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investigation A survey published last year in the journal Politics and Religion found that 53 percent of Catholic priests identify as more liberal than the majority of their parishioners. When it comes to the Catholic Church in the United States, the days of the liberal priest are coming to an end.
In recent years, there have been signs that progressivism is literally disappearing among the Catholic clergy. A new generation of priests are staunch conservatives who do not denounce the traditions or moral teachings of the Church and who are completely resistant to the ideological trends of the day.
The Catholic University of Washington, DC
18 page report In terms of theological self-identification, a November survey showed that 85 percent of the youngest cohort of clergy described themselves as “conservative/orthodox” or “very conservative/orthodox,” while just 14 percent described themselves as “moderate.”
The report, based on a survey of 131 bishops and thousands of priests, noted that this is a significant change given that “theologically ‘progressive’ and ‘very progressive’ priests once made up 68 percent of new priests. Today, their numbers have fallen to almost zero.”
“We are witnessing significant changes in how American priests view themselves and their priesthood. Younger priests are much more likely than older priests to describe themselves as politically conservative or moderate,” the report states. “Younger priests are much more likely than older priests to describe themselves as theologically orthodox or conservative. These changes can create friction and tension, especially between younger and older priests.”
“Many of these trends have been decades in the making and show little sign of reversing in the near future,” the report concludes.
The New York Times
Confirmed This week we saw that the clergy’s return to Orthodoxy continues unabated.
Brad Vermaelen, a sociologist who has long studied the political changes within the American clergy, said those ordained since 2010 “are clearly the most conservative cohort of clergy I’ve seen in a long time.”
Vermeulen and his fellow scholars observe that when it comes to issues such as homosexuality and the sinfulness of female priests and deacons, for example, these priests act within the rules.
“They’re trying to take back what us old people ruined.”
Catholic University of America
Investigation resultThe New York Times highlighted that none of the recently ordained priests it surveyed described themselves as “very progressive.”
Younger priests are not only theologically conservative, but also politically conservative: whereas about half of Catholic priests ordained around the time of Vatican II identified as politically liberal, nearly all priests ordained since 2020 are conservative or at least “moderate.”
This conservative generation seems uninterested in softening or watering down the Church’s teachings, but rather eager to embrace challenging teachings.
The Rev. Zachary Galante told The Times that in the 1970s and 1980s, many priests “looked at the world and said, ‘The world is changing, and we need to change too.'”
Apparently, neither Mr. Galante nor his colleagues believe that the church should be bound by the zeitgeist.
The Rev. David Sweeney, a 31-year-old priest who was ordained alongside Bishop Galante, raised the issue of the sacrament of marriage and the secular hollowing out of the institution.
“These are core tenets of our faith, and our culture has changed dramatically over the last 12 years,” Sweeney told The Times. “If we believe in eternal truths, unchanging truths, the world will change. So I would say I have changed in my relationship to the world.”
“Maybe the reason we are more conservative now is not because we moved, but because the culture moved,” Galante added.
Earlier this year, the Rev. John Forlitty, a retired Minnesota pastor,
was suggested He told the Associated Press that young conservative priests are “trying to take back what we old people ruined.”
The Times said the revival would not only mean “the virtual disappearance of liberal Catholic priests in the United States” but would also “put a new generation of priests at increased odds with a secular culture that is broadly moving leftward on issues such as gender, sexuality, reproductive issues and the role of women.”
Therefore, there may be fewer priests like this.
Reverend James Martin More priests appearing as LGBT activists on cable news Church Teachings On a variety of issues of moral and spiritual importance.
The generational decline in leftist heretics among the clergy is likely the result of multiple factors, but Michael Sean Winters, a columnist for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, suggested to the Times that increasingly secular, liberal families tend to have fewer children, meaning “there are fewer liberals among the congregations of larger families.”
Meanwhile, conservative families were willing to procreate, further contributing to the talent pool of future priests and leaving a conservative mark on that pool.
Catholic seminaries are also reportedly now placing a premium on “normalcy.” In a desire to weed out potential predators, they test candidates for spiritual and sexual maturity. But it’s unclear whether the seminary’s emphasis on normalcy and testing for perversion also serves as a check on the progressivism of the clergy.
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