Receptions into Roman Catholicism

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Adult receptions into the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales will be significantly up on 2010, to judge by attendances at last weekend’s Rite of Election and tabulated in a press release from the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference posted at:

http://catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Media-Centre/press_releases/Press-Releases-2011/Receptions-into-the-Church

The Rite of Election is an important part of the process called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Usually presided over by the diocesan bishop, it inaugurates the final period of preparation before formal reception into the Catholic Church.

The Rite of Election is attended both by those who are preparing for baptism into the Catholic Church and those who have already been baptised in another Christian denomination and now want to be received into the Catholic Church.

3,931 individuals participated in the Rite of Election at Catholic cathedrals in 2011, representing an increase of 14% on the 2010 total of 3,450. Numbers varied significantly by diocese, with a notable concentration in and around London. Westminster recorded most attendances (829), followed by Southwark (517) and Brentwood (362).

These statistics apparently exclude attendances at the Rite of Election held in parish churches. In some dioceses the distance between parish churches and cathedrals precludes everybody preparing to become a Catholic from being present at the gathering in the cathedral. This means that liturgies will also have taken place in some parish churches.

In addition, and for the first time, 795 individuals attended the Rite of Election in cathedrals who plan to join the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, set up by Pope Benedict XVI to accommodate disaffected Anglicans.

The Diocese of Brentwood heads this Ordinariate list (with 240), followed by Southwark (167) and Birmingham (100). Eleven of the 22 dioceses, predominantly in northern England and Wales, had no people joining the Ordinariate who were present at the Rite of Election.

Total receptions into the Ordinariate are estimated by the Bishops’ Conference at 900, including 61 former Anglican clergy (besides the five who have already been ordained as Catholic priests). They will be received into the Catholic Church during Holy Week, whereas those not preparing to join the Ordinariate will be received at Easter.

Some of the Catholic media’s reporting of these forthcoming receptions has been a little over-hyped, not least the headline in The Universe for 20 March which proclaims: ‘Thousands of Anglicans set to join with the faith at Easter’.

These receptions are, of course, a tiny fraction of the Catholic population of England and Wales (see Siobhan McAndrew’s post at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=609 for Catholic statistics in general).

Also, there are counterbalancing losses from Roman Catholicism, both lapsation to the ‘outside world’ and conversion to other denominations (including a trickle of Catholic laity and even priests to the Church of England).

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Papal Visit – Final Reckoning

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Clive D. Field

A significant amount of controversy surrounded the run-up to the state and pastoral visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland and England on 16-19 September 2010, although, in retrospect, the visit was deemed by many to have been a success. Police estimates suggest that 500,000 people saw the pontiff during these four days, either at the events or along the popemobile routes.

One of the factors exercising voters and secularist organizations at the time was the likely cost of the visit, especially to the public purse. A large majority of the adult population in ComRes and Populus polls were opposed to taxpayer funding of the Pope’s tour, even though it was partly categorized as an official state visit. See our reports on these surveys at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=524 and http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=562

The arguments about the cost of the visit were compounded by rumour and speculation, by the apparent lack of firm estimates, and by less than full transparency on the part of the Government and the Roman Catholic Church.

Only now, almost six months after the Pope flew back to Rome, are we beginning to get some financial clarity, greatly assisted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)’s recent release of some key documents.

These comprise the ‘contractual’ agreement between FCO, acting as budget holder for the visit, and the Church and a final statement of FCO non-policing expenditure on the visit (significantly, the draft budget was not divulged).

These papers can be viewed, under the reference DEP2011-0309.ZIP, in the deposited papers database section of the House of Commons Library website at:

http://deposits.parliament.uk./

The costs of the visit, as presented by FCO, essentially divide into three main components: a) costs incurred by FCO on behalf of Government; b) costs initially incurred by FCO but rechargeable to the Church, and to be refunded by the Church before 1 March 2011; and c) costs incurred directly by the Church.

