Communion ban routinely ignored, Tablet survey finds

One-third of divorced and remarried Catholics who have not had their first marriage annulled receive Communion, even if they have not sought the permission of their priest, a global survey conducted by The Tablet has found, writes Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Almost a quarter of Catholics in these circumstances said that they received Communion in good conscience without having sought their priest’s permission. A further 10 per cent said they received with their priest’s permission. Fifty-five per cent refrained from receiving Communion and 11 per cent said they avoided going to Mass ­altogether because of the ban on them receiving Communion.

Catholics in Britain and Ireland in such circumstances were almost twice as likely to receive Communion without having sought permission as US Catholics (29 per cent to 17 per cent).

More than 4,300 people completed a questionnaire on www.thetablet.co.uk between 3 and 14 October. Many respond­ents were from the United States, where it was highlighted on conservative blogs. Some 97 per cent of respondents said they were Catholic, and 89 per cent were lay. Eighty-eight per cent attend Mass at least once a week. A quarter were from the UK and 57 per cent from the US. Men outnumbered women by a ratio of 2:1.

Respondents said the best way for the Church to support ­marriage and family life was to run courses for married couples, while also clearly setting out its teaching on sexual matters.

Practising Catholics said the chief threats to marriage and family life were artificial contraception; gay marriage and adoption; pressure of long working hours, money worries and unemployment; and the proliferation of pornography.

Almost three-quarters of ­practising Catholics welcomed the presence of laypeople at the synod. Eighty-nine per cent of practising Catholics said that ideally a child needed a mother and a father, while 11 per cent said a parent’s gender was less important than commitment to the child.