Faithful Citizenship Quiz: Answers

Here are the correct answers and explanations for our Faithful Citizenship quiz found on this page.

1) ANSWER: C)53 million. 

There is currently no federal requirement to report abortions, and state reporting requirements also vary from one state to another. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute (GI) use different methods of data collection: GI (originally founded as Planned Parenthood's research arm) obtains its numbers from direct surveys of abortion providers, while CDC surveys state health departments. GI's figures, the basis for this estimate, are considered more complete.

2) ANSWER: A) 0.

While at least two companies have started early clinical trials using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells, one trial was discontinued after disappointing early results, and no trial has shown benefits for patients in peer-reviewed medical or scientific literature.

3) ANSWER: D) 73.

Here's a list of the 73 conditions that have shown patient benefits from human adult and cord blood stem cells with citations to the peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature documenting these benefits.

4) ANSWER: D) 16.2 million. 

According to the USDA , over 16.2 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2010.

5) ANSWER: C) 15.1%.

The official poverty rate in America is 15.1% – the highest level in 17 years. (United States Census Bureau ("Census") annual report for 2010)

6) ANSWER: C) 10 months.

Approximately 24 million people (23.8) are unemployed or underemployed--a real unemployment rate around 15 percent and the average jobless worker has been unemployed for forty weeks – 10 months.

7) ANSWER: D) 87%.

In an April 2009 survey by The Polling Company, Inc., 87% of American adults believed it is important (and 65% saw it as very important) to "make sure that health care professionals in America are not forced to participate in procedures and practices to which they have moral objections."

8) ANSWER: B) 1 in 6.

Catholic hospitals care for 1 in 6 patients in the United States each year, and provide the full continuum of health care through more than 2,000 sponsors, systems, facilities, and related organizations, employing 725,000 individuals.

9) ANSWER: A) 14%.

According to a study released in the September 2011 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, only 14% of practicing ob/gyns perform abortions.

10) ANSWER: D) All of the above.

Social science research continues to affirm the benefits children receive by being raised by their own married father and mother, each of whom brings unique gifts to the shared task of parenting, that is, fathering and mothering. Here's an overview of pertinent research and more background on the Church's teaching about the importance of fathers and mothers.

11) ANSWER: B )

Being raised in an intact home with both his father and mother. In addition to confirming again that both moms and dads matter for children, this recent study is unique because it illuminates the crucial influence that fathers have on their sons. The researchers found that even when controlling for school quality and other external factors, the presence or absence of a father at home was the biggest single correlate with a boy's ability to interact appropriately with peers and adults. A similar effect on girls was not found. Here is more information on why the Church teaches that children need a father and a mother. 

12) ANSWER: A) 27%, 62%.

Sadly, children in single-parent homes are much more likely to suffer poverty than children being raised by their father and mother – not only material poverty, but also the poverty of lacking one of their parents, usually their father. Strong marriages are the foundation of a strong society. Read more on the relationship between marriage and the common good,

13) ANSWER: B) False.

On a federal level, and with very few exceptions (for example, prenatal care), unauthorized immigrants are ineligible to receive assistance through means tested public benefits.On a state level, individual states have to make an affirmative legislative decision to provide services to the unauthorized populations; the default position is such that the unauthorized population is prohibited from receiving such benefits.

14) ANSWER: A) True. 

Undocumented immigrants pay taxes. Between 50-75% of undocumented immigrants pay federal, state and local taxes.Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent.

15) ANSWER: D) $7 billion. 

7 billion dollars is the number commonly cited by experts as the amount that unauthorized migrants contribute to the Social Security trust fund annually.  Because they are unable to collect social security due to their unauthorized status, this money helps to ensure the funds long term viability for future generations of retirees.

16) ANSWER:  A) True. 

Torture is an intrinsic evil because it is a violation of the dignity of the human person, who is made in the image and likeness of God. Even those who may have done evil never shed their intrinsic dignity.

17) ANSWER:  D) 90%.

Ninety percent of people killed or maimed by landmines and cluster munitions are non-military civilians. In addition, 30-40 percent of those killed or maimed by landmines are children. The United States and Cuba are the only countries in the Western Hemisphere who have not yet signed the Mine Ban Treaty which bans the use of landmines.

18) ANSWER: A) 1%.

Life-saving poverty-focused international assistance that fights hunger, disease and poverty makes up less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget. These life-saving programs include agricultural assistance for subsistence farmers, vaccines for preventable diseases, assistance to orphans and vulnerable children, disaster assistance in places like Haiti, peacekeeping forces to protect innocent civilians in troubled areas such as Sudan and the Congo, and support to migrants and refugees fleeing conflict or persecution in nations such as Iraq.

19) ANSWER:  D) All of the above. 

Increased temperatures, rising sea levels, and changes in rainfall are all impacts of climate change, and they affect people living in poverty the worst, even though these people contribute the least to climate change. In many poor countries, these impacts of climate change have led to increasingly limited access to water, reduced crop yields, more widespread disease, increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters, and conflict over declining resources—making the lives of the world's poorest people even more precarious.

20) ANSWER:  A) True.

In 2008, the Census Bureau started collecting statistics on disability status as a way to study the intersection of poverty and disability. The data clearly demonstrate that people with disabilities have a much more difficult time finding the resources they need to live in dignity. In 2010, 28 percent of people with disabilities lived in poverty, a rate over twice as high as people without a disability (12 percent).