A survey by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP)
of attitudes to church teaching among Irish Catholics has found just 5
per cent believe teaching on contraception is “completely accepted”.
It also finds two-thirds of those Catholics who responded believe dioceses are “negative” towards same-sex couples.
The ACP survey was a version of the Vatican
survey on family life, initiated towards the end of last year in
anticipation of the Vatican’s extraordinary synod on the family next
October.
The ACP survey was hosted on its website,
with 1,500 taking part, including priests, religious, lay people,
parents and teachers.
Two-thirds of those who
answered the particular question considered dioceses to be “negative” or
“hostile and condemning” towards same- sex couples, while 11 per cent
said they were “somewhat” or “highly” supportive.
Small
faith communities were rated as being more supportive to such couples
than parishes, which were, in turn, rated as being more supportive than
dioceses.
Asked about marriage equality, 47 per
cent of respondents considered it “extremely” or “very important” while a
further 23 per cent considered it “somewhat important”.
Eighteen per
cent considered it “not at all important”.
Of
those who responded, 69 per cent believed church teaching banning
artificial means of contraception to be “not accepted”, while 31 per
cent believed it to be “accepted in part”.
Just 5 per cent said it was
“completely accepted”. When it came to the availability of
contraception, 76 per cent considered this “extremely” or “somewhat”
important to themselves or to their community.
Just
9 per cent of respondents “fully support the church’s teaching on
family planning and use only methods approved by the church”.
Where church teaching on the family was concerned, 73 per cent said it was “poorly understood”.
When
it came to cohabitation, 98 per cent considered it “a pastoral
reality”, while 89 per cent said this was also the case when it came to
separated and/or divorced and/or remarried couples.
Commenting
on the survey, the ACP said its key findings were that church teaching
on family life, sexual practice and sexual unions were “little
understood, not relevant, of low influence, and not agreed with whether
understood or not.
“These findings are consistent across all age groups and religious role (clergy, lay, etc) where identified.”