Category a) costs are now known to have come to £6,981,000, split between seven Government Departments (including the Department for International Development, a fact which sparked some furore when it belatedly came to light on 3 February). This total was actually lower than anticipated, so each Department will get back £600,000 of the £1,850,000 which it had to pre-pay FCO.

The most expensive single Government item was £3,031,000 for the provision of media centre facilities at all the venues (some 3,000 media representatives were accredited). Other big-ticket (six-figure) items were:

  • £1,674,000 towards the beatification mass for John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham and the follow-on meeting at Oscott College (19 September)
  • £484,000 for the event at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham (17 September)
  • £328,000 for the prayer vigil in Hyde Park, London (18 September)
  • £312,000 for live news feeds
  • £284,000 for the events in Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey (17 September)
  • £264,000 for the mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow (16 September)
  • £147,000 for public liability insurance
  • £103,000 for pre-visit venue location and research costs

Category b) costs came to £6,347,000, of which £4,431,000 was incurred in connection with the beatification mass at Cofton Park and £1,180,000 for the Hyde Park vigil. The Church also paid £385,000 towards the St Mary’s event and picked up the webstreaming costs of £115,000, besides contributing to five other budget-lines.

Category c) costs were estimated by FCO at £3,800,000, and this figure has not been contradicted by the Church.

Category b) and c) costs combined therefore amount to about £10,100,000, well above the Church’s original estimate of its own expenditure of £7,000,000, but reasonably close to its final pre-visit forecast of between £9,000,000 and £10,000,000.

A statement recently issued by Papal Visit Ltd., the company set up by the Roman Catholic bishops’ conferences of England and Wales and Scotland, said that it had already raised £7,500,000 towards this £10,100,000.

The outstanding £2,600,000 will be taken up and underwritten by the dioceses, which will need to find the money by October 2012.

Unfortunately, some costs were not recorded centrally by FCO and are thus omitted from the foregoing analysis. According to the written statement by Henry Bellingham, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, to the House of Commons on 16 February, these exclusions appear to be:

  • policing costs
  • security services costs
  • local authorities costs
  • Whitehall Government Department staffing costs
  • Scottish Government costs

These exclusions prompted the National Secular Society (NSS), which has been an implacable critic of the visit throughout, to issue a press release on 25 February, accusing FCO of publishing figures which ‘just don’t add up’, and providing some of the missing data itself. This statement can be read at:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/pope-visit-figures-just-dont-add.html

Policing and local authority costs were said by FCO to have been ‘met within existing budgets’, but some more exact figures have emerged, for example £293,000 actually spent by Edinburgh City Council and £82,000 by Birmingham City Council.

Expenditure on policing has been especially disputed. Shortly before the papal visit, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, who was co-ordinating policing arrangements, put forward an estimate of between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000 for police costs. This was dismissed by NSS at the time as ‘total nonsense’.

Certainly, the initial (May 2010) estimate for the Metropolitan Police, for the two days which the Pope spent in London, was £1,800,000, including opportunity costs. Actual costs for three police forces are known: Lothian and Borders Police £543,000, Strathclyde Police £649,000, and West Midlands Police £280,000.

The cost of the papal visit to the security services is never likely to be revealed.

The Scottish Government has disclosed that it spent £800,000 on the visit.

Factoring in everything, and making guestimates for the continuingly unknown elements, the 2010 papal visit must have cost a minimum of £25,000,000, of which the state paid three-fifths (nationally and locally) and the Church two-fifths.

This is obviously a substantial sum, albeit only one-quarter of the ‘true cost’ of £100,000,000 which NSS was claiming in July 2010. Nor is it known how this compares with the cost of other (more secular) state visits.

BRIN would naturally be pleased to hear from any of its readers who have concrete and verifiable information which could refine this picture of the cost of the papal visit.

