United States
RNS
In major Latin American countries, Catholic support for ordaining women as priests has risen significantly in the last decade, while Pope Francis’ popularity has declined somewhat, according to a survey released on Thursday by Pew Research Center.
Peru saw the highest increase among the surveyed countries – which also included Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico – with 65 per cent of Peruvian Catholics supporting the ordination of women priests, up from the 42 per cent support from a survey conducted in 2013 and 2014. Brazil saw the smallest jump but also maintains the highest overall support, with more than eight in 10 Brazilian Catholics in favour.
The Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up with an image of Pope Francis to mark the launch of his book, ‘Life: My Story Through History’, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, on 23rd May, 2024. PICTURE: AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo.
Pew’s poll, which surveyed Catholics from across six countries that together account for roughly three-quarters of Latin America’s Catholics, gauged attitudes on Pope Francis, women’s ordination and a host of other church reforms. It also compared those responses to the results of a February survey of US Catholics.
After Peru, Mexico saw the highest jump in support for women’s ordination, with an increase of 16 percentage points (31 per cent to 47 per cent). Support went up 13 points in Colombia (43 per cent to 56 per cent), 20 points in Argentina (51 per cent to 71 per cent), six points in Chile (63 per cent to 69 per cent) and five points in Brazil (78 per cent to 83 per cent). In the US, support for women’s ordination was stable across the decade, at 62 per cent and 64 per cent, according to the February survey.
Younger Catholics across Latin America are more likely to support women’s ordination to the priesthood – except in Brazil, where support is equally high across generations – whereas in the US, Catholics over age 40 are more likely (66 per cent) than their younger counterparts (57 per cent) to support women’s ordination. The largest generational gap is in Mexico, where 64 per cent of 18- to 39-year-olds support women’s ordination compared with 34 per cent of those 40 and older.
The survey also found that Francis’ popularity has dropped throughout Latin America in the last decade, though significant majorities of Latin American Catholics still view him favourably.
Currently, Francis enjoys the highest popularity in Colombia, where 88 per cent of Catholics view him favourably, down from 93 per cent a decade ago. He is least popular in Chile, where his favourability among Catholics has fallen 15 percentage points over the past decade (from 79 per cent to 64 per cent).
The majority of the general population in the Latin American countries surveyed, which includes non-Catholics, continue to view Francis favourably – with the exception of the Chilean population, among whom his favourability hovers around or just below half (48 per cent).
Rev Gustavo Morello, a Jesuit and professor of sociology at Boston College who studies Latin America, said that despite some declines the relative popularity of Francis, also a Jesuit, surprised him.
“I couldn’t find any other ranking of a leader who has been in charge for the last 10 years that has a better image than the Pope,” Morello told RNS, noting that only some dead US presidents did better in opinion polls. “It’s a sign of the lack of global leadership,” Morello said.
Morello believes local experiences impact each country’s view of Francis, pointing to both politics and church scandals in the various countries.
GRAPHIC: Courtesy of Pew Research Center.
In Chile, which has seen recent political turmoil over proposals for constitutional reform, the church has also experienced a significant clergy abuse crisis. In 2018, Francis provoked angry protests when he defended a bishop accused of participating in a cover-up, before eventually accepting the bishop’s resignation. These events may impact Francis’ low favorability, Morello said.
In Colombia, Francis backed a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group, or the FARC, which may have contributed to his popularity, Morello said.
Francis saw his greatest drop in popularity in Argentina, his home country, going from 98 per cent favourability among Catholics a decade ago to 74 per cent favourability in 2024. His favourability in the general population is at 64 per cent , down from 91 per cent a decade ago.
Morello said that his research from 2015 and 2016 in Argentina shows that support for the pope is nuanced.
Interviewees have told him they supported Francis’ intervention at the international level with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum because they felt voiceless in those places. (The IMF has held a substantial amount of Argentine debt.)
However, they told Morello they disliked when the pope weighed in on national politics in Argentina, where they could vote and felt he was taking power away from them.
Francis’ loudest critics have often been those who say he’s made too many changes in the church, yet Pew’s poll found that Latin American Catholics who viewed Francis very favorably were more likely to say he represented a major change than those who viewed him less favorably.
The poll also asked for Catholics’ views on a number of church teachings, including on contraception, receiving Communion while unmarried and living with a romantic partner, married priests and gay and lesbian marriages.
Significant majorities of Latin American Catholics support allowing contraception despite the church’s official stance against it. Argentina had the highest support, with 86 per cent of Catholics supporting contraception. Although Brazil was most in favour of church reform on women priests, it was least in favor of allowing contraception, with only 63 per cent of Brazilian Catholics supporting it.
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Support for birth control rose in every surveyed country over the last decade, except in Chile, where there was a slight drop (from 83 per cent to 80 per cent ), and more dramatically in Brazil, where support dropped 12 percentage points (from 75 per cent to 63 per cent ).
Similarly, majorities of Catholics in every country surveyed except Mexico supported allowing cohabiting romantic couples to receive Communion. Argentina was most supportive, with 77 per cent of Catholics expressing support, while only 45 per cent of Mexican Catholics said the same.
Smaller majorities of Catholics in Argentina, Chile and Colombia support allowing married priests, ranging from 65 per cent (Chile) to 52 per cent (Colombia). Half of Brazilian Catholics support married priests, while only 38 per cent of Mexican and 32 per cent of Peruvian Catholics say the same.
Support for married priests either rose or remained the same in every Latin American country surveyed, except for Brazil, which saw a 6-point drop (from 56 per cent to 50 per cent ). (While a small number of Catholic priests are allowed to be married, the vast majority are not.)
Only Argentina (70 per cent ) and Chile (64 per cent ) had Catholic majorities who supported recognising the marriages of lesbian and gay couples. In the other countries surveyed, support ranged from 46 per cent of Catholics in Mexico to 32 per cent of Catholics in Peru.
Women, their heads covered by veils, burn incense as they take part in a procession marking the Lord of Miracles feast day, in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday, 18th October, 2022. After two years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the nation’s patron saint has returned to the streets for the annual procession. PICTURE: AP Photo/Martin Mejia.
Across these church reform measures, Pew’s researchers wrote that Catholics who pray daily were less likely to support reform and that, where the sample size allowed analysis of frequent Mass attenders, frequent Mass attendees also were less likely to support reform measures.
This survey was the second that Pew released using a new survey method that focuses on asking similar questions in select countries in order to allow for broader comparison across the world. The questions in this survey were similar to those asked in the US in February.
Previously, Pew had designed surveys around specific regions. In the Latin America survey a decade ago, more countries were surveyed, and there were more region-specific questions.
Jonathan Evans, the senior researcher who led the report, explained that Pew used a face-to-face method in Latin America, where a mix of urban and rural places are randomly selected. Then, depending on the size of a location, researchers will have a pattern to follow for which doors to knock on, for instance, every fifth door, where an adult household member will be randomly selected to participate. If that adult is unavailable, the researcher tries to reach that adult another time.
Morello cautioned that door-to-door methods may miss the wealthiest, given that they may live in gated communities, and the poorest, who may live in areas hard to access. Nevertheless, he praised Pew’s methods.
“I don’t have any fear about the methodology. In any case, if they couldn’t do this, nobody can,” the priest and sociologist said.
The survey collected responses from 3,655 Catholics in Latin America from January to April of this year. In the six Latin American countries, the margin of error ranged from plus or minus 4.9 percentage points to 6.0 percentage points.
