My jaw dropped when I read this yesterday.

A recent survey supposedly showing that Catholics are increasingly supportive of homosexual marriage was actually funded in part by a homosexual activist group.

(Photo Kevin Sharkey)

As reported by CatholicCulture.org, Thomas Peters, who writes a regular article on CatholicVote.org, revealed that the study released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) was co-sponsored by the pro-homosexual Arcus Foundation, which “has contributed over $6.5 million in the past five years to religious organizations favorably disposed toward gay rights.” In addition, noted the CatholicCulture.org article, another sponsor of the study was the Haas Foundation, whose past efforts, according to Peters, included helping PRRI “develop religious education strategies supporting gay equality.”

In its study released March 22, PRRI said it found that 53 percent of Catholics support homosexual marriage, while 56 percent of Catholics said they believe same-sex relationships are not sinful. “PRRI CEO Dr. Robert P. Jones and PRRI Research Director Daniel Cox asserted that these statistics show that Catholics are more progressive on the topic of gay and lesbian issues than the general population,” reported the Christian Post.

HOWEVER, Catholic is a broad term. As Peters noted in his article on the study, what the survey really showed is that “the less Catholics care about their faith, the more likely they are to support same-sex marriage.” In fact, PRRI’s own graph showed that only 26 percent of Catholics who attend Mass every week support homosexual marriage. However, that figure jumps to 59 percent among Catholics who attend Mass less than once a month.

So who are the Catholics the survey supposedly shows as supporting homosexual marriage? “Catholics who are almost never in the pews,” wrote Peters. “And yet, when it comes to the headlines, Catholics who can’t even trouble themselves to get to Mass with any sort of regularity are lumped in with faithful Catholics who actually try to follow the teachings of the Church.”