
It could not be more clear: the Church is calling people to repentance, not to be left to indulge in grave sin.
Since becoming public, several senior prelates as well as other notable Catholic figures have voiced their opposition to these remarks attributed to the Pontiff.
Cardinal Raymond Burke stated: "It is a source of deepest sadness and pressing pastoral concern that the private opinions reported with so much emphasis by the press and attributed to Pope Francis do not correspond to the constant teaching of the Church, as it is expressed in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition."
Cardinal Gerhard Müller commented: "Where there is tension between the plain and obvious Word of God and the infallible interpretation on the one hand, and private expressions of opinion even by the highest church authorities on the other, the principle always applies: in dubio pro DEO [When in doubt, be in favor of God]."
And, Catholic theologian and apologist Scott Hahn, without directly quoting Pope Francis, shared on Facebook the 'Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,' published by the CDF in 1986, with the statement: "Holy Father, respectfully and humbly, I beg to differ... if that is indeed what you said. In any case, please clarify and rectify your statement, especially in view of the official teaching of our Lord through the magisterium of His Church."
But, the silence from the Vatican has been deafening, with no clarification forthcoming.
We must, therefore, ask the Pope for clarification in this serious matter.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which asks Pope Francis to clarify and rectify remarks attributed to him in support of homosexual civil unions.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Cdl. Burke: Pope’s homosexual civil union remarks ‘contrary’ to Scripture, Tradition' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-burke-on-popes-homosexual-civil-union-remarks-contrary-to-the-teaching-of-sacred-scripture-and-sacred-tradition
'Cardinal says Catholics ‘can and should’ disagree with Pope’s ‘opinion’ on gay civil unions' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/cdl.mueller-popes-words-on-gay-civil-unions-purely-private-expression-of-opinion-which-every-catholic-can-and-should-freely-contradict
'Archbishop Vigano, Bishops Tobin and Strickland respond to Pope’s approval of homosexual civil unions' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/archbishop-vigano-and-bishops-tobin-strickland-respond-to-popes-approval-of-homosexual-civil-unions
'Pope’s comments on gay civil unions cause shockwaves around the world' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/deepest-sadness-cardinal-burke-condemns-pope-franciss-remarks-supporting-civil-unions
The report did note that “in Poland, Catholics are less likely than non-Catholics to say homosexuality should be accepted by society.”
Role of Pope Francis
The role of Pope Francis in the views of Catholics who were part of the various surveys cannot be ignored. PRC itself mentioned him in the very first line of the report, highlighting the Pope’s recent comments in support of same-sex civil unions. PRC also added that Pope Francis’s words “struck many observers as a shift for the Vatican — which in 2003 came out against any ‘legal recognition of homosexual unions.’”
However, the most recent survey referenced in the report was conducted in 2019, with others being up to five years old. Thus, the Pope’s comments had not been taken into account by participants of the surveys.
Nevertheless, the Pope famously asked already in 2013, “Who am I to judge?” He was responding to a question about credible accusations against Msgr. Battista Ricca, head of the Pope’s residence in the Vatican, of being involved in homosexual acts. The media quickly ran with the phrase, creating the impression that Church teaching on homosexuality was changing. The comment has yet to be clarified by the Vatican.
While the Pope has previously maintained the teaching that marriage is only between one man and one woman, he has also given many conflicting signs about his personal views on homosexuality and same-sex civil unions.
Pope Francis also caused confusion by meeting with various priests known for their pro-homosexual views and public pro-LGBT activism. Pope Francis has now met with pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin, SJ three times, despite Martin being repeatedly publicly criticized for his deviation from Church teaching regarding homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”
Before to his most recent comments on civil unions, the Pope reportedly told U.S. bishops during their ad limina visit that same-sex civil unions can be accepted.
The 2003 letter “Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons,” published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, reaffirms that “homosexual acts go against the natural moral law,” and cannot be approved.
“The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions,” the document continues. “The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society.”