Posted on 12/18/2022 2:27:32 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
American Catholic priests are becoming more conservative, even as their flocks are becoming more liberal.
U.S. Catholic bishops elected conservative leaders last month, continuing to resist a push from Pope Francis to put social issues such as climate change and poverty on par with the bishops’ declared priority of opposing abortion.
The U.S. hierarchy’s orientation reflects the wider trend of an American clergy with values at odds with those of an increasingly liberal laity and a pope who has encouraged the questioning of once-taboo subjects and leniency on some teachings of sexual morality.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declined to comment.
Research on Catholic clergy by the Austin Institute has found that younger Catholic priests and priests ordained in more recent years tend to be noticeably more conservative than older priests on a host of issues, including politics, theology and moral teaching. The Survey of American Catholic Priests has found that since the 1980s, successive cohorts of priests have grown more conservative, according to a 2021 summary report.
Regarding the church’s prohibitions of contraception, masturbation, homosexual behavior and suicide, the impossibility of women’s ordination to the priesthood, and the necessity for salvation of faith in Jesus, each successive 10-year cohort of priests supports church teaching more strongly than the one before it. Those ordained in 2010 or later are the most conservative of all—and the least happy with Pope Francis, with roughly half disapproving of him, according to the Austin Institute survey. The Vatican didn’t respond to a request for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Wow, did the Murdoch WSJ get this backwards or what.
The only way they get there is by counting anyone who "self-identifies" as Catholic . . . but never goes to Mass and worships the Democratic Party rather than God Almighty.
If you limit your survey to Catholics who attend Mass every week (or even 2-3 times a month) you get an entirely different answer.
Moral: The media skews the material to get the answer it wants. And it doesn't want faithful Catholics.
Many young priests are also interested in the Latin Mass while older priests tend to have no interest.
Older priests are from the 20th century Vatican II mindset and have embraced all the post-modernism with it. Younger priests are from non-western countries and have escaped the brainwashing.
The largest group of Catholics who have regular attendance is, of cours, Hispanics.
Find the Hollywood movie “For Greater Glory” with ANdy Garcia to see a true picture of these Catholics.
Those masses are very intimate, usually no more than 10 in attendance.
False.
The flock are Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Dick Durban “Catholics”.
I’m no longer a practicing Catholic, but it may be that the typical parish priest is fighting a losing battle against those above and below him in the hierarchy. Unfortunately, there is only one outcome when that is the case...a censored, transferred, or banished priest.
The dross of nominal Catholics and diluted belief is falling away, as the true and enduring Church of faithful, practicing Catholics emerges from the wreckage of Vatican II. Our elderly Marxist Pope and his St. Gallen confederates scheme in an effort to reverse the trend somehow, but the eternal Church of faith and hope is beyond their reach.
All of the young priests I’ve seen are far more traditional than the older priests who brought us butterflies, felt banners, and kumbaya. Our former young pastor sat in the confessional up to twelve hours a day (with long lines), started Gregorian chant, offered Latin Mass on Sunday’s and once during the week, took out the table and brought in a real altar, celebrated ad orientem during Advent and Lent, and added altar rails. Our new pastor is young and orthodox as well and his sermons are pretty hard hitting.
Priests are in the trenches, they know what’s going on.
“Younger priests are from non-western countries and have escaped the brainwashing.”
I was only talking about American priests. Although some come from families from Asia (Vietnam for instance), they are all overwhelmingly Americanized in the general cultural sense. They just have been better catechized than the generation before them. And they are very interested in the Latin Mass and old Catholic traditions.
FTA: Research on Catholic clergy by the Austin Institute has found that younger Catholic priests and priests ordained in more recent years tend to be noticeably more conservative than older priests on a host of issues, including politics, theology and moral teaching.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please, oh, please, send one to my parish.
Wish I could believe this, but I don’t. USCCB conservative? Ha!
I am jealous...~~sigh~~
I wonder how priests are going to react to the news that the Vatican has declared Fr. Pavone no longer a priest. The idea with ordination is that the newly-ordained priest is told “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” How can the pope negate that because he doesn’t like a particular priest’s support of Donald Trump?
See Ft Frank Pavone.
He has just been cancelled for the Pro-Life cause.
Actually no. Not at all.
Lol, proof by assertion. And Biden and Pelosi do not qualify as proof, sorry 🙂
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.