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Reflecting on the Papal Visit

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Clive D. Field

More than three months afterwards, the state and pastoral visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland and England last September continues to engender mixed views. That is the core finding of two recent online surveys released by ComRes on 1 January and conducted on behalf of Premier Media.

One poll was undertaken among a representative sample of 2,017 adults aged 18 and over throughout Great Britain on 15 and 16 December 2010. The detailed computer tabulations are located at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/page165705613.aspx

31% of this sample of Britons thought that the papal visit had been successful, 29% disagreed and 39% could not make up their minds on the matter. The over-65s (37%) and Scots (48%) were most likely to rate the visit a success, with men (35%) more disposed to disagree than women (24%).

A smaller proportion (21%) considered that the Pope had correctly addressed serious problems facing society during the course of his visit, the highest figures again being recorded among the over-65s (30%) and Scots (31%). 39% disagreed with the statement (with a range of 30-45% across the various demographic sub-groups) and 40% expressed no opinion.

Notwithstanding their answers to the previous question, a majority (53%) agreed with the Pope’s assessment that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is being marginalized in Britain. The proportion taking this position was especially high among the over-55s and the AB social group, which might have been anticipated. More surprisingly, it was also greater among men (59%) than women (48%). Just 17% of the whole sample took issue with the Pope’s verdict, with 30% uncertain.

A final question to the general public sought reactions to the Government’s plans to exclude religious education (RE) from the list of core GCSE humanities subjects for the new English Baccalaureate. 30% of respondents wanted RE to be a core subject, but 56% were opposed, the remaining 14% not knowing what to think.

The greatest support for RE (36%) was among the youngest cohort, aged 18-24. This is in line with another recent poll of young adults (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=790) and perhaps reflects the growing popularity of RE as a GCSE subject in recent years. The figure also stood at 36% for the over-65s. The strongest opposition to RE came from the 25-44s, skilled manual workers, and Scots.

The second ComRes/Premier Media survey was carried out among 600 UK churchgoing Christians between 17 November and 10 December 2010 via the ComRes CPanel. The unweighted sample included only 37 practising Roman Catholics, so too much should not be made of variations by denomination or churchmanship. Tables are available at:  

http://www.comres.co.uk/page165715812.aspx

As might have been expected, this religiously committed sample took a more positive view than the general public of the success of the papal visit (63%) and of the Pope’s handling of serious problems facing society (64%), with dissentients numbering 9% and 18% respectively.

But there was a little less consensus on two other issues. 57% deemed the visit relevant to them personally (with 38% saying it had been irrelevant). 53% disputed that the Pope had represented all Christians, not just Catholics, when he came to Britain, with 39% agreeing.

Churchgoing Christians overwhelmingly (93%) endorsed the Pope’s comments about the marginalization of religion in contemporary Britain. This was 40% more than among adult Britons as a whole. Moreover, 81% believed that such marginalization of Christians was increasing in the media, 77% in public (meaning not defined), 66% in the workplace, and 59% in Government. 

A final question to churchgoing Christians enquired into the use of new media by their local church in order to communicate its message. The most pervasive technology was a website (82%), followed by worship song projection (64%), videos during services (36%), podcasts/online sermons (33%), email newsletters (26%), and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs (20%). One in ten churches were said to make no use of any of these media.

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After the Papal Visit

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Clive D. Field

One-quarter of British adults claim to have followed the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland and England, according to a newly-released poll from Angus Reid Public Opinion (ARPO), far fewer than are preoccupied with the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

Fieldwork for the survey was conducted on 22-24 September, among 2,005 members (including 173 Roman Catholics) of ARPO’s Springboard UK online panel, although the results were not released until the afternoon of 6 October. Full data tables (with breaks by gender, age, region, social grade and Catholic/non-Catholic) and commentary are available at:

http://www.visioncritical.com/blog/britons-and-catholics-want-church-to-do-more-to-assist-sexual-abuse-victims/

4% of the entire sample of adults aged 18 and over and 19% of Catholics said that they had followed the visit very closely and 21% and 31% moderately closely. 31% of both groups stated that they had not followed it too closely, while 44% of Britons and 19% of Catholics had not followed it closely at all. So, one-half of British Catholics had no great interest in the papal visit. Catholics apart, Scots (43%) followed the visit most closely.

