We did the same with data from the French Priests, and found that the French Priests strongly preferred progressive Catholicism. That finding sharply contrasts with all American samples, but particularly with American priests, who strongly prefer traditional Catholicism. Within American samples, laity and priests showed strong net preferences for traditional Catholicism, while deacons and women religious prefer progressive Catholicism, but not as strongly as did the French priests. Among different samples, religious views of deacons were the most divided and discordant, with net scores about half way between the traditional and progressive ends of our scale on many items. On balance, all except women religious believe in objective rules for marriage, politics, family, and economics, with the strongest endorsements from laity and American priests.
Responses dealing with religious roles are similarly mixed.
All significantly reject the notion of a hierarchical conception of the priesthood with special powers that lay persons lack, but laity are divided and do so only weakly. All accept the notion that all believers have charisma and vocation. We argue that the dominant American view is of a Church politically engaged in an open and pluralistic sense, rather than the Vatican being the spokesman and broker for all Catholics. Women religious and deacons seem most strongly attached to this view. Progressive attitudes exist in each sample, but as unconnected attitudes about different things.