New Survey of Priests in the United States Reveals Great Confidence in Pope Leo XIV with Differing Stats on Women in the Church and TLM

 The Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America conducted another study of US priests. The 2025 wave of the National Study of Catholic priests was conducted by Gallup between May 12-June 30, 2025 and was completed by 1,164 priests (38% response rate). This report presents descriptive highlights of the new findings. The study is entitled: "Morale, Leadership, and Pastoral Priorities: Highlights from the 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests"

 Pope Leo XIV is perhaps enjoying a “honeymoon” phase among the US presbyterate, with 86% of priests expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in him, and 80% of priests expecting that the relationship between the Vatican and the US Church will improve “somewhat” or “significantly.” A recent Pew Research Center survey found that, overall, 84% of Catholics have a favorable view of Pope Leo.

WOMEN in the Church: Their data showed that 51% of priests thought women do not have enough influence, 45% thought women have about the right amount of influence, and 4% thought women have too much influence

TOP PRIORITIES: They found that 94% of priests responded that Youth/Young adult ministry was a top priority, Family Formation/Marriage Preparation, and Evangelization should be considered priorities by the Church in the US. Family Formation/Marriage Preparation was the issue that the fewest priests said should not be a priority (1%). The only issue that a majority of priests (59%) said should not be a priority was access to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). The issue that the largest percentage of priests were unsure about including as a priority was artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies (24%).  

KEY CONCLUSIONS

Personal flourishing remained generally high for priests in the US, their trust and confidence in their bishops or major superiors was still low, though improving. Younger priests reported burnout and loneliness to a higher degree than older cohorts, and a higher percentage of them considered that they are being asked to do more than they ought to be. As the older generation of priests retires, it is to be expected that these younger priests will be asked to carry even more responsibilities in the years to come. It is not hard to see how burnout may continue to increase as fewer and fewer priests serve in active ministry.
Most American priests shared a broad, mission-oriented pastoral vision, but there is a gap between pastoral aspirations and institutional realization. While they believed that the Church should prioritize youth and young adult ministry, for example, of those priests who serve a parish only 71% actually had youth and youth adult ministry at their parish.
A key part of Pope Francis’s pontificate, synodality, received a tepid response from priests in the US, but at the same time, they appeared to be decidedly synodal in practice. While not responding enthusiastically to the global synod process of 2021-2024, they reported high levels of engagement with the laity when it comes to parish decision-making and other “component parts” of synodality. US priests tended to be both “conservative” and “pastorally expansive.” The younger a priest was, the more likely he was to self-identify politically as conservative or very conservative, but the data reporting concern regarding the current political administration suggested a more nuanced picture. 

Finally, priests in the US were interested in growing and learning more about the faith they profess, with 61% saying that they would like more spiritual formation and 55% asking for convocations or retreats. American priests recognize that they cannot be stagnant in their spiritual lives. This could be a good reminder to all Catholics, that their priests, too, are on a journey, and they continue to need the laity’s prayers, support, and friendship.

Source: https://catholicproject.catholic.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NSCPWave2FINAL.pdf