Catholics weigh in on Joe Biden, abortion, mass attendance, the Real Presence and more in this poll

 

New EWTN poll: Most Catholics don’t want Biden to run for a second term

By Matthew Bunson

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 3, 2022 / 16:00 pm

Most Catholics believe that President Joe Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, should not run for a second term in 2024, according to a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research Poll of likely Catholic voters released Monday.

The poll, conducted Sept. 12–19, shows Biden continues to face challenges in garnering support among Catholic voters in the run-up to Election Day on Nov. 8. In particular, the poll indicates waning support for the president among Hispanic Catholic voters, traditionally a strong source of support for the Democratic Party.

Among other highlights of the poll, Catholic voters rank inflation and the economy as the most critical issues facing the country, and most say they are very concerned about the state of education, especially after the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Much of the poll’s results provide a snapshot of how Catholic voters assess Biden’s performance after two years in office

When asked how they feel Biden is handling his job as president, nearly 52% of Catholic voters said they either disapproved (5%) or strongly disapproved (47%); around 46% either approved (32%) or strongly approved (14%). Notably, the strong disapproval number was significantly higher than strongly approved. Only 2% of voters had no opinion.

A majority of Catholics (58%) feel that Biden should not run for a second term in 2024, while only 22% support a possible re-election bid; 19% of Catholics are not sure. Most Catholics (67%-27% with 10% not sure) also do not want former President Donald Trump to run for president again in 2024.

The president’s challenges may also be reflected in the fact that the survey found Democrats trailing Republicans by four points in the generic ballot for Congress. When asked if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican candidate, almost 49% of Catholics would vote for the Republican candidate while 45% would choose the Democrat, with the rest not sure. This margin underestimates the Republican advantage in the race for control of Congress since Democrat voters are more geographically clustered.

The well-documented statistical disparity that exists between Mass-attending Catholics and those who attend only yearly or never remains in this latest poll.

Among Catholics who attend Mass once a week or more often, 75% say they would vote for the Republican candidate, while 54% of those who attend a few times a year or less would vote for the Democrat candidate.

Catholics are also divided on the president’s job approval. A substantial majority of Catholics (75%) who attend Mass at least weekly or more disapprove of the president’s handling of his job while his approval rating among Catholics who attend Mass a few times a year or less stands at 53%.

The poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group, surveyed 1,581 Catholic voters and has a margin of error of 2.5%. The questionnaire was administered using a mix of six different methods, including live phone calls, text messages, and email.

A third and final EWTN News/RealClear poll will focus on the Catholic vote in the days just before the midterms.

Catholics divided on abortion

On the issue of abortion, the survey of Catholic voters taken after the release of the Supreme Court’s June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, found that Catholics remain very divided even as a massive majority (87%) wants various restrictions on abortion.

Surveyed on whether they agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Catholic voters are almost evenly split, with 48% saying that abortion should be a federally protected right and 46% saying each state should determine its own abortion policy; 6% were not sure. Still, 13% of Catholics say abortion should be available to a woman at any time she wants one during her entire pregnancy while 8% say that abortion should never be permitted under any circumstances.

Overall, most Catholics favor restrictions ranging from abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother, 27%; until 15 weeks, when the baby can feel pain, 20%; only during the first six months of pregnancy, 13%; until a heartbeat can be detected, 10%; or only to save the life of the mother, 9%. Catholics who attend Mass once a week or more favor the overturn of Roe by 75%, while 50% of those who attend a few times a year or less believe abortion should be a federally protected right.

Catholics are similarly divided on whether they would be more or less likely to support a candidate who agrees with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, with 42% saying they would be more likely and 42% saying they would be less likely; 16% are not sure.

On the recent controversy surrounding pregnancy resource centers, some two-thirds of Catholic voters support public funding for these centers, where pregnant women can seek help with alternatives to abortion, while 18% are opposed and the remainder are not sure. Likewise, 62% say that political and church leaders should be speaking out against the recent attacks and acts of vandalism on pregnancy resource centers, compared with 15% who say they should not and another 23% who are not sure.

Inflation, jobs are major worries

Abortion, however, is not the most important issue to Catholic voters as they look to the midterms. While a major element of the Democrat campaign for the 2022 election, abortion trails significantly behind other issues, including inflation and the economy, as most important. Only 10% of Catholics say abortion is the most important issue facing the nation — tied with immigration, while 34% say inflation and another nearly 20% say the economy/jobs.