Asked about the arrest during the visit of six men in an alleged terror plot against the Pope, only 22% of Britons and 28% of Catholics were convinced the threat was real. 34% of adults said the threat was not real and 44% were unsure.

The remaining questions focused on sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 31% of all Britons and even 19% of professing Catholics thought that more than one-quarter of all priests had been involved in sexual abuse over the past five decades. 26% and 41% respectively put the proportion at less than one in ten, and 25% and 26% between one in ten and one in four. 17% of all respondents and 14% of Catholics were unsure.

At the same time, 37% of Britons and 56% of Catholics said that the sexual abuse scandal was limited to a few priests in a few locations. 27% and 19% considered that the scandal was considerable and permeated about half of the Catholic Church. 21% and 15% believed that it was widespread and affected practically the whole of the Church. 16% of all adults and 10% of Catholics were uncertain.

80% of Britons (rising to 90% of over-55s) and 68% of Catholics were convinced that the Church had done too little to assist the victims of sexual abuse, most of the remainder having no clear view.

87% of all adults wanted the Church’s hierarchy to acknowledge that it had failed to act, 85% called on the Church to pass to the relevant authorities the names of all accused priests, and 82% expected the Church to provide material support to victims. Almost identical numbers of Catholics agreed with these three propositions. The strongest proponents were the over-55s and Scots.

58% of all respondents (peaking at 66% of over-55s and 67% of Scots) considered Pope Benedict had handled the scandal badly against 20% who thought he had done well. Catholics were somewhat more impressed with his performance, 39% saying well and 42% badly.

Similarly, 43% of Britons but 69% of Catholics deemed the Pope to have been sincere in his expression of sorrow during his visit about sexual abuse by priests. 29% and 15% respectively regarded him as insincere.

All in all, therefore, not much sign of the fabled ‘Benedict bounce’ here.

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Thoughts on Trends in Church Attendance

Posted on September 30, 2010 by PeterBrierley

by Peter Brierley.

The recent debate over whether church attendance has reached a plateau, hosted at the Church Mouse blog, The Guardian and here at BRIN, has been of great interest. As a religious statistician and consultant, and editor of the seven editions of Religious Trends, I’m taking the opportunity to offer additional interpretation of the data.

It is not clear that “Catholic mass attendance has flattened out at 920,000”, as the officially published Roman Catholic mass attendance figures from 2000 to 2007 show a drop of over 8%, down from 1,000,820 in 2000 to 915,556 in 2007. However, it has risen to 918,000 in 2008.

The Church of England official figures for adult Average Weekly Attendance (AWA) fall by 2%, from 941,000 in 2002 to 919,000 in 2008, and their children’s figures drop from 229,000 to 225,000, also a drop of 2%. The Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) adult figures fall from 838,000 in 2002 to 812,000 in 2008, a drop of 3%, and from 167,000 to 148,000 for children (a decline of 11% in 6 years). The Usual Sunday Attendance figures – which would be comparable to Roman Catholic and Baptist measurements – go from 768,000 in 2002 to 718,000 in 2008 for adults (a drop of 7%), and from 151,000 to 127,000 in 2008 for children (a drop of 16%).

What appears to be happening is that Sunday attendance is dropping, especially for children and young people, but that midweek attendance is increasing: up from 103,000 in 2002 for adults to 107,000 in 2008, and for young people (up from 62,000 in 2002 to 77,000 in 2008).

By putting midweek and Sunday attendance together, the drop in Sunday attendance is obscured. The “flattening out” therefore is a mix of Sunday decline and midweek increase.

