Poll: Catholic Beliefs At Odds With Vatican Doctrine.

A new survey reveals a widening ideological gap between the Church and its followers.

As Pope Francis reaches out to Catholics around the world in an effort to reinvigorate the Church, the Vatican faces a wide ideological gap with popularly held beliefs in many countries, a new poll finds.

On issues like contraception, gay marriage, divorce and women’s admittance into the priesthood, the Church is at odds with a majority of Catholics in many countries across the world, the poll shows.

Over 90 percent of Catholics in countries including France, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, and Columbia favor the use of birth control, a position that opposes official Catholic doctrine. And more than 60 percent of Catholics in countries including France, Spain, Poland, Brazil, Argentina and the United States believe priests should be allowed to marry.

But among Catholics worldwide, there are deep-seated disagreements about contraceptive use, gay marriage and the admittance of women to the clergy. European Catholics are much more inclined toward liberal positions and African Catholics to more conservative ones.

The poll, which was commissioned by the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision, found that just 5 percent of French Catholics oppose abortion in all cases, while 73 percent of Philippine Catholics and 64 percent of Ugandan Catholics are always opposed to abortion. And while only 12 percent of Italians agree with the Church doctrine, “An individual who has divorced and remarried outside of the Catholic Church, is living in sin which prevents them from receiving Communion,” 78 percent of Ugandans agree with it.

And while 54 percent of Catholics in the United States and 64 percent in Spain support gay marriage, 98 percent of Congolese Catholics and 84 percent of Philippine Catholics oppose same-sex marriage.

As Pope Francis charts the course of the Church, he has solicited the opinion of Catholics and opened up the Church with more inclusive language but has yet to issue any fundamental changes in doctrine.

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Don't worry, Super Pope will unite all Catholics. Also, African Catholics, **** you.

Well Catholic doctrine isn't subject to majority rule so that survey is basically worthless. Church doctrine can't be changed so in the end it doesn't really matter what the opinion of the people in the pews is.

That statement is precisely what created the Anglican church.

Really now?

Yes, why is that so surprising? There are Church teachings that can be changed, but the core beliefs, like doctrines and dogmas cannot. Marriage, Contraception, and abortion fall under doctrines so they won't change regardless of what individuals in the Church think.

I see this as more indicative that people will continue to move away from the Catholic Church than that they will change their doctrine.

I'd hope so, they've been covering up pedophilia and helping aids spread for how long?

Yes and I don't see how that is of any consequence in this situation? It is completely illogical to believe that your church was founded by Christ (who by definition is an all-knowing, unchanging god) while at the same time requesting that that same church change it's teachings. If you claim god started your church and is the head of your church why would the teachings of that church ever be changed? That would by logic dictate that the god you profess faith in is either A) not all-knowing or B) did not found your church. In which case why be a part of that church or pray to that god?

The Catholic Church has changed its teachings several times as well.

@ferrari2001: If I recall correctly you couldnt eat certain foods on Friday according to Catholic faith but they changed that so Indont see why anything else cant

It has. Popes even used to marry. Then there's the whole Vatican II...

Church doctrine, if true, cannot be changed just as facts cannot be changed. However, the church has not always had a perfect understanding of those facts. In other words, truth does not change, only the interpretation of that truth.

Granted, as a Protestant I am biased against the Roman Catholic Church. While I approve of Pope Frances's direction of doing social good, his views regarding certain moral and theological ideologies cause me to separate from him.

Truth has no interpretation; it either is or it isn't, and anything that says it is what it isn't is wrong. If what it is isn't discernible then it either isn't a very good truth or a very complicated one.

If two people capable of rational thought disagree on an issue of truth then one or both are interpreting that truth incorrectly. I agree that truth "either is or it isn't." However, the interpretation of that absolute truth can be difficult to ascertain.

For instance, a person on earth can wrongly interpret the size of the moon though the moon very much has an absolute size. Being wrong does not discredit the truth of the moon's size.

Too, we could simply be debating semantics.

That's a practice not a Church teaching, there's a big difference. The way one prays for example can change based on the person or the times or the social situations. However what Jesus Christ taught his disciples about himself for example can't change with the times because that is something that is constant. The Church doesn't change the constant doctrines. These are things revealed to us by Christ and his disciples and they reveal something about God and his creation, these are constant truths that can't change just because of popular opinion. It can however change they way we pray, or certain practices that we use in ceremonies as those practices don't have any impact on truths spread through scripture or via the apostles. Whether you eat meat on Friday or not does not reveal anything about Christ thus it can be changed since it's a superficial practice. One that was meant to draw us closer to Christ but is unnecessary in terms of salvation.

Married priests are allowed in the Catholic Church. Many Catholic priests in the eastern churches are married and continue to marry. The practice in the west is simply to ordain men who are not called to marriage to the priesthood. That doesn't mean married priests are not allowed. They've always been allowed, the western Church just doesn't use married priests. This is a practice, not a doctrine. And Vatican II changed absolutely no church doctrine. It did change the way Mass is said, priest facing the people, vernacular language being used and the Church's social response to non-catholics, these are all practices and not a moral or theological truths meant to reveal truths about god.

Just like any religion, get 200 catholics into a room and you'll have 200 different personal interpretations of catholicism.

I didn't say priests, I said Pope.

@mindstorm: What exactly do you disagree with the pope about

I am completely incapable of truly giving a full description here due to time and space but I'll go through some highlights.

Some issues are greater than others, two of the greatest has to do with the nature of salvation and the nature of the church. Salvation is not given by some establishment of the church and your involvement within it. Rather, salvation is an act of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is purely and totally an undeserved gift given to an unworthy people. We do not deserve the grace of God and purely by his power is man saved. Salvation from sin and its consequences are not brought about through sacraments but by grace through faith.

As for the nature of the church, it is indeed run by the priests but I disagree who the priests are. The people are the priests, not some hierarchy. Every believer is capable of giving confession. Every believer is capable of reading his own bible and understanding it properly. Even the overseers of the church, pastors, are elected officials who work on behalf of their individual congregations. The church is not to be run by a hierarchy but from the bottom up. As such, rather than there being a single church united in a central location there ought to be many locally run congregations.

There is also the issue of lesser things such as my disagreement with the Roman Catholic church on birth control, "priests" being married, the nature of the Eucharist, etc.