Like most Americans, Catholics are feeling the impact of inflation. Asked how much their personal finances have been affected by rising prices and inflation, 81% of Catholic voters say that inflation has impacted them, while only 19% say not much or not at all.

A plurality (41%) place the blame for inflation on Biden and his administration, while nearly 32% blame it on the global slowdown due to COVID-19 or the Russian invasion of Ukraine (more than 9%), and 17% say all of the above or they don’t know. As for the Inflation Reduction Act that the president recently signed into law, Catholics express little confidence that it will reduce inflation. A majority of Catholics (54%) say they don’t have much or any confidence that it will reduce inflation, while 37% say they have a great deal or some confidence and the rest are not sure.

Hispanic support slipping for Biden, Democrats

One potentially significant development the poll found was a decline in support for the president and Democrats in general among Hispanic Catholics — historically a reliable Democrat voting bloc.

When asked how they feel Biden is handling his job as president, 50% of Hispanic Catholics say they strongly approve (11%) or approve (39%), while nearly 47% say they either disapprove (7%) or strongly disapprove (40%). Biden’s numbers among white Catholics are much worse, with 54% strongly disapproving (51%) or disapproving (4%), compared with 44%, who either strongly approve (16%) or approve (28%). Among African-American Catholics, he enjoys a very high approval rate of 90%, with 12% approving strongly and 78% approving. The first EWTN/RealClear poll in July found that Biden’s approval rating among white Catholics was 36%, 59% among Hispanic Catholics, and 72% among Black Catholics.

As for whether he should run for re-election, the president is facing a serious electoral and demographic challenge. Only 17% of white Catholics think he should run, while 62% say he should not. Among Hispanic Catholics, only 28% say he should run, and 53% say he should not. Almost all African-American Catholics (94%) think he should run again.

When asked about their preference for candidates in the midterms, Hispanic Catholics are now evenly divided, with 45% favoring the Democrat and 44% preferring the Republican. Among white Catholics, Republicans hold an edge of 51%-44%. Black Catholics favor the Democrat 90%-10%.

Education concerns

One other area of concern to many Catholics is that of education, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that impacted schools across the country. Three-quarters of Catholics said they are concerned about a “COVID deficit” in schoolchildren that has caused them to have lost significant intellectual and social development; around 17% said they were not concerned and 10% said they were not sure.

A majority of Catholics (nearly 78%) either strongly support (47%) or support (21%) school choice, a policy that allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs, including a public school, private school, charter school, home school, parochial school, or any other learning environment a family might choose; 26% either strongly oppose (17%) or oppose (9%) school choice.

Majorities of Catholics also support parents of K–12 students helping determine what is being taught in schools (64%-31%), oppose biological boys who identify as girls competing against biological girls on school sports teams (76%-14%), and oppose introducing Critical Race Theory (CRT) into the classroom (60%-29%).

Half of Catholics believe in Real Presence

Finally, in the area of Catholic belief and practice, some 84% of Catholics believe in heaven. Previous polls found that 77% believe in hell and 65% believe in purgatory. A majority of Catholic voters (77%) also believe in guardian angels.

When asked about their Mass attendance post-COVID, only 1% of Catholics attend daily, 7% attend more than once a week, 24% once a week, 10% once or twice a month, 26% a few times a year, 5% once a year, and 26% less than once a year or never.

The numbers for Mass attendance are matched by belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist. As found also in the last poll, 50% of Catholics believe that the transformed bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ while 40% say the bread and wine are symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ; almost 10% say they are not sure. At the same time, only 26% of Catholics go to confession at least monthly or yearly, while 50% never go.

Inflation impacts food banks and pantries

 

CATHOLIC FOOD PANTRIES STRUGGLE WITH DEMAND AS INFLATION SOARS

by Jonah McKeown, Katie Yoder

CNA Newsroom, Aug 20, 2022 / 12:30 pm

Amid the highest levels of inflation seen in the United States in four decades, food pantries across the country — many of which are run by Catholics — are seeing an increased demand for their services.

Catholic food pantries serve millions of Americans across the country — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — every year. For people in need, they make the difference between having food on the table and going hungry.

“If it were not for this pantry, there would have been times when we would not have had food,” said LaShanda Davis, a security officer who receives help from the Guadalupe Center food pantry in Houston, Texas.

