Poll: Catholics likely to favor use of torture

[Joanne98]

Washington D.C., May 3, 2009 / 05:30 pm (CNA).- A new survey from the Pew Center Forum on Religion & Public Life claims that Catholics are more likely than the general population to favor the use of torture against suspected terrorists.

The survey of 742 American adults asked whether the use of torture can often, sometimes, rarely or never be justified. About 19 percent of white non-Hispanic Catholics said they believed that the use of torture against suspected terrorists can often be justified, while 32 percent said it can sometimes be justified. About 27 percent said the practice can rarely be justified, while only 20 percent said it can never be justified.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church condemns torture, saying that which “uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred” is “contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.”

Pope John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical Veritas Splendor, reiterating the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, described “physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit” as being “hostile to life.”

Bishop of Albany, New York Howard J. Hubbard of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and Peace has also spoken out against torture. He was a signatory to the National Religious Campaign against Torture’s January 9 letter to President-elect Barack Obama.

The letter asked President Barack Obama “to restore our nation’s moral standing in the world by rejecting the practice of torture.”

According to the Pew Center poll, white mainline Protestants were slightly less likely than Catholics to say torture can often or sometimes be justified, at a respective rate of 15 and 31 percent. White evangelical Protestant respondents said torture can often be justified at a rate of 18 percent, while 44 percent held that it can sometimes be justified.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15852

[TheWraith]

1. Cue Inquisition jokes in 3... 2... 1...

[C_U_L8R]

5. So are you expecting The Spanish Inquisition or something?

: - )))

[backscatter712]

9. NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI

Fetch... the comfy chair!!!

[hedgehog]

2. Ironically, the less often a Catholic attends Mass, the less likely

the Catholic is to support torture. I'm starting to wonder if the real Catholics are the ones who have left!

[WeDidIt]

3. Will they use the comfy chair? n/t

[ikojo]

4. It was the Catholic church that brought the

Inquisition to Spain.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oppHeMlaLVM

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

6. Well, this is one Catholic that is against torture in any

circumstance.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

11. Make that two!

I can't believe supposedly "religious" people sanctioning torture.

[emilyg]

14. Three.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. History of the World, Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5McSEU48Y8

[otohara]

8. Jesus Was Tortured, So It's Okay

to torture others????

[pnwmom]

10. The percents for Catholics and mainline Protestants are statistically tied --

that is, within the margin of error. (19/15 and 32/31)

Evangelical protestants are more likely than the other groups to say that torture can sometimes be justified.

[Rageneau]

12. The sisters taught me that, if tortured, I should offer it up.

That way, I could knock hours and even days off my upcoming stretch in Purgatory.

Things were so much simpler when I was a Catholic.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

13. Well, what do you expect...

from people who wear a torture device as a good luck charm around their necks?

[The Shape]

15. Surprised?