[dragonwriter]

> The Bishops could tip the scales if they were told to

No, they couldn't. This is pretty evident on the political issue that the Bishops have most aggressively tried to tell people what stance to take, abortion, where Catholic attitudes are nonetheless split just like the broader country.

[mbg721]

The split is different (but apparently not as different as I thought [1]) if you filter for Catholics who attend Mass regularly. Surveys of people who merely identify as Catholic also show that a large percentage do not believe in transubstantiation, one of the most fundamental beliefs of the Church. The Bishops have lots of problems to deal with besides just politics.

[1] https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious...