New Conservative Catholic Priests in America
My Response to Ruth Graham's New York Times Article
Hi there,
I stayed up very late last night reading an article and responses to it in The New York Times. ‘America’s New Catholic Priests: Young, Confident and Conservative’, written by Ruth Graham. Published yesterday, 10 July 2024, it has already elicited more than 1,200 comments by readers. I chipped in too.
Summary of the Article
Graham interviewed newly ordained priests, most of whom, suggested the article, appear to be theologically and politically conservative. Graham cited a large survey of US priests, ordained since 2020, in which more than 80 per cent described themselves as conservative or orthodox in their theology. Graham contrasts this with the generally more liberal clergy of the 1960s, noting that since the 1980s, ‘each new wave of priests in the US is noticeably more conservative than the one before it’.
Reader Responses That Struck Me
Four readers’ responses particularly struck me.
Thom from South Carolina
‘Thom’ from South Carolina wondered ‘to what extent these new young priests have been exposed to views contrary to the voodoo which they have embraced.
‘I’m gonna guess they have no exposure and thus they have accepted without question the dogma presented to them over the years. They have no clue. They have complete and reassuring certainty like the Trump True Believers, the Hindi of India, the Muslims of Pakistan.
‘A free country requires that people can accept whatever religious nonsense they want, but it is a sad day to see these young people throw away their lives over this Catholic nonsense. I’m hoping as they see reality with maturing adulthood, they can free themselves and become actual adults.’
‘Amen to that brother!’ I replied. ‘So say I as a former student priest of nine years, believing in nonsense. Left, married. Never happier!’
(That prompted me to file away the following for a future six-word short story competition: ‘Student priest. Left. Married. Never happier!’)
JW from Philadelphia
JW from Philadelphia, whom I assume is female, said she was a 19-year-old college sophomore who attended mass every Sunday for 18 years. One Christmas at midnight mass, she remembered ‘looking at the priest and feeling a revulsion that if I had wanted to be a priest, and devote my life to God’s work, I wouldn’t be allowed. I stopped being a Catholic then and there.’
‘Good for you,’ I responded to JW. ‘A moment for me was choosing not to receive communion when I realised the Church forbade priests to receive communion who had married without receiving dispensation from celibacy. And that the Church elevated what it admits to be the man-made rule of compulsory celibacy for priests over what it claims to be the God-given vocation of the priesthood. It’s all a sham; and I was indoctrinated from childhood to believe it.’
Patricia from Reston, VA
Another reader, Patricia from Reston, VA, said: ‘I believe that these newly ordained priests are fooling themselves. I believe they are men who never quite adapted to “American societal norms,” writ broadly. The cognitive dissonance between a strict puritanical Catholic upbringing and the ubiquitous presence of sexuality in our society all but forces them into the priesthood.’
After other interesting observations, she concluded: ‘I went through 16 years of Catholic education in the Bronx, NY a long time ago and I’ve been trying to discard—bit by bit—that burden for a long time.’
‘Hear! Hear!’ I responded. ‘And it’s a lifetime’s work for some of us to unthink the lies we were taught as Catholic children.’
Jake from Charlotte
I’ll conclude with an approving comment, and responses to it, by Jake from Charlotte: ‘Good for these young men, living their principles. The Church has room for all kinds of priests—but it needs priests, needs them desperately. If a great many liberal men were to sign up to be priests, I would applaud. As it stands now, with conservatives leading the charge, I applaud.’
To which Edmund L from London responded: ‘Applaud men peddling superstition while pushing a reactionary, patriarchal, homophobic agenda? One that condemns much of human sexuality as sinful and seeks to deny women autonomy over their own bodies? I see little to applaud, except that it will accelerate the Catholic church’s declining influence, especially among the young.’
Nestor Potkine responded to Jake in similar vein: ‘All these young people are entering not only a lifetime of delusion, but also a lifetime of inflicting delusion on others. I fail to see why that would be cause for applause.’
I concurred: ‘They believe or purport to believe a delusion. They propagate their delusion. On what planet is that commendable?’
Pertinence of Our New Song for Priests
The NYT article shows the topicality of our new song So Glad I Married You, about a young fool who built himself a House of Glass, searching for the divine, thinking he didn’t need anyone else, he had God on his side. Freedom, money or love, they could never be his, but deep inside his heart he knew he was living a lie.
They’re all living a lie, whether they realise it or not. How potty we would regard a man who dedicated his life today to Odin, Jupiter or Pan. Maybe send the song to a priest you know? Here’s the Spotify link. And here’s the video on YouTube.
The Rayne, Andrea Patron and I are very happy that it’s on IMRO’s New Music Playlist. We’re in good company, nestling close to Fontaines DC, Gavin James and The Script!
Happy days,
Joe
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Happy days,
Joe
Good article. My experience as a Baptist pastor amongst the Catholic priests I encountered was that too many of lacked a personality. They seemed ill equipped to interact with and minister to actual humans. They could rattle off the liturgy but seemed unable to meaningfully converse with a person.