Obama, Notre Dame: majority of Catholics approve

[babylonsister]

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/05/obama_notre_dame_catholics_app.html

Obama, Notre Dame: Catholics approve
Posted May 1, 2009 7:30 AM
The Swamp

by Mark Silva


For all the supposed furor over President Barack Obama's May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic school playing host to and conferring an honorary degree upon an abortion-rights-supporting president, most Catholics who have heard of the controversy say they support the president's appearance at the campus.

More than half of the Catholics surveyed by the Pew Research Center who have heard of the dispute - 54 percent - say they support the school's choice of a commencement speaker. Just 38 percent of those who have heard about it oppose the idea. Among those who hadn't heard of the controversy, the divide is even greater - 45 percent say fine, 18 percent no.

snip//

"Catholics' overall approval of Obama is consistent with the fact that many Catholics themselves do not share the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and embryonic stem cell research,'' Pew reports.

Nearly half of all Catholics surveyed -- 47 percent -- say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. It's similar with stem cell research: 49 percent approving.

"Polling data show, however, that abortion is only one of the factors that influences people's opinions and political decision-making, and it ranks relatively low compared with other issues,'' Pew notes. "In the 2008 election, for instance, Pew Research Center polls show that concerns about the economy were most important in voters' decision-making, by a wide margin.''

[LiberalFighter]

1. Bishops and Cardinals are soooo out of touch.