The question is then whether those dropping out of Sunday attendance are simply switching to mid-week, or whether the ‘mid-weekers’ are new attenders. Christian Research ran a survey in 2004 which showed that the mid-weekers were often new people, but a more recent survey in 2009 run by Brierley Consulting showed that more mid-weekers were formerly Sunday attenders. In reality, the growing number of mid-week attenders is likely to be made up of a mixture of switchers and new people. While the new attenders are obviously welcome, their numbers do not as yet compensate for those dropping out.

Looking at the other denominations cited as exhibiting a plateau – the Catholics and Baptists – neither measure mid-week mass or service attendance separately, and so we cannot say what is happening here. The analysis presented thus far relates more to the Church of England, and assumes that Baptist attendance follows Baptist membership trends – which is not necessarily the case.

While of course it is important to note trends in the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, it is also important to look at what is happening in the other denominations also. The Presbyterians, Methodists and United Reformed Church are all declining very rapidly; the less rapid decline in the Church of England and the Catholic Church does not offset the general pattern. The only denomination, loosely defined, which can truly be said to exhibit growth is Pentecostalism, courtesy the many black churches.

The 1998 English Church Census showed a further drastic drop in numbers attending church, compared with the earlier 1989 census. The 2005 Census showed a continuing decline, but at a reduced rate. The most recent figures for Anglicans and Catholics (important because these are the biggest denominations) show that while decline continues overall, the rate of decline is lessening. It is important to know why and where that is happening. The analysis presented thus far by Christian Research does not allow this to emerge, but it would be interesting to know – if more data is available than was published.

Peter Brierley is former Director of Christian Research. He compiled and edited the seven issues of Religious Trends, from 1997 to 2008, as well as running the English Church Censuses of 1979, 1989, 1998 and 2005, and the Scottish Church Census of 2002, 1994 and 1984. He now directs Brierley Consulting, which publishes the bimonthly bulletin FutureFirst. Contact: peter @ brierleyres . com.

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The Sun Shines Some Light

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Clive D. Field

BRIN readers might not naturally think of The Sun, perhaps Britain’s most famous weekday tabloid newspaper, as a source of religious intelligence. However, as part of its polling contract with YouGov, it did add a couple of questions on topical issues to a survey conducted online on 20 September among a representative sample of 772 British adults aged 18 and over.

The first sought to quantify what is already being described as the ‘Benedict bounce’, following the recent papal visit to Britain. Respondents were asked whether, on the basis of what they had seen and heard, their opinion of the Pope had changed as a result of the visit. 15% said that their opinion had become more positive and 9% more negative. For 61% the visit had made no difference to their views, while 16% could not say. The positive impact of the visit on perceptions of the Pope was most evidenced among Conservative voters, the under-25s, and residents of London, the Midlands/Wales and Scotland (the three regions where the main events of the visit had been staged). The data tables can be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Life-PopesVisitReaction-results-200910.pdf

The second topic covered was that of halal meat, on the back of tabloid newspaper reports that restaurants and caterers are increasingly using halal products surreptitiously, without overtly telling their customers. 73% of Britons in The Sun poll thought that food providers should be required to label halal meat as such and 20% that they should not. The most notable demographic variation was by age, the under-25s (57%) being least insistent on labelling and the over-60s (81%) the most. This follows the general trend of questions relating to Muslim issues whereby younger people are more sympathetic than their elders. For the data tables, see:  

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Life-Halal_Food-results-200910.pdf

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How Many Catholics?

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Clive D. Field

As part of its coverage of the papal visit, the BBC has compiled a webpage entitled ‘How many Catholics are there in Britain?’ This will be found at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11297461

It brings together disparate data from several sources, in particular:

  • Clerical vocations since 1982
  • Professing Catholics since 1983 (British Social Attitudes Surveys)
  • Mass attendance since 1990
  • Ethnic composition of Catholic population in 2008 (CAFOD/Ipsos MORI poll)

The Catholic Church has had somewhat of a chequered history in its collection of quantitative data, and, despite its relative strength, it still has no dedicated and professionally-staffed central statistical unit.

