A new survey of Catholic clergy in the United States showed high levels of both support for strict anti-sex abuse policies and widespread distrust of their bishops, with just 49 per cent of survey respondents indicating they trust their bishop.
The survey also indicated most priests are happy in their work but report being overburdened.
The report polled 10,000 clergy, receiving 3,516 responses from 191 dioceses. It was conducted by sociologists at the Catholic University of America. The researchers conducted 100 intensive follow-up interviews.
Priests said that they loved their work, registering marks high above the general population. Nearly eight out of ten priests could be described as “flourishing” based on their answers to ten questions that assessed their “happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, sense of meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships”.
“I’m happy in my life. I find true joy. I love what I do,” one religious priest told researchers. “I love the people. I feel like I’m firing on all cylinders. I every day remind myself how I am incapable on my own power to do this. I say, ‘God, this is your Church, you take care of it; where you need me, give me what I need. Don’t let me get in the way.’ … What I do is meaningful and impactful.”
Despite such high scores for contentment, 45 per cent of priests showed at least one sign of burnout, with nearly one in ten showing severe signs of burnout. Religious clergy were less likely to reveal burnout, with one third exhibiting at least one indicator, compared to half of diocesan clergy. Younger priests were much more likely to indicate they felt burned out than older clergy.
A leading negative factors in assessing priests’ well-being was a lack of trust in their bishops. This led to an 11.5 per cent reduction in priestly well-being among those who expressed a lack of trust in their own bishop. The survey also found widespread distrust of the bishops as a whole, with just under one quarter of priests expressing confidence in their leadership.
These attitudes were especially sharp when it came to fears that a priest might be falsely accused of sexual abuse and that the bishops would not help them fight the allegation.
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