The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, premiere institution for social science research on the Catholic Church, has some bad news for the Catholic right. Simply put, its new survey of Catholic political identification shows support for the Republican Party dropping like a stone. That’s old Catholics, young Catholics, white Catholics, Hispanic Catholics. (Among the whites, the margin is 57-40; among the Hispanics, 69-29.) Most striking, however, is the Democratic margin among the most “faithful” (by hierarchical standards) Catholics–those who agree with the statement: “In deciding what is morally acceptable, I look to Catholic Church teachings and statements made by the Pope and Bishops to form my conscience.” Among them, 54 percent are Democrats or identify with them, as opposed to 44 percent who do the same with the Republicans. In a word, it’s not just Catholics of the cafeteria persuasion who are turning away from the GOP.
Ambinder has a post on the survey that’s worth checking out.