POLL: Majority Of Lay Catholics Support LGBT Rights And Same-Sex Marriage

In what may come as a shocker to the Vatican and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a just-released poll shows that a slim majority of America's lay Catholics now support same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Overall, the survey found 53 percent of Catholics supported the idea of same-sex marriage, while the general public is evenly divided on the issue. Fifty-six percent of Catholics did not believe sexual relations between two adults of the same gender constituted a sin, compared to 46 percent of the general population. Sixty percent of Catholics favored adoption rights for same-sex couples, 49 percent think gays should be allowed to be ordained as clergy, and 73 percent believe they should have legal protections in the workplace – all higher percentages than found in the general population, PRRI said. There was a powerful generation gap found in the survey, with Catholics under 35 much more liberal than those 65 and older. The influx of Hispanic Catholics into the U.S. church in recent years did not skew the results, as the young newcomers were divided between liberal and conservative views of homosexuality.

A sample comment from Free Republic: "The majority of Catholics aren’t Christians either - by the standards of the Holy Bible. Among many things they do that are against God’s Word (the Pope just recently used a Hindu prayer), Catholics engage in witchcraft (praying to dead saints and statues). They also worship Mary instead of CHRIST as the mediator between man and God."