A Question of Freedom

The evidence has been mounting for years that many Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. disagree with several key teachings and disciplines of their faith. Now there is additional proof. In a major survey of some 6,000 U.S. bishops, priests and former priests conducted by Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, 54% of the priests questioned want optional rather than compulsory celibacy for diocesan clergy. On another controversial issue, the study found that Pope Paul's condemnation of artificial birth control "does not command majority support" among the surveyed priests.

The conclusions of the survey will offer cold comfort to the U.S. hierarchy, which, as it happens, commissioned the research. The bishops will discuss the findings at their semiannual meeting in Detroit next week as part of their preparation for the churchwide synod in Rome next fall. They will undoubtedly be disturbed by the survey's findings about celibacy and contraception, and they may also wince at the disclosure that the priests' liberal position on divorce is "remarkably different from the traditional one." Though the bishops may breathe a bit easier to learn that priests, by and large, support the church's attitudes on abortion and premarital sex, even those findings are not unalloyed joy: "The younger clergy," the study notes dryly, "are somewhat more sympathetic to premarital sex." Because the bishops' ecclesiastical conservatism sets them apart from their clergy, the study warned of "a serious and potentially dangerous gap between the priests and the hierarchy."

No Choice. The NORC sociologists also learned that loneliness, reflected in a desire to marry, was the most important reason that men left the ministry, while problems of faith were relatively unimportant. Another study, based on in-depth interviews with 271 priests by psychologists at Chicago's Loyola University, did disclose, however, one problem with belief. Even many priests loyal to their vocation have an "incompletely developed faith," in part attributable, the psychologists said, to the church's emphasis on "the extrinsic aspects of belief."

Similarly, the psychologists found that many priestly problems with authority are probably due in part to "the manner in which authority is exercised" in the church. Celibacy is a problem not because so many priests want to marry, but principally because they are denied the freedom of choice. What is needed, suggested the psychologists, is a willingness on the part of the bishops to give the priests more freedom, which in turn would help develop the maturity that many of them now lack and thus make them more effective. The study concludes that few priests are psychologically ill, but that many need more room to grow to their full potential as priests and human beings.

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