The Age of Liberal Priests is Officially Over | The Deep
The LOOPcast
CatholicVote
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
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In this episode of The Deep, Erika breaks down the recent study from the Catholic Project that shows a consistent shift among younger priests towards more conservative and traditional views. What do the numbers actually show? And does this shift reveal a hopeful future for the church?
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro: A major shift among young priests
1:57 - Priest numbers decreased but something else changed too
4:05 - Difference in political and theological views
6:30 - Difference in pastoral priorities
7:40 - Though a bit behind, the laity is also changing
10:01 - Two real challenges for young priests
13:44 - Conclusion: what does this mean for the rest of us?
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Sources:
Associated Press. “‘A Step Back in Time’: America’s Catholic Church Sees an Immense Shift Toward the Old Ways.” Associated Press, May 1, 2024. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/7638fa2013a593f8cb07483ffc8ed487.
Catholic Project. NSCP Wave 2 Final Report. October 2025. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://catholicproject.catholic.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NSCPWave2FINAL.pdf.
Catholic Vote. McKenna Snow, “Looking at Pew Numbers: ‘Baby Boomer’ Catholics Have More Liberal Views Than Millennials.” CatholicVote.org, April 19, 2024. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://catholicvote.org/baby-boomer-catholics-have-more-liberal-views-than-millennials/.
Florida Atlantic University News Desk. Gisele Galoustian, “The ‘Taboo’ of Retirement for Catholic Priests.” Florida Atlantic University News Desk, July 7, 2016. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/Catholic-Priests-Retirement.
Georgetown University. Mary Gautier et al., “Average Priest Age Now Nearly 20 Years Older Than 1970.” Georgetown University News, June 1, 2012. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://www.georgetown.edu/news/average-priest-age-now-nearly-20-years-older-than-1970/#:~:text=Average%20Priest%20Age%20Now%20Nearly,studies%20about%20the%20Catholic%20Church.
National Catholic Register. “The Return of Altar Rails.” National Catholic Register, n.d. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://www.ncregister.com/features/the-return-of-altar-rails.
National Catholic Reporter. “While Out of Sync: Lay Catholics Conservative, Young Priests Are Future U.S. Church.” National Catholic Reporter, n.d. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/while-out-sync-lay-catholics-conservative-young-priests-are-future-us-church.
The Catholic Herald. “Bishop Bans Use of Altar Rail at Charlotte Catholic High School.” The Catholic Herald, n.d. Accessed November 4, 2025. https://www.catholicherald.com/article/bishop-bans-use-of-altar-rail-at-charlotte-catholic-high-school.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today's younger priests are the most conservative in living memory. Not only that, for the first time in 60 years, the average American priest's top pastoral priority is Eucharistic devotion. |
| 0:13.0 | The data is striking, confirming a general feeling among Catholics of a sharp generational divide among our priests and among us all. As I was |
| 0:23.2 | digging through, I realized that calling these numbers a revolution is an understatement. But I also |
| 0:30.0 | found a few red flags that we ignore to our own peril, and I'll get into those. Since the sexual |
| 0:35.9 | abuse scandals and the large-scale closure of parishes began in the early 2000s, the Catholic laity have been treated to an endless stream of managed decline messaging. |
| 0:46.4 | We talk about the vocations crisis, the same way we talk about the weather. |
| 0:50.3 | Parish mergers, school closures, and overflowing priest retirement homes all contribute to a sense that the Catholic moment is over. |
| 0:59.7 | But is it really? |
| 1:01.3 | It turns out that while the numbers are sobering, the story isn't all decline. |
| 1:07.7 | A new 2025 study from the Catholic Project confirms that this isn't just a blip. |
| 1:12.6 | It's a long-term, robust trend. |
| 1:15.6 | Younger priests are far more conservative, both politically and theologically, than their predecessors. |
| 1:22.6 | And that's a big deal for the future of the Church in America. |
| 1:26.6 | While the boomer priests of the 1970s and 80s mostly rode the cultural revolution waves |
| 1:32.6 | with the rest of their generation, their successors are pulling hard in the opposite direction. |
| 1:38.5 | If the number of Catholics is smaller, the priests leading them are of a different kind. |
| 1:44.1 | We are watching. We are part of an inflection point in the history of American Catholicism. |
| 1:50.0 | This is the story of our own new counter-reformation and the young priests who are leading the way. |
| 1:57.0 | Numbers aren't everything, but they keep us honest, and when it comes to the American |
| 2:02.3 | priesthood, they tell a riveting story. Most Gen X and millennials grew up with pretty bleak numbers. |
| 2:09.4 | If you were a Catholic born in 1985, you were baptized by one of over 52,000 priests in the |
| 2:15.7 | United States at that time. By 2020, when you turned 35, there were |
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