John Paul II may have thought Mexico was the most Catholic of Catholc countries, though I’ve always said that Mexico is Catholic, the same way France is — we pay no attention to the Bishops, especially when it comes to sex.

So, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to me that the Encuesta Nacional de Creencias y Prácticas Religiosas found that while our Bishops are opposing inclusion of sex education in the public school curriculum, the support among practicing Catholics is even higher than among those with no religion.  83.5 percent of Catholics approve of sex education compared to only 73.7 percent of those who claim no religion.  Among other Christians, the approval rating is still over 60%.

Despite constant preaching on the dangers of “gender ideology” (whatever that is… it still makes no sense to me that there’s something controvesial about that gender expectations are largely cultural rather than biological) you still find Catholics (by at least 10 percent) more approving of teaching such information over the unchurched (76 to 66 percent) and other Christian sects (about 53 percent)*

Only on the question of legal abortion do Catholics come close to following the hierarchy.  While only 44.3 percent of non-religious people support for complete legalization of abortion, only one-third (33.2 percent) of Catholics hold a similar position.  Other Christians show even less support.

Surprisingly, given that separation of Church and State here in 1859 (about fifty years earlier than France, by the way) is credited with having opened Mexico to Protestanism, about a quarter of non-Catholic Christians would like religious leaders to take an active role in politics.  Among Catholics the figure is 20.5 percent, while the non-religious are not that much below Catholics, at 19.5 percent.

* The poll was only meant to cover Christian beliefs, so those of minority faiths (Jews, Budhists, Muslims) would have been recorded as “non-religious”.  Non-Catholic Christians were divided between “Bible Groups” and “Evangelicals”… the former including traditional (“mainstream”) Protestants (like Methodists and Presbyterians), Orthodox Christians, and Mormons.

(Jornada, 13 April 2017)