What makes Catholic opinion on these issues important (to us non-Catholics) is that there are many Catholics in this country. If you want to only count mass attenders as Catholic, then their opinion will carry far less weight.

Here in the Northeast, Catholic opinion on these issues is often decisive. But if you only count those who attend mass as Catholic, then Catholic opinion becomes almost irrelevant.

More granularity in the poll would be helpful. What percentage of those polled are daily communicants? And what are their answers to the poll questions? Wouldn't the influence that this group has within the Church be disproportionate to their numbers, whatever those numbers are?

Polls like this remind me of talk radio where the caller starts off by identifying himself as a conservative Republican and then proceeds to explain why he supports every agenda item of the left side of the Democratic Party.

It's not the fault of merely cultural Catholics that they get swept up in polls like this. To the question about religious affiliation, they might answer with a shrug that they "were raised Catholic," and their answers are weighted equally to those of daily communicants -- as they should be, of course, at the ballot box. But this is a poll putatively about what Catholics think.

The link that K-Lo provides says that overall, 74% of all Catholics support some sort of recognition of gay relationships (43% support gay marriage and 31% support civil unions).

64% of those who attend mass weekly support some sort of recognition of gay relationships (26% support gay marriage and 38% support civil unions). Support gay marriage does drop quite a bit, but overall support for these sorts of unions remains quite high among the group.

Personally, I don't think 10% points is a "dramatic" change, but folks can disagree.

I do think, however, that's it's weird to quibble with Potemra's point when, even if we look at only those who attend mass every sunday, nearly 65% of catholics are on board with some sort of legally recognized gay union.

Yeah, but Jason, there's a name for all those "other Catholics", and it's "Protestant".

I find the survey to be a hit piece funded by the Ford Foundation in part. It is a low hanging fruit easy con game by the left to prove that the most "conservative" religion in America is really pro gay and pro gay marriage etc. etc. If this were true, Prop 8 in California would have been decided differently. Statistically, there is something of a joke going on when you compare "catholics" to the general population. I am really tired of the left funding "poll results" that are either shills for left wing causes and groups or support for the Democratic party. "Catholics" have looked exactly like the rest of the population for a long time when you include "Catholics" who are unchurched. What do you think a poll would look like if you took all the unchurched people in America and asked them these questions? So, I have a poll of 40 to 60 percent of unchurched people. So what? Unless, of course, it is just another phony con game by the left. It would be like telling me that Jews who never darken the door of a Synagogue are "rather Liberal" and that Orthodox Jews who go to Synagogue are "overall rather Conservative". Your point being something new that nobody knows? This poll tells me nothing I don't know already. To me, polls like this are the expression of a subtle form of the prejudice and discrimination that perdures on the professional Left for Catholicism because of its Natural Law emphasis. Catholics in the U.S. mainlined in many ways. So, to tell me that unchurched Catholics who are mainline Americans look a lot like other unchurched people in America is just stupid and dolled up in a survey to look smart. But the foundations that fund this stupidity, you see, don't care because they got the result they wanted. Stupid, but effective.

Of course it does! It would also change if you only looked at Catholics who voted for President OBama, but that's not really trhe question. If you want to argue that Catholics who don't attend mass weekly don't count, then that's fine. But maybe the church's extreme, bigoted stance on homosexuality is alientating people, making them less likely both to mindlessly adopt the church's position and to skip attending a church that demands that they do so.

"Bigot" has sort of lost its sting lately, Penn, in case you hadn't noticed. Flail away with that.

"Dark Ages" is pretty funny, too.

I am a former Catholic. I have had occasion to attend mass twice since November. Both times, I was appalled by the political diatribe coming from the altar about abortion and marriage, all couched in the gentle smiles and sanctimonious attitude of the priest. Sheep to the sacrifice, as it were.

Last time I looked, Roman Catholics are still allowed, after reflection on Church doctrine, to make moral decisions based one their individual conscience. If a Roman Catholic has decided to support gay marriage, and has done so in light of and despite Church doctrine, they are no less Catholic for doing so. Attendance at Mass is really beside the point. The above is Church teaching, and has been for quite some time. It's called, in more general terms, God's gift of free will.