I have been and still am a U.S. Catholic, born, baptized, and raised in SW Michigan. Although I currently live in Belgium, as a retired professor of religion and values in American society at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), I remain a committed and thoughtfully critical U.S. Catholic.

 

Actually, I became a critical Catholic in eighth grade at St. Mary’s School in Paw Paw, Michigan, when our local priest, Fr. Linus, visited our class. For some reason he went into a tirade about Protestants. Then asked how many of us had a Protestant parent. I raised my hand and said my dad was a Protestant. Fr. Linus then yelled at me and said: “Be careful because your dad belongs to a false religion.” I replied, without yelling, and said very firmly: “Fr. Linus you are wrong. My dad is a prayerful and wonderful Christian.” A couple of classmates applauded, and an irritated Fr. Linus left the room. Well…several years later, when I was a college student, I got a letter from Fr. Linus, sent to my parents’ address. It included his address at a retirement home and his phone number. He said he wanted to see me and asked me to call him. Home on summer vacation, I visited him. We had a delightful conversation, and he said “I have been thinking. I have been a terribly ignorant old priest. I hope you keep thinking and learning. Your Protestant dad is indeed a wonderful Christian…And may God bless you!” Fr. Linus also gave me a box of cigars.

 

So, I do indeed try to remain a thoughtful and learning Catholic, in a church that is now going through its own contemporary transitions.

 

Some statistics

 

The U.S. Catholic Church faces a long-term structural decline. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that the share of U.S. adults identifying as Catholic dropped from 24% in 2007 to roughly 19% today. Growing disconnects between official church teachings on social, sexual, and political issues and the views of modern American laypeople contribute to the disaffection. Vital markers of institutional health – such as infant baptisms, Catholic school enrollment, and sacramental marriages – have fallen, depending on the region, by roughly 30% to 50% since the early 2000s.

 

Politics

 

Politically, U.S. Catholics overwhelmingly backed Democrats through the mid-20th century, culminating in JFK’s election in 1960, as the first Catholic U.S. president. About 80% of U.S. Catholics voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), who was also the youngest elected president at age 43.

 

After the 1960s, Catholic demographic changes, social movements, and evolving party platforms caused a multi-decade political realignment. Today, according to the Pew Research Center, a modest majority of U.S. Catholic registered voters, around 49%, identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, giving the GOP a slight advantage over the Democratic Party, which claims roughly 44% of Catholic support. However, the Catholic vote remains deeply divided along racial and ethnic lines. Roughly 60% of white Catholics lean Republican; but about 54% of Hispanic Catholics favor the Democratic Party. In 2024, 56% of all U.S. Catholics voted for Donald Trump.

 

Today most of the 270 active U.S. Catholic bishops share the Republican stance on issues like abortion, traditional man/woman marriage, and religious liberty. There are also 165 retired bishops. Leadership elections within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have regularly favored conservative figures, especially after the papacies of John Paul II (Pope from 1978 to 2005) and Benedict XVI (Pope from 2095 to 2013) in which most episcopal appointments featured very conservative men. The current president of the USCCB, Archbishop Paul Coakley is a good example. He aligns with traditional and conservative stances on major social and moral issues, including restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights and gender-affirming care in healthcare. But, he has also spoken out in strong support of humane treatment and policies for immigrant families.

 

Paul Stagg Coakley (born June 3, 1955) serves as the current Archbishop of Oklahoma City and he has been President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops since November 2025.

 

So much for some general U.S. Catholic background…

 

My current U.S. Catholic focus, however, is: (1) on U.S. Catholic involvement in U.S. Christian Nationalism, and (2) on the theological perspective of today’s young Catholic priests.

 

Christian nationalism

 

Christian nationalism is a political ideology that merges religious and national identities, seeking to make Christianity the dominant force in U.S. public policy, law, and cultural life. Critics and scholars note that it often promotes traditional social hierarchies, links national belonging to very specific racial or ethnic identities and challenges the U.S. constitutional separation of church and state.

