22% of US bishops favor ordination of men with deep-seated same-sex attraction, survey finds

July 24, 2026

Twenty-two percent of bishops in the United States are “comfortable ordaining a man who experiences deep-seated same-sex attraction, provided he is firmly committed to celibacy,” according to survey data that appeared in a newly published report.

Bishops are more likely than vocation directors (9%), seminary spiritual directors/formators (12%), seminary rectors (16%), or seminary mental health professionals (17%) to support the ordination of men with deep-seated same-sex attraction (SSA).

The survey data, originally published in 2025, appeared in “Do You Know Them to be Worthy? Twelve Proposals for Bishops, Rectors, Seminary Formation Teams, and Mental Health Professionals in Assessing the Suitability of Men for Holy Orders.” The University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life published the report on July 17.

The report’s authors, Father Thomas Berg and Dr. Timothy Lock of St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie, New York), grouped their 12 proposals under three categories: “Proposals Aimed at a More Effective Use of Psychological Services in the Formation Process,” “Proposed Best Practices Regarding Candidates with Special Needs,” and “Proposals Aimed at Supporting Chastity and Celibacy Formation.”

“While universally acknowledging the complexity and fraught nature of the issue, there seemed nonetheless to be an emerging consensus specifically around the prospect of recommending to the bishops that seminarians who manifest a stable SSA should not be accepted into the configuration stage” of formation, Father Berg and Dr. Lock wrote. “The present authors, while endorsing that position, also recognize that there exists often sharp disagreement on this issue among key constituencies who play a role in judging the suitability of such candidates.”

“While the data indicates that a majority of bishops are not comfortable ordaining these men, there remains nonetheless a notable disparity of judgment in the body of bishops,” Berg and Lock continued. “Many of us who have worked in formation for many years can attest to instances in which undue pressure has been placed on a rector and members of the formation team to advance such candidates against their own judgment.”

Berg and Lock also called for a “more meaningful way of defining transitory same-sex attraction.” In a 2005 document whose teaching was reaffirmed under Pope Francis in 2016, the Congregation for Catholic Education stated:

The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture” ...

Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem—for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate.

At the conclusion of their report, Berg and Lock said that “ordinarily, bishops should accept the considered judgment of the rector and formation team regarding admission to seminary and promotion to successive stages of formation, unless the bishop possesses moral certitude that the seminary’s assessment is substantially mistaken.”

In 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published the John Jay report on the nature and scope of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy between 1950 and 2002; the report found that 81% of victims were male. A subsequent John Jay report, published by the bishops’ conference in 2011, nonetheless stated that “the clinical data do not support the hypothesis that priests with a homosexual identity or those who committed same-sex sexual behavior with adults are significantly more likely to sexually abuse children than those with a heterosexual orientation or behavior.”

 

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Further information:

• McGrath Institute for Church Life Publishes New Report to Strengthen Seminary Formation and Assessment of Candidates for Holy Orders (7/17/26)
• Full text of report (McGrath Institute for Church Life)