A recently published study shows that priests’ approval of Pope Francis during his lifetime is associated with the moral acceptance of homosexual activity.
“Approval of Pope Francis is negatively associated with the belief that homosexual sex is always wrong,” researcher Lucas Sharma found using data from the 2020-2021 Survey of American Catholic Priests.
In his study, Sharma also found that priests’ disapproval of homosexual activity – which the Catholic Church teaches is “intrinsically disordered” and gravely sinful – was correlated with several other factors. These included “ordination date, political conservatism, any degree of reported same-sex sexual attraction, and religious traditionalism.”
As previous studies have found, Sharma observed that heterosexual, recently ordained, politically conservative, and religiously traditional priests are more likely to endorse the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. A priest’s “religious traditionalism” was estimated by the frequency with which he prayed the Divine Office, since its daily recitation is a mandate of the Church, per canon law.
All the above factors were statistically significant in Sharma’s analysis. Interestingly, religious priests were found to be less likely than diocesan priests to believe that homosexuality is wrong.
While the gravely sinful nature of homosexual acts is an unchanging doctrine of the Church, Francis had given many Catholics the impression that the immorality of homosexuality is not as serious as the Church had always taught, or even that it is morally ambiguous.
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