The following is a press statement from the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts…

In October, The Catholic Project, at Catholic University of America, released a major new study of the American priesthood, which disclosed striking and substantive disparities in beliefs, concerns, preferences and outlook between older and younger generations of Catholic clergy in the United States.

Conducted by the Gallup Organization, the report, entitled Morale, Leadership and Priorities: Highlights from the 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests, revealed a generational divide in which younger priests were, relatively, more disposed to theological orthodoxy and more attracted to political conservatism.

Perhaps the most dramatic finding was that U.S. priests ordained since 2000 were, comparatively, less committed to LGBTQ outreach, and more interested in the revival of the Church’s traditional Latin liturgical life.

Reporter Matt Lamb, of LifeSiteNews, contacted the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, seeking a comment on the study from C. J. Doyle.

In response, League Executive Director C. J. Doyle issued the following statement:

“Perhaps never before in the modern history of American Catholicism has discerning a vocation to the priesthood been more a matter of choice, more demanding of conviction, more sacrificial, and more counter cultural.

It is only natural therefore, that the most faithful, and thus the most orthodox, would wish to serve.

Moreover, the demographics, culture and economy of the American Catholic family has changed.

Because of contraception and abortion, the era of large Catholic families, where vocations to the priesthood or religious life were considered normative, indeed expected, is over.

White Catholics, over the last three quarters of a century, have moved from the hardscrabble working class to the comfortable middle class. Many are affluent.

Career choices for young, urban Catholic men now extend well beyond the traditional three P’s—priest, policeman or politician.

With Great Society era financial aid for higher education, the Church is no longer the only alternative for a poor boy with intellectual promise.

Society has also changed. The prestige and social status of the Catholic priesthood has diminished with secularization and has been eviscerated by public disgust over clerical sexual abuse.

From 1940 to 1946, and again from 1948 to 1973, America had military conscription—the Draft.

Now, with an all volunteer armed forces, the phenomenon of the seminary as a refuge for effeminate men seeking to escape military service, no longer obtains. The late Paul Likoudis, News Editor of The Wanderer, once pointed out that the highest enrollment in the history of Saint John’s Seminary in Boston was during the years from 1941 to 1945.

The spike in clerical sex abuse, which first began registering in the late 1940’s, may have been related to this circumstance.

In short, all of the social, economic, cultural and family incentives and influences favoring the pursuit of a vocation, along with the social rewards of being a priest, are things of the past.

Moreover, young priests, with fewer confreres, will have less assistance in their duties, and will have more responsibility thrust upon them earlier, than previous generations of clerics.

Being a priest in America today is not only a vocation, but a challenge and a sacrifice even beyond the requirements of sexual continence.”

In response to Matt Lamb’s question of how the Hierarchy might use this information to increase vocations, Doyle replied:

“Young Catholic families who attend the traditional Latin Mass, who homeschool, and who are active in the pro-life movement, are fertile ground for vocations. The Church should promote all three.

Instead, we see the suppression of the traditional liturgy, hostility to homeschooling and the repeated betrayal of the pro-life movement by prominent American prelates, like Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.”

When Lamb asked about the significance of young priests being more adverse to the homosexual lifestyle, Doyle said the following:

“Clerical homosexuality is the Rosetta Stone of corruption in the Church—the scandals, bad morals, bad theology, spiritual malpractice and hostility to tradition.

The diminished interest in LGBT accommodation and affirmation is a very encouraging sign.”

Matt Lamb’s article, quoting C. J. Doyle, was published by LifeSiteNews on October 16th.

Author’s Addendum

It is important to remember that the numbers in the study are, once again, relative, that is to say comparative by generation.

Only 39% of young priests—ordained since 2000—support the traditional Latin Mass, but this percentage is three and a half times higher than that of priests ordained before 1980.

Although 51% of priests ordained since 2010 describe themselves as politically conservative or very conservative, 49% of young priests believe that Church must address the largely imaginary problem of (white) racism, 35% want to fight supposed climate change, 37% still support LGBTQ outreach, and an overwhelming 74% believe that the Church must welcome immigrants, that is to say, illegal aliens who self-identify as migrants in order to violate U.S. immigration laws with impunity.

There were some encouraging signs however. Among all U.S. priests, 87% believe supporting the right to life ought to be an ecclesial priority, and 73% believe the Church should promote Eucharistic Adoration.

This study is useful as long as one understands its limitations.

It is not a comprehensive examination of theological orthodoxy in the American priesthood. It is only a measurement of pastoral priorities and political attitudes among priests.

The study’s conclusion about clerical conservatism is a snapshot of a trend, not a definitive finding revealing a transformed clerical culture.