Seismic shift in Catholic clergy:  'The liberal Catholic priest could ... be extinct' as young conservative priesthood rises

A survey published last year in the journal Politics and Religion indicated that 53% of Catholic priests admitted to being more liberal than most of their parishioners. Where the Catholic Church in the United States is concerned, the days of the liberal priest are numbered.

There have been indications in recent years that progressivism among Catholic clerics is literally dying out — that the new generation of priests are no-nonsense conservatives, unapologetic about the traditions and moral teachings of the church, and altogether resistant to the ideological fads of the day.

The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., released an 18-page report in November indicating that in terms of theological self-identification, 85% of the youngest cohort of priests described themselves as "conservative/orthodox" or "very conservative/orthodox," with only 14% describing themselves as "middle-of-the-road."

The report, based on a census of 131 bishops and thousands of priests, indicated that this represents a seismic shift, given that "theologically 'progressive' and 'very progressive' priests once made up 68% of new ordinands. Today, that number has dwindled almost to zero."

"We are witnessing a major shift in the way priests in the United States view themselves and their priesthood. Younger priests are much more likely than their older peers to describe themselves as politically conservative or moderate," said the report. "Younger priests are also much more likely to see themselves as theologically orthodox or conservative than do older priests. These shifts can be a source of friction and tension, especially between younger and older priests."

The report concluded that "many of these trends have been decades in the making and show little sign of reversal any time soon."

The New York Times confirmed this week that the priesthood's return to orthodoxy continues unabated.

Brad Vermurlen, a sociologist who has long studied political shifts in the American priesthood, emphasized that the priests ordained since 2010 "are clearly the most conservative cohort of priests we've seen in a long time."

Vermurlen and his fellow academics have observed that these priests are, for instance, by the book when it comes to questions of the sinfulness of homosexual acts and female priests or deacons.

'They're trying to restore what us old guys ruined.'

Referencing the Catholic University of America's findings, the Times highlighted that not a single surveyed priest ordained in recent years has characterized himself as "very progressive."

Younger priests are not just theologically conservative but politically conservative. Whereas roughly half of Catholic priests ordained around the time of Vatican II identified as politically liberal, almost all priests ordained since 2020 are conservative or are at the very least "moderate."

This conservative generation is apparently not interested in sugarcoating or watering down church teaching and are instead keen to embrace challenging teachings.

Rev. Zachary Galante told the Times that numerous priests in the 1970s and 1980s "were looking at the world and saying, 'The world is changing; we need to change too.'"

Apparently neither Galante nor his peers are of the mind that the church ought to be unmoored by the zeitgeist.

Rev. David Sweeney, a 31-year-old priest who was ordained with Galante, raised the matter of the sacrament of marriage and secular hollowing-out of the institution.

"That's a core tenet of our faith that our culture has shifted drastically on in the last 12 years," Rev. Sweeney told the Times. "If we're saying that we're holding to eternal truth, something that is changeless, and the world changes, well, now I guess I've changed in my relation to the world."

Rev. Galante added, "Maybe we're more conservative now because the culture moved, not because we moved."

Earlier this year, Rev. John Forliti, a retired Minnesota priest, suggested to the Associated Press that the young conservative priests "say they're trying to restore what us old guys ruined."

The Times indicated that this restoration not only means that "the liberal Catholic priest could essentially be extinct in the United States" but that it "puts the rising generations of priests increasingly at odds with secular culture, which has broadly moved to the left on questions of gender, sexuality, reproductive issues, and roles for women."

Accordingly, there may be fewer priests like Rev. James Martin doubling as LGBT activists on cable news and more priests reinforcing church teaching on various issues of moral and spiritual consequence.

The generational diminution of heterodox leftists in the priesthood 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 the tendency among increasingly secular liberal families to have fewer children means "there are fewer liberals in the pews with large families."

Alternatively, conservative families who have gone forth and multiplied have contributed more to the pool of potential priests and left a conservative mark on that pool.

There is reportedly also an emphasis on "normalcy" now in Catholic seminaries. Motivated by a desire to flush out potential predators, seminaries screen applicants for psychosexual maturity. It's unclear, however, whether seminaries' emphasis on normalcy and screenings against perversion have also served as checks against progressivism in the priesthood.

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