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Many of Australia’s Catholic priests don’t believe in crucial church teachings and are critical of their bishops.
While most Australian priests find fulfillment in the priesthood, many say they are overworked, poorly managed and feel constrained in their religious vocation by bureaucracy and parish administration.
Nearly half of the surveyed priests consider their bishops as “an exclusive group and one far too subservient to Rome”.
In a survey of 1550 active and 160 retired priests
- almost 70 percent of priests thought priestly celibacy should be optional
- the same percentage thought abortion was always a sin
- several volunteered their sense of frustration that some married Anglican priests have been accepted into the Catholic priesthood in recent years
- only about 40 percent said pre-marital sex was sinful
- just 19.2 percent thought it sinful for married couples to use birth control
- several priests admitted they were in long-term committed relationships with women
- one priest said he learned more about God from Alcoholics Anonymous meetings than the Catholic Church.
Survey co-author Chris McGillion says that while most find the priesthood satisfying, “there is still a worrying minority that we uncovered that are locked in this situation. They talk about depression, alcoholism and so forth.”
“The priesthood crisis is professional rather than vocational,” McGillion maintains.
Brian Coyne, editor of the independent Catholic website Catholica, believes bishops, while aware of australian priests’ dissatisfaction, choose to remain silent and not address the issues. “We have firm evidence of what the priests are actually thinking. It brings out into the open what people have suspected for a long time.”
The survey was conducted by Dr. John O’Carroll, a communications lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst and colleague Chris McGillion, who coordinates the university’s journalism program. Of the 1,710 priests surveyed, about 32 percent, responded. In addition O’Carroll and McGillion also conducted 50 face-to-face interviews.
The results are published in a book, “What Australian Catholic Priests Really Think About Their Lives and Their Church.”
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