Cultural Catholic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (October 2007)

A cultural Catholic is an individual who belongs to the Roman Catholic Church but observes the religion's practices as a cultural tradition rather than a spiritual exercise. Cultural Catholics may not fully understand the theology that informs the religion's rituals, or may reject part or most of the theology as outdated or irrelevant to modern life. Cultural Catholics may attend Mass less than several times a year, or may not practice their religion at all, but still regard their association with the Catholic Church as a defining aspect of their identity.

Large concentrations of cultural Catholics live in cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Providence, R.I.^[1] Although the term is used mostly to describe American Catholics, many European nations, such as Spain and France, have populations that are largely Roman Catholic, but have low church attendance.^[2]

Catholics who follow the Church's teachings are often chagrined by cultural Catholics' support of liberal social and economic policies.^[3] While Roman Catholic doctrine has more in common with the beliefs of the Christian Right in the United States on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and euthanasia, most cultural Catholics still vote for Democratic candidates. In the 2004 American presidential election, nearly half of self-identified Catholic voters cast ballots for Democrat John Kerry,^[4] despite warnings from the Vatican that any Catholic politician who supported a pro-choice position would be guilty of mortal sin.^[5]

Although cultural Catholics are not religiously devout, they sometimes still harbor resentment and prejudice against the Protestant populations of the United States and the United Kingdom due to past conflicts, such as economic discrimination suffered by Catholic immigrants in late 19th-century America or sanctions imposed against practicing Catholics in Ireland during the period of British rule.^[6] They may still object to intermarriage with Protestants and ecumenical relations with Protestant churches.^[7]