There are various shortcomings in the most frequently-cited British Catholic statistics, those appearing in the Catholic Directory for England and Wales and its equivalent in Scotland, and in the two Vatican publications, Annuario Pontificio and Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae.

Much less well-known is the work of the unofficial Pastoral Research Centre, notably Digest of Statistics of the Catholic Community of England & Wales, 1958-2005, Volume 1, edited by Tony Spencer (2007). This can be obtained from the Pastoral Research Centre, Stone House, Hele, Taunton, Somerset, TA4 1AJ.

For an overview of the development of Catholic statistics, see sections 2.7 and 2.8 and appendix 7 in Clive Field’s Religious Statistics in Great Britain: An Historical Introduction, available at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/commentary/drs/

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Sex Abuse and the Papacy

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The latest opinion poll connected with the papal visit was published by CNN (for whom it was conducted by ComRes) on 17 September, Pope Benedict’s first day in England. A representative sample of 2,028 adult Britons aged 18 and over was interviewed online between 14 and 16 September. This included 194 Roman Catholics.

The first of the four questions concerned the appropriateness of the Queen inviting the Pope to come on a state visit. Opinion was split, 36% deeming it appropriate, 37% inappropriate and 26% unsure. Catholics (68%) were most in favour of the visit, while the over-55s (47%) and those without any religion (47%) were most opposed.

The other three questions focused on the child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. Asked whether the Church had shown sufficient public remorse for the scandals, only 10% thought that it had, against 74% who said it had not. There was relatively little variation by demographics, apart from Catholics, for whom the figures were 37% and 47% respectively.

The next question pressed whether the Pope had done enough to punish priests found guilty of child sex abuse. A meagre 4% believed that he had, compared with 77% who said that he ought to have done more. Catholics were not that much more impressed by Pope Benedict’s efforts, 13% thinking he had done enough and 66% not.

The final question tested views on whether the Pope should resign over the scandals. 24% were convinced that he should, ranging from 14% of Catholics to 30% among non-Christians and those of no religion. 47% (including 60% of Protestants and 74% of Catholics) wanted him to stay on.

CNN’s press release on the survey can be found at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/16/uk.pope.poll/index.html

The full data tabulations are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/page165585353.aspx

FOOTNOTE: Two further papal visit polls, one pre- and one post-visit, were conducted by Opinion Research Business, which has kindly agreed to publication of the data tables on BRIN:

ORB papal visit 14-16 Sep 2010

ORB papal visit 22-24 Sep 2010

 

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Daybreak Surveys Religion

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Daybreak is the new breakfast television programme for the ITV network, anchored by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley and launched on 6 September.

It has made an early entry into surveying public opinion by commissioning YouGov to run a poll on various aspects of religion.

Fieldwork was conducted online on 12-13 September among a representative sample of 2,108 adults aged 18 and over. Full data tabulations are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Life-YouGov-DaybreakReligion-130910.pdf

Asked ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’, only 49% replied in the affirmative, which must be one of the lowest levels of religious affiliation ever recorded in British polling history. 45% said they did not belong to any religion.

The 49% certainly is in stark contrast to the figure of 82% obtained in the recently-published Citizenship Survey for 2008-09 in response to the question: ‘What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?’

Even allowing for variations in methodology and question-wording, a discrepancy of 33% between two surveys is huge, underlying the challenges in measuring this most basic dimension of religiosity. BRIN will return to this topic at a future date.

Women were more likely to profess a religion than men, older people rather than the young, the ABC1s more than the C2DEs, and Londoners more than the rest of the country.

The age effect was very marked. Whereas 60% of the over-60s were attached to a religion, the figure was only 36% for the 18-29s. Indeed, 20% more of the 18-29s did not belong to a religion than did, while for the over-60s 27% more belonged than not.

