Vast Survey Of Catholic Church Employees Reveals Distinct Gender Lines In Beliefs

By Erin Spencer
Forbes
November 29, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2019/11/29/vast-survey-of-catholic-church-employees-reveals-distinct-gender-lines-in-beliefs/

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - SEPTEMBER 12: Pope Francis greets nuns in St, Peter's square during his weekly audience on September 12, 2018 in Vatican City, Vatican. Photo by Franco Origlia

This week, NBC News in Washington released a large survey of Catholic Church employees. The first-of-its-kind, 26-question survey was distributed via email to 32,616 members listed in the Official Catholic Directory. Of that group, 2,700 surveys were completed, with a majority of respondents identified as women. The survey touched on topics such as social issues facing the Church, women in leadership, gay marriage and the abuse crisis. Across many of these issues, a clear gender divide was evident in responses—particularly apparent between diocesan priests and nuns. 

The Role of Women In The Church 

There were several questions within the survey related to the role of women in the Church and whether respondents felt there was room for elevating women into the higher ranks. When asked about whether respondents believed the Church should consider ordaining women as priests, 71% of nuns indicated they believed the topic should have further study while only 24% of diocesan priests agreed.  

Currently, a special commission set up by Pope Francis is exploring the possibility of ordaining women as permanent deacons. A question that touched on the issue revealed that members of the Church were a bit more open to this possibility compared to women being ordained as priests. That said, there was still a sharp gender divide on sentiment as 81% of nuns believed the idea warranted further study, whereas only 41% of diocesan priests felt the same way. 

Another item within the section of the survey related to the role of women in the Church that revealed gendered beliefs was the notion of whether the Church should consider allowing the use of birth control. 66% of diocesan priests indicated that they believed this was settled doctrine, therefore shouldn’t be allowed, while the results were almost exactly weighted in the opposite direction for nuns, as 65% indicated the notion should be further studied. 

Married Priests And Same-Sex Marriage 

Marriage was another topic where women appeared to hold more progressive stances. 82% of nuns indicated that they believed that the notion of ordaining married men as priests should be further studied while 60% of diocesan priests agreed. The notion of recognizing same-sex marriages as non-sacramental unions and allowing Catholics in these unions to receive communion revealed even stronger gender disparities. 64% of nuns responded with the belief that it should be further considered yet only 28% of diocesan priests agreed. 

Clergy Abuse Scandal

Finally, the survey demonstrated that diocesan priests are far more likely to view clergy abuse as a problem of the past with 89% agreeing with that statement, while nuns clearly disagreed as only 20% indicated they believed the problem to be mostly resolved. 

It’s clear from the survey as a whole that the employees of the Church remain deeply split when it comes to the major issues being discussed across parishes within the US. Furthermore, it would seem that many of those divisions fall pretty clearly along gender lines.