The US-based Catholics For a Free Choice group has objected to the use of "the Catholic card" by candidates in the presidential election campaign. The CFFC described this as "a particularly unpleasant aspect of the debate".
"For example, the Republican National Committee's Catholic Task Force has emerged this election season with the claim that it has `studied the political record of all major political parties and we believe that the Republican Party is closest to the teachings of the Catholic Church'," the group said in a statement.
"Some pundits and conservative church groups have also tried to suggest that Catholics in the pews march in lock step with the hierarchy. This is not the case." Quoting from recent US polls, it pointed out that 96 per cent of sexually active Catholic women had used modern methods of contraception, while fewer than 3 per cent used church-approved family planning methods.
Figures for Protestant women found 97.39 per cent used modern contraceptives.
Only 20 per cent of US Catholics believed church leaders should have the final say on the morality of a Catholic advocating free choice regarding abortion. Just 23 per cent of US Catholics agreed with their bishops that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, it said.
Fifty-three per cent of Catholics also believed they could be good Catholics without obeying the bishops' teaching on abortion.
Seventy-seven per cent of Catholics considered it was not appropriate for church leaders to urge people to vote for a candidate because of his/her stand on abortion, while just 9 per cent of US Catholics felt so strongly about abortion that they would not vote for a candidate who disagreed with their opinion.
According to a CBS/New York Times poll last July, 49 per cent of American Catholics believed abortion should be available, but under stricter limits than at present, while 25 per cent felt abortion should be generally available.
Of all respondents to the poll, 47 per cent said abortion should be generally available but under stricter limits; 29 per cent considered abortion should be available to those who want it, while 20 per cent of all respondents felt abortion should not be available at all.
The CFFC group said the figures illustrated "how the public policy views of Catholics clearly reflect the tradition of using one's own conscience in moral decision-making".
