A sampling of the findings of recent surveys on Catholics

-- High-commitment white Catholics (64%) are slightly less likely than the average American (67%) to favor the death penalty for murder, but 80% of low-commitment Catholics said they would support capital punishment for murder. Even higher ages, including 93% of low-commitment Catholics, favored the death penalty for terrorism. (Pew survey)

-- More than three-quarters (76.6%) of Catholics rate President Bush's job performance as excellent or good. (Zogby survey)

-- Catholics are in agreement with the 70% of the general population that believes churches should not endorse specific political candidates. (Pew)

-- Almost 70% of Catholics strongly or somewhat agree that the United States "should have stronger limitations on the number of immigrants entering the country." (Zogby)

-- By a margin of 46% to 17%, with nearly a third saying they did not know, Americans said the welfare reform legislation passed in 1996 had improved the welfare system. Black Protestants and white Catholics were more likely than white Protestants to see the welfare system in a positive light. (Pew)

-- An equal age of Catholics (60%) feel that both a strong Israel and a viable Palestinian state should be a fundamental goal of U.S. foreign policy. (Zogby)