Now, under the weight of inflation, many pantries are struggling. Grocery prices jumped nearly 11% in July 2022 compared to the previous year. Those increases impact the food pantries themselves as well as their customers.

One food bank in St. Louis saw its monthly grocery bill more than double in recent months. In Chicago, the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels food pantry said the number of families seeking help increased by 50% since last summer. And one of Louisiana’s largest food banks is reporting that the number of needy people seeking its services is increasing by 5% every month. Catholic Charities organizations in both Nashville and Gallup, New Mexico, also told CNA that their food pantries have seen a substantial increase in demand since the start of 2022.

People are turning to these food pantries not only for food but also for help with other needs, a spokesperson for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston told CNA. These include clothing, school supplies, rental and utility assistance, employment guidance, and education.

While demand at the pantries does not appear to be quite as sky-high as it was during the initial COVID-19 crisis in 2020, inflation seems to have created a more sustained high demand.

Haley Calabro, director of the St. Augustine Wellston Center in St. Louis, told CNA that they typically served 300-400 people before the start of the COVID crisis, and a record 1,400 in April 2020, but that number eventually went back down again to typical levels as the pandemic wore on. They are serving around 840 people a month now, she said.

A NATIONAL LOOK

Catholic Charities, whose agencies manage over 1,000 food banks and pantries across all 50 states and five U.S. territories, serves over 8.4 million individuals each year.

Jane Stenson, the vice president of poverty reduction programs and services at Catholic Charities USA, told CNA that “many agencies have stated that they are having difficulty keeping food on the shelves.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food inflation in the United States hit 10.9% in July 2022, the highest since May 1979. Food-at-home prices — meaning the cost of food at the grocery store — increased by 13.1%.

Stenson spoke about the impact of the current economic climate and inflation, noting that some corporate donations of food products have dried up, since it is more expedient for them to sell their products for a good price.

In addition, many of their individual donors — on which many food pantries rely — are not giving or are giving less, “since everyone is dealing with inflation,” she said.

Dave Barringer, national CEO of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, told CNA that during the pandemic “we did not see an increase in food needs as much as a need to get food to people in different, safer, ways,” such as with contactless methods of food distribution. SVDP mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country, arranged into local groups called conferences, to provide various kinds of aid to the poor through personal encounters.

Now, Barringer says, the needs they see among the people they serve are primarily financial.

“They tell us that wages are up, but not enough to meet the increased costs of energy, especially gasoline and home energy,” Barringer explained. “Their food costs are skyrocketing, so food pantry essentials stretch what they can afford on their own … They come to us first, and then supplement at the grocery store.”

Barringer said they have also seen a trend toward family members moving in with each other in larger numbers to save money on rent, more people working multiple jobs, and many undocumented immigrant families who are unable to receive social assistance because of their legal status.

Barringer recognized the importance of food pantries, but emphasized that they are “only band-aids for families in need.”

“We can’t as Catholics give enough food (or school backpacks or anything else) away to solve this economic problem, we can only ease the pain,” he said. “The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is focusing on systemic change solutions such as financial literacy, workforce development, re-entry programs and alternatives to predatory lending to help our neighbors with longer-term solutions to avoid or escape poverty.”

“ANXIETY AND NEED” INCREASING EVERYWHERE

Natalie Jayroe, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank in south Louisiana, told CNA that ever since the start of the pandemic, the “level of anxiety and need” among the people they serve has not abated.

The food bank already serves about 200,000 people in south Louisiana, and Jayroe said the number of people seeking their services has increased by 5% every month since inflation started rising.

One problem Second Harvest faces is that much of the federal money allocated during the pandemic has dried up, leaving the food bank to foot more of the bill than it did during the initial period of high demand brought on by the COVID crisis.

The St. Augustine Wellston Center, in St. Louis, distributes food to families monthly and buys much of its food using donated funds rather than relying on donated items. Calabro, the director, said their monthly grocery bill has increased in recent months from about $1,200 on average to nearly $3,000.

Calabro said they are seeing an increase not only in the numbers of families that are coming to them for assistance but also an increase in the number of times families have had to return to them to seek help.

The three food pantries operated by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston “have seen a significant increase by families who are experiencing food insecurity,” a spokesperson told CNA.

“People are not only coming in for food, but they are also requesting clothing, school supplies, cleaning products, rental, and utility assistance,” she said. “Many are even seeking employment guidance and education and training assistance.”

Community members who depend on the pantries for sustenance, like LaShanda Davis, remain grateful for their work.

