The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will meet in Baltimore for their annual Fall General Assembly on Nov. 12-15. Seven-in-ten Catholics say they are very (24%) or somewhat satisfied (46%) with the leadership of the American bishops, according to a Pew Research Center Survey.
Catholics are often identified as a major "swing" voting group in American politics. A new analysis shows that the only group of Catholics that has been divided in recent elections is white Catholics who identify as political moderates.
On Aug. 7, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents U.S. nuns, will meet in St. Louis to discuss how to respond to recent criticism from the Vatican, the Associated Press reports. A Pew Research Center survey finds that eight-in-ten American Catholics (83%) are satisfied with the leadership provided by Catholic nuns and sisters.
A new survey report finds that Catholics who are aware of U.S. bishops’ concerns about restrictions on religious liberty generally agree with the bishops’ concerns. Yet there are no significant differences in the presidential vote preferences between Catholic voters who have heard about the bishops’ protests and those who have not.
A new Pew Research Center poll finds that voters have limited awareness of Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith and Barack Obama’s religion. And there is little evidence to suggest that concerns about the candidates’ respective faiths will have a meaningful impact in the 2012 fall elections.
Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Mexico today for his first visit to a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. Approximately 8.8% of the world’s Catholics live in Mexico, the second largest Catholic population in the world.
With a Mormon candidate in the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, there has been intense media, academic and public interest in Mormons and their religion. The Pew Forum recently held a roundtable discussion with journalists, scholars and policy experts on some of the latest research on Mormons and their place in American society and public life.
Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Latin America March 23-28 for a much-anticipated visit to Mexico and Cuba. An infographic based on data from a 2011 demographic study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life explores information on Catholics in Latin America, with a particular focus on the Catholic population in Mexico and Cuba.
The biggest religion stories of 2011 involved tensions over Islam and questions about faith in presidential politics, especially Mormonism, according to an annual review of religion in the news.