Survey finds wide diversity among Catholics

As France prepares for elections this spring, a new study has painted a more nuanced picture of French Catholics than previously assumed and relativised the recent impression of a strongly conservative Catholic vote re-emerging on the political scene.

French pollsters usually differentiate between regular churchgoers — estimated at around 5 per cent of the population — and up to two thirds of all French who self-identify as Catholics.

The Ipsos study for the daily La Croix and weekly Pèlerin scrapped this approach as outdated and identified six different “families” of French Catholics.

Some of them vote conservative or far-right, but only 6 per cent marched in the anti-gay marriage demonstrations credited with rallying support for the conservative presidential candidate François Fillon. Another 21 per cent said they would have liked to join in. By contrast, 73 per cent said they did not want to march.

Three-quarters agree with Pope Francis or say his reforms don’t go far enough, while 24 per cent do not always agree with him and 1 per cent completely disagree.

Marseille Archbishop Georges Pontier, head of the Bishops’ Conference, told Pèlerin that earlier surveys portrayed Catholicism as “narrow, conservative, right-wing … This diversity is a great richness. Without it, the Church would become a sect.”

Ipsos canvassed 15,174 Catholics – practising and not – and estimated they make up 53.8 per cent of the population. The largest group are the “cultural Catholics” at 45 per cent of the sample. They attend church mostly for family events such as baptism, marriage and funerals and mostly vote conservative to far-right.

Next come the “seasonals” at 26 per cent, who attend Mass on the main holidays and lean centre-left. “Council Catholics” (who are inspired by the Second Vatican Council) at 14 per cent are more liberal, vote more to the left and support Pope Francis the most.

The “observants” at 7 per cent are right-wing and attend both Mass and other events such as pilgrimages, rosary prayers and Eucharistic Adoration. They are the group most identified with the anti-gay marriage protests.

The “inspired” are born-again right- to far-right Catholics at 4 per cent, and the last 4 per cent are the “emancipated” who are on the left and more active in social movements than church activities.