Poll Provides Look At Catholic Voters (NAPSA)—Arecent poll offers new insights into the way Catholic voters differ from the rest of the voting public—and also examines the way Catholics who practice their faith regularly differ from those who donot. The Marist Colilege Institute for Public Opinion Poll conducted for the Knights of Columbus found that in Majority Of Practicing Catholics Are Pro-Life Views On Abortion 59% 65% some areas, Catholic voters’ views are similar to those of Carl Anderson the general population on issues like government funding for the poor, amnesty for illegal immigrants, global warming and the belief that the economyis the nation’s No. 1 problem. Seventy percent of all registered voters and 70 percentofall registered practicing Catholics say they would vote for a candidate whobelieves marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Catholics and non-Catholics agree that America needs a moral makeover. Seventy-one percent of all U.S. residents and 73 percent of U.S. Catholics believe that “the country’s moral compassright now points in the wrongdirection.” But in other areas, Catholic vot- ers differ from the electorate as a whole. They are less likely to vote for a candidate who favors the death penalty and more likely to favor a candidate who is committed to success in the warin Iraq. Some of the most dramatic differences are found within the community of Catholic voters. Fifty- Pro-life Pro-choice 59% of practicing Catholics identify themselvesas pro-life compared to 65% of nonpracticing Catholics who consider themselves to be pro-choice. When asked to identify them- selves as either pro-life or prochoice, Catholics, as a whole, divide. nine percent of practicing Catholics are pro-life, while 65 percent of nonpracticing Catholics are prochoice. Nonpracticing Catholics are far more likely to be prochoice than the population at large (65 percent vs. 50 percent). Only 30 percent of U.S. residents favor same-sex marriage while 46 percent of nonpracticing Catholics do. Seventy-five percent of practicing Catholics oppose same-sex marriage. Parental notification if a daughter under18 is planning to have an abortion is supported by 77 percent of U.S. residents and by 84 percent of practicing Catholics. Full details of the poll results can be found at www.kofc.org.
