Catholics are evenly split between the likely Democratic and Republican candidates for president, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and President Bush, according to a survey by Time magazine.

Those of all faiths who describe themselves as "very religious" favor Bush over Kerry by 59 percent to 35 percent, while respondents who consider themselves "not religious" chose Kerry over Bush by a margin of 69 percent to 22 percent, the poll showed.

The June 2-4 telephone survey of 1,280 adult Americans included an over-sample of 500 Catholics. The margin of error for the overall population was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, while the margin of error for the Catholic respondents was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Thus, the 45 percent of Catholics indicating they supported Kerry versus the 43 percent of Catholics who said they supported Bush was a statistically insignificant difference. The poll on religion and the 2004 presidential race appeared in the magazine's June 21 issue.

The survey looked at a number of key debates in the church-state arena.

Nearly three-quarters of the Catholic respondents said they disagreed that Catholic politicians who do not support the Catholic Church's position on abortion should not present themselves for Communion, while 21 percent said they agreed with that position.

More than three-quarters (75.7 percent) said the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion made no difference in how they voted, while 19.8 percent said it made them less likely to vote for candidates who support legal abortion.

Nearly one-third (32.4 percent) said the church's opposition to same-sex marriage makes them less likely to vote for a candidate who supports same-sex marriage, while 64.9 percent said it would make no difference.

Almost four out of five Catholics (78.7 percent) said the Catholic Church's opposition to the death penalty would make no difference in how they voted, while 18.2 percent said it would make them less likely to support a candidate who favored capital punishment.

Asked whether "the Catholic Church should or should not be trying to influence the way Catholics vote," 69.7 percent said it should not and 26.3 percent said it should. About the same number of Catholics said the church should (26.2 percent) or should not (69.2 percent) "be trying to influence the positions that Catholic politicians take on issues."

In the survey, all 1,280 respondents were asked a number of questions related to politics and religion.

More than half (55.9 percent) of respondents said they agreed with the statement: "We are a religious nation and religious values should serve as a guide to what our political leaders do in office." Some 38.7 percent disagreed, and 5.4 percent said they were not sure.

But 89 percent said they had never voted for or against a candidate "mainly because of the candidate's religious beliefs," while 9.5 percent said they had done so.

Asked to identify the religious affiliation of the two major candidates, only 7.2 percent correctly named Bush's denomination as Methodist, while 33.2 percent correctly identified Kerry as a Catholic. Fully 65 percent said they did not know Bush's religious affiliation and 64.7 percent said they did not know Kerry's.

Catholics also were asked whether the term "conservative Catholic," "centrist or middle-of-the-road Catholic" or "liberal Catholic" best described them. Twenty-one percent chose conservative, 34.1 percent said they were centrists and 39 percent selected liberal. The remaining 5.9 percent said they were not sure.

Among all respondents, 26.7 percent described themselves as "very religious," 47.1 percent said they were "somewhat" religious, 11.9 percent said "not too" religious, 12.4 percent chose "not at all" religious and 1.8 percent said they were not sure.

---CNS