A new national survey of Catholic priests reveals a growing conservative tilt among the clergy, particularly among younger generations, with strong support for pro-life priorities amid ongoing debates over church leadership and political scandals.
The 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests, conducted by Gallup and released this month by The Catholic Project at Catholic University of America, polled 1,164 priests and found that while overall political views remained stable from the 2022 baseline, a clear generational shift is pushing the priesthood toward conservatism. Among priests ordained since 2010, 51% identified as very or somewhat conservative, compared to just 10% who called themselves liberal.
In contrast, those ordained before 1975 were far more liberal, with 61% in that category and fewer than 15% conservative.
“The younger a priest was, the more likely he was to self-identify politically as conservative or very conservative,” the report stated, noting a similar but sharper trend in theological views, where over 70% of the youngest priests described themselves as conservative or orthodox.
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The findings come as the church grapples with internal divisions over issues like abortion, highlighted by a recent scandal involving Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to honor pro-abortion Sen. Dick Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Durbin, who has voted against key pro-life measures including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, ultimately declined the award on October 1 after sharp backlash from fellow bishops and pro-life advocates.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois — Durbin’s home diocese, where the senator has been barred from Communion since 2004 for his abortion stance — called the planned honor “a source of grave scandal.” He said it risked “confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life.”
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco echoed the criticism, standing in solidarity with Paprocki and warning that the decision threatened “both clarity and unity” on the “grave evil that is the taking of innocent human life.”
Cupich defended the award as recognition of Durbin’s immigration work under a “consistent ethic of life,” writing, “At the heart of the consistent ethic of life is the recognition that Catholic teaching on life and dignity cannot be reduced to a single issue, even an issue as important as abortion.”
But critics, including retired Archbishop Joseph Naumann, decried it as “pastoral neglect,” arguing abortion remains the “primary human rights issue of our time” because it “attacks the life of the most innocent and vulnerable.”
The priest survey underscores robust support for pro-life causes at a time when such controversies test the church’s moral authority. Fully 88% of priests identified pro-life issues — encompassing both the beginning and end of life — as a top priority for the American church, with no significant differences across age groups.
One priest surveyed lamented broader cultural influences, saying, “The Church and its priests and bishops are too influenced by politics of the culture. We are being formed by the culture rather than challenging the culture with the Gospel, even if it means persecution and being looked down upon.”
Younger priests also showed greater enthusiasm for traditional practices, with 98% prioritizing access to the Traditional Latin Mass, up sharply from 20% among those ordained before 1980. Priorities like climate change and LGBTQ issues, meanwhile, declined among newer cohorts, from 82% to 35% for the former.