“This pantry has been a true blessing to my family and me,” Davis said.

Mary Agnes Erlandson, the center director for St. Margaret’s Center in Inglewood, California, a part of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, told CNA that the families they serve “are definitely feeling the impact of the economy and inflation.”

“All the expenses are going up including rent, so we’re getting a lot of people calling and asking for utility assistance, rent assistance,” Erlandson said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Margaret’s held a weekly drive-through food pantry that served roughly 200 families. Today, the center runs a modified food pantry open Tuesday through Friday, that serves 30 to 40 families each day. Volunteers prepare food based on families’ needs, Erlandson said, with the help of volunteers, who pick up food from stores every day.

At St. Margaret’s Center, Erlandson recommended that people call their local food pantry to see what they need most. Food pantries have different needs depending on their location, size, and population that they serve — and sometimes they receive an excess of one item when they need something else.

Calabro, of St. Louis’ Wellston Center, gave similar advice, urging people of good will to check their local food pantry’s website to ensure they are donating something the pantry needs, rather than whatever surplus items they have on hand. For an operation like the Wellston Center, which buys most of its food, cash donations can be especially helpful.

Jane Stenson at Catholic Charities USA also told CNA that cash can help.

“Often cash is preferable which allows pantries to purchase selective items that they know they need,” she said.

At the same time, she stressed that right now, “any and all donations are very much welcomed.”

“Donations are very much needed, particularly items such as meat, dairy and produce,” she added. “Consider, where possible, adding some extra items to your weekly shopping and donating to a food pantry. Also, personal hygiene items such as shampoo, toothpaste, and diapers are very much needed since you can’t use the SNAP benefit to cover these items.”

The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston pointed to the Catholic reasoning behind providing help to those in need.

“Catholic Social Teaching urges us to treat one another with dignity and compassion,” a spokesperson for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston told CNA. “Catholics can continue to heed Christ’s call to care for the most vulnerable of God’s children by volunteering at food pantries and utilizing their networks and resources to help feed more families.”

U.S. Bishops support the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act

 

CHURCH

• UNITED STATES
• ENVIRONMENT
• CLIMATE CHANGE
• POVERTY
• BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

US Bishops welcome Inflation Reduction Act addressing climate change

The Chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, says the climate provisions contained in the Inflation Reduction Act respond to Pope Francis’ call to care for our common home.

By Vatican News staff reporter

US Bishops have welcomed a landmark $430 billion bill to address climate change, reduce prescription drug costs and establish a minimum tax on large corporations, which, if enacted, would represent the largest investment into cutting greenhouse gas emissions in US history.

Entitled the "Inflation Reduction Act," the measure passed the Senate along party lines on Sunday, and is expected to be approved on Friday by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.  

The bill has been more than 18 months in the making and represents the final version of the “Build Back Better Act”,  President Joe Biden’s recovery package, which had to be reduced and reworked from his initial proposal after receiving opposition from Republicans and key legislators from his own party.

$369 billion spending on energy and climate change

It includes the record sum of $369 billion in funding for investments in clean energy, domestic manufacturing of batteries and solar panels, electric vehicle tax breaks and greenhouse gas reduction efforts. While the bill is largely focused on addressing environmental concerns, there are also a wide range of provisions that would reach across the economy, including the health care sector.

In a statement Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, hailed the passage of the bill in the Senate.

“I am grateful to the Senate for their efforts to support the environment and lower drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act. It is also prudent that this legislation contains revenue provisions to offset the investments when concerns around inflation and the economy are high.”

Pope Francis' call to care for our common home

The Archbishop of Oklahoma City remarked that: “Climate change is a global challenge that requires courageous, long-term action from Congress”, noting that the many substantial climate provisions contained in the bill “bring the United States closer to honoring its emissions reductions goals under the Paris Agreement, which Pope Francis has strongly encouraged us to meet”.

This, he added, “is a meaningful effort to care for our common home”, while “seeking to safeguard the economy and give preference to the poor”.

Reduction of drug prices

The statement also welcomes the provisions in the bill that will lower prescription drug costs for those who rely on Medicare, while reiterating the US Bishops’ call for lawmakers “to ensure all healthcare policy respects the inherent dignity and right to life of every human being”.

Among the measures included in the bill there is a three-year extention of expanded subsidies for uninsured people to pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The subsidies were scheduled to end in December under the American Rescue Plan passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.