The Sexual Revolution among Catholic Clergy

Abstract

Even though the data are unpersuasive on "the sexual revolution" in the general population, there is strong evidence that there has been a dramatic change in attitudes toward birth control and divorce among Roman Catholic clergy. The correlates of sexual "liberalism" among Catholic priests are age, "inner-direction," and modern religious values, explaining almost three-fifths of the variance among Catholic priests in sexual attitudes. It would appear that there are only very small differences between the clergy and the laity on these matters, but substantial differences between the clergy and the hierarchy. Writers in a wide variety of disciplines have commented on the intimate relation between religion and sexuality. Eliade (1959), speaking for the tradition of research in the "history of religion," sees primitive religion as essentially a fertility ritual. Campbell (1959) suggests that the earliest known human works of art were simultaneously sexual and religious, and Ann Parsons (1969) has argued persuasively that children growing up in the southern Italian milieu acquired both their sexual identity and their religious world-view as part of the same intimate process of self-definition. McCready (1972) has demonstrated the intimate relationship between the early family triad and adult religious behavior. Luckmann (1967) argues that the interpretive scheme is derived in the process of individuation which begins in the early interactions among male parent, female parent, and child. Under such circumstances, one could readily expect that the relationship between religion and sexuality might undergo important changes at the time of a sexual revolution. The literature on this alleged revolution is rich though not altogether persuasive. It can be found in both serious journals and the popular press. Writers like Reiss (1967), Kinsey (1953), and his colleagues, and Simon and Gagnon (1969) have argued that there have been considerable changes in sexual attitudes and behavior in the last