A social listening report from Capstone-Intel Corporation suggests that while some 25 percent of Filipino social media users are receptive to the idea of blessing same-sex couples, a number of negative mentions about blessing same-sex couples remain the majority.
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Background
In a historic decision approved by Pope Francis, the Vatican announced on Monday, December 18, 2023, that same-sex couples may receive blessings from Roman Catholic priests as long as the ceremonies or rites are not part of the regular church liturgies.
A document that came from the Vatican’s doctrinal office stated that such blessings would not be legitimate irregular situations; rather it is an indication that God embraces everybody, thereby overturning a proclamation they had published in 2021.
It further stated that it is not to be mistaken with the sacrament of heterosexual marriage.
While some hailed the Vatican declaration as an important milestone in ending intolerance in the Catholic Church, organizations representing LGBTQ+ people worried that it reinforced the church’s belief that same-sex relationships are inferior to heterosexual partnerships.
Methodology
Capstone-Intel Corp. examined the online presence of the Pope’s decision in the country as a topic of discussion over the past three days, from December 18, 2023, to December 20, 2023, by utilizing all publicly accessible posts from social and non-social media platforms in order to gather the sentiments of the public about the landmark ruling.
Facebook Performance
Capstone-Intel found that the Vatican’s ruling garnered a 1,649.7 engagement score for its 52 total post count, which yielded over 4,504 total reaction count. When broken down, “Facebook like” accounts for 52.6 percent of the total reactions, with 2,368. Followed by “Facebook love” with 1,160 reactions (25.8 percent), “Facebook haha” with 469 (10.4 percent), “Facebook sad” with 283 (6.3 percent), “Facebook wow” with 123 (2.7 percent), and “Facebook angry” with 101 reactions (2.3 percent).
Looking at the data, the majority of “Facebook like” reactions can be attributed to several Filipino social media users showing neutrality over the issue while the heart reactions, which came second in the most number of reactions, are those who support and are happy about the landmark ruling.
Online mentions
Capstone-Intel likewise revealed that the landmark ruling received 93.8 percent negative mentions, and the remaining 6.3 percent were positive mentions. This means that the article mentions the landmark ruling was mostly angled negatively since the issue remains a hot topic across nations.
It is also worth noting that the Vatican’s ruling received 44,151 social media reach, while its non-social media reach yielded over 65,589 non-social media reach.
Top posts
In terms of top posts, the top post for the Vatican’s ruling to bless same-sex couples was a Facebook post from Rappler, featuring Archbishop Socrates Villegas who was the first Filipino bishop to release guidelines about blessing same-sex couples, which received 383.9 engagement score.
This was followed by another post from the Catholic Study Fellowship, which featured the guidelines from the Vatican City about blessing same-sex couples. This post yielded a total of 264.3 engagement score.
The third most engaging post for the Vatican’s landmark ruling was another post from the Catholic Study Fellowship, featuring a priest who was interviewed about the ruling made by the Vatican City, yielding a total engagement score of 252.7.
While the discussion was truly a landmark and historical, the issue did not gain much traction since some Filipinos are still guarded by their traditional Roman Catholic doctrine, which only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman. However, the Vatican made it clear that the landmark ruling does not equate to marriage.