Among those who regarded themselves as belonging to a religion, a majority (55%) claimed to be Anglican, 18% Roman Catholic, 13% Free Church (including Presbyterian), 7% to belong to the major non-Christian faiths and 7% to other groups.

Most (78%) agreed that it was not necessary to attend religious services to be religious, although opinion was more balanced (38% agreeing, 34% disagreeing) when respondents were asked whether regular attenders were more religious than non-attenders.

Quizzed about marriage, just 3% opposed inter-faith marriage, most having no strong opinion on the subject. Of married persons, 55% had held the ceremony in a church, including 40% of those without a religion (albeit some unwillingly), and a further 13% would have liked to marry in church but had not.

Overall, in selecting a school for their children, few (9%) attached importance to the religion of the school, Catholics (36%) and Londoners (17%) being the main exceptions.   

68% agreed with the proposition that Christianity has been pushed to the sidelines in modern Britain. The figure was naturally highest for Christians (80%), but even 63% of those without a religion agreed.

Senior religious leaders (not specified in the question) were not respected by 56% of all adults, 20% more than held them in respect. For those with a religion, 53% held religious leaders in respect and 40% not, for those without a religion 20% and 73%.

27% considered that religious leaders spoke out too much about important issues affecting society, 19% the right amount and 35% too little. Those with a faith (43%) and the over-60s (40%) most wanted religious leaders to be more vociferous.

Asked about the papal visit, 17% supported it, 29% opposed it and 49% were neutral. Support was greatest among Catholics (54%) and opposition among those with no religion (37%).

79% (including 82% of Catholics, 83% of the over-40s and 85% of Scots) wanted the Pope to apologize for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by Catholic priests.

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Populus on the Papal Visit

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The opinion pollsters continue to pick up business from the now imminent papal visit to Scotland and England. Following the ComRes/BBC and YouGov/ITV surveys carried out among Catholics, reported by BRIN on Sunday and Monday, today brings a study of all British adults conducted by Populus for The Times.

Fieldwork was on 10-12 September, by telephone among a sample of 761 Britons aged 18 and over. The results are summarized in an article (with accompanying graphic) by Sam Coates and Ruth Gledhill in today’s print edition of The Times. The online version can only be accessed by subscribers. Detailed computer tabulations are not yet available on the Populus website.*

Respondents were asked to choose one of four statements which best expressed their attitude to the papal visit, with the following outcome:

  1. The Pope is the respected leader of one of the world’s most important religious faiths. I am positively in favour of his visit and we should not quibble about the inevitable costs – 14% (highest among professionals)
  2. I don’t feel strongly either way about the Pope’s visit to Britain or the fact that it will inevitably incur some costs – 16%
  3. I don’t feel strongly either way about the Pope’s visit to Britain, but we should not be spending a penny of taxpayers’ money on it – 57% (two-thirds among women)
  4. Leaving aside all issue of the cost of his visit, I am opposed to the Pope coming to Britain because of his track record and the views he espouses – 11% (15% of men)

Majorities of the British public wanted the Pope to drop his opposition to contraception (79%), abortion (73%), women priests (72%), practising homosexuality (70%) and gay adoptions (59%). 72% found the Catholic Church intolerant and judgemental.

Opinion was divided on whether the Catholic Church was a force for good (47%) or ill (33%, and highest among Labour voters). But, at 83%, it was emphatic in condemning the Church for being dishonest in dealing with the child abuse scandals.

Two key themes emerge from this Populus survey: a) limited public interest in the papal visit coupled with concerns about its cost; and b) widespread criticism of several of the Church’s traditional teachings and of its handling of sexual abuse by priests.

These find echoes in other recent papal visit-related polls, for which see:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=558

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=554

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=526

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=524

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=517

*POSTSCRIPT [17 September] Detailed computer tabulations for the Populus poll are now available at:

http://populuslimited.com/uploads/download_pdf-120910-The-Times-The-times-Poll—September-2010.pdf

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