Catholicism is undergoing many changes in America as weekly attendance falls and fewer priests are answering the call to the faith.
The progressive wave of Catholicism the church has been on since Vatican II seems to be giving way to a growing minority of conservative young Catholics who seek a return to tradition. These new American Catholics are driving a change that is slowly transforming the trajectory of churches in the United States.
Changes Everywhere
An AP News piece focusing on St. Maria Goretti described some of the changes Catholic parishioners saw as a result of increased conservative enthusiasm.
“The choir director, a fixture at St. Maria Goretti for nearly 40 years, was suddenly gone. Contemporary hymns were replaced by music rooted in medieval Europe. So much was changing. Sermons were focusing more on sin and confession. Priests were rarely seen without cassocks. Altar girls, for a time, were banned. At the parish elementary school, students began hearing about abortion and hell,” the piece said.
Catholic Trends
In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, progressives in the Catholic church took the reforms as a signal to push liberal interpretations of the faith to make further changes to modernize the church.
On many issues, these progressives still hold the majority opinion in America. For example, although the church officially condemns abortion, 6 in 10 American Catholics support some form of abortion.
Attendance Decline
In the years since Vatican II, the Catholic church has seen a slow but steady decline in several areas.
Since the early 1970s, attendance at Catholic masses has dropped by over 50% in America. As the older progressives die or leave the church, it is leaving a new, more conservative base of Catholics with the reigns.
Priests are More Conservative
There are now fewer priests entering the service of the Catholic church, and among those who do, they are overwhelmingly conservative.
A recent survey by The Catholic Project found that progressive priests are going extinct and that there is a significant political divide between older and younger priests.
Few Progressive Priests
The Catholic Project report asserts that there are virtually no newly ordained priests who see themselves as “very progressive” anymore.
“More than half of the priests who were ordained since 2010 see themselves on the conservative side of the scale. No surveyed priests who were ordained after 2020 described themselves as ‘very progressive,” said the report.
Vanishing Progressives
The survey found an overwhelming number of priests are avoiding labeling themselves as politically liberal or theologically progressive.
“Simply put, the portion of new priests who see themselves as politically ‘liberal’ or theologically ‘progressive’ has been steadily declining since the Second Vatican Council and has now all but vanished,” the report asserts.
Conservatives Stepping Up
As church attendance declines broadly, conservative Catholics are experiencing a renewed passion for traditional aspects of the faith, especially among the youth.
“I think of a lot of young people are like, really lost, and some of us found reclaimed meaningfulness through establishment, through this institution of the church,” Madeline Hays, a student at Benedictine College told the Associated Press.
Haven For Young Catholics
AP News reported that “Benedictine College has become a haven for young, conservative Catholics” seeing enrollment that has “doubled over the past 20 years.”
“Young women now who are wanting to enter religious life, they want to enter it full throttle. They want to be brides of Christ, and to wear a habit is to signify that every day,” Hays said.
Renewal of Tradition
Young Catholics feel like the progressive direction of the church in recent years has caused some things to be lost in the transition.
“It’s just like a renewal of some really good things we might have lost. There are a lot of things that are non-negotiable to a lot of us who are faithful Catholics. We don’t believe the church will ever say like, contraception is acceptable,” Hays said.
Pendulum Has Swung Back
Reverend Ryan Richardson, a chaplain at St. Benedict’s Abbey described how he has seen the pendulum swing in his time in the church.
“When I was in college, doing eucharistic adoration was seen as something radical. In the last 20 years, that pendulum has swung far to the right. Interest in the traditional Latin mass is a real thing, we have it here on campus, and it’s a pretty significant group,” Richardson said.
Pope Francis
Some conservative Catholics have been pushing back against recent efforts by the current Pope, Pope Francis, to make the Catholic Church more friendly to LGBT people, as well as urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The opposition to Pope Francis is very loud. And it’s very influential, but it’s really very small and very much located in the Anglosphere, especially in the United States. There’s a lot of big money behind this conservative movement. So they have this great profile, and again, a certain degree of influence, but they’re relatively small,” said David Gibson Director at the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.