 

According to the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2025 American Values Atlas, 32% of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers; and approximately 30% of white U.S. Catholics now qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers. Two prominent American Catholics associated with U.S. Christian nationalism are Vice President J.D. Vance (born 1984) and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (born 1950).

 

The blueprint for U.S. Christian nationalism is Project 2025 and its main author is the conservative Catholic Kevin Roberts (born 1974), the president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative political think tank in Washington DC. Christian nationalism is a political ideology that seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and U.S. constitutional democracy.

There are no prominent Catholic bishops who officially support or endorse Christian nationalism. The leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church explicitly rejects the ideology as contrary to church teaching. While some lay political figures and commentators who identify as Catholics express nationalist views, hierarchical leadership views the movement as incompatible with the Gospel. Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington (born 1957) and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (born 1950) have publicly stated that Christian nationalism confuses religious devotion with national identity and contradicts core theological teachings. Bishop John Stowe (born 1966) of Lexington, Kentucky, has publicly stressed that Christian nationalism is a dangerous distortion of the Christian faith that can only be overcome through compassion and love for all. He views it as a significant minority influence that corrupts Christianity in the name of Christ.

Young priests

Moving beyond Christian nationalism, as a contemporary American Catholic I am also interested in the theological persecutive of today’s young U.S. Catholic priests. For more than twenty years I taught and helped form Catholic seminarians, at The American College seminary at the Catholic University of Leuven. What I find so surprising today is that about 70% of U.S. priests ordained in 2010 or later describe their political views as conservative or very conservative, compared to les than 15% of priests ordained before 1975 who hold that position. 

These younger Catholic priests are far more uniform in holding traditional views on church teachings, such as maintaining that homosexual behavior is always a sin and upholding male-only priestly ordination. Many are also fond of the old-time Latin Mass.

These young priests are far more conservative than Catholics age 65 and older. Among priests ordained before 1975, more than 70% described themselves as theologically progressive.

It’s not difficult to explain where this young priestly conservatism has come from. After Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) was elected in 1978, seminaries became more conservative as John Paul appointed conservative bishops. He also appointed arch conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (1927-2022) to head the Vatican doctrine office. Ratzinger cracked down on progressive theologians, chasing them out of seminaries.

Some contemporary bishops, however, are really trying to turn their seminaries around. Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger (born 1960) the Archbishop of Detroit, for example, has removed three Detroit seminary professors, who had publicly criticized Pope Francis and his teachings. But such reforms, if they happen, will only impact future generations of priests. Edward Weisenburger, by the way, is a friend and a graduate of The American College, Catholic University of Leuven.

Once again, the theological views of younger priests are out of sync with their priestly peers and with the general Catholic population. U.S. Catholics tend to favor progressive views on married priests, gay marriage, Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and the use of contraceptives. As a result, in coming decades, Catholic clergy will be even more out of sync with lay Catholics than the clergy is today.

Some observers argue for ignoring the views of Catholics who aren’t in church most Sundays and are less conservative than Catholics who attend Mass weekly. Yet even 40% of weekly Mass attenders support the ordination of women, according to the Pew Research Center. In addition, more than half of weekly churchgoers favor allowing Catholics to use birth control (72%) and in vitro fertilization (71%), allowing unmarried couples who live together to go to Communion (59%) and allowing women to become deacons (54%).

Time will tell of course what will happen. Will Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago in 1955 and now Pope Leo XIV, move the U.S. Catholic Church forward? I believe he is a good man and I appreciate his public statement that he has “no fear” of the incumbent presidential administration. He clarified that his mission is to preach the Gospel and promote peace rather than engage in partisan politics or personal political debates.

In continuity with Pope Francis (1936-2025), Pope Leo XIV shares strong concerns about climate change, poverty, and caring for migrants. But he currently opposes women’s ordination and supports traditional Catholic teachings about sexuality and gender. Nevertheless, I believe positive change can happen and I remain optimistic.

Jack

Dr. John A. Dick – Historical Theologian

Email: jadleuven@gmail.com