When it comes to same-sex relationship and acceptance of homosexuality, Catholics in Lithuania are even more conservative than in Poland or Belarus, polls suggest.

After Pope Francis came out recently with his support for same-sex civil unions, Pew Research Centrer summarised its polls on same-sex marriage (it did not have recent survey data on views about civil unions), showing big disparities between societies in Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

In Western Europe, large majorities of Catholics said in 2017 that they supported legal same-sex marriage. That was the case in the Netherlands (92 percent), the United Kingdom (78 percent), France (74 percent) and Germany (70 percent).

Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe, surveys from 2015 and 2016 indicated that Catholics generally opposed same-sex marriage.

In Lithuania, 87 percent of Catholics believed same-sex marriage should not be possible, even more than in Poland (62 percent), Hungary (66 percent) or Belarus (83 percent).

Lithuania does not recognise same-sex marriage nor civil unions. However, two of the parties that are currently in talks to form the next government have endorsed same-sex partnership in their platforms.

When it comes to Catholics’ views about homosexuality in general, Pew’s survey conducted in 2019 also paints a mixed picture.

In predominantly Catholic Western European countries like Spain, France or Italy, over three fourths of the people said homosexuality should be accepted by their societies. Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, acceptance was weaker, with roughly half or fewer of Catholics saying that homosexuality should be accepted by society in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania.

In Lithuania specifically, as many as 27 percent of Catholics did not respond to the question. Twenty-seven percent said homosexuality should be accepted by the society, while 46 percent thought it should be opposed.

The global survey found that Catholics within many countries generally are as accepting as their non-Catholic compatriots of homosexuality, according to Pew. This is not true in all countries, though. In Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and the Philippines, Catholics are somewhat more likely than non-Catholics to say that homosexuality should be accepted by society. And in Poland, Catholics are less likely than non-Catholics to say homosexuality should be accepted by society.

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