Priest Resignations in a Lazy Monopoly

This paper examines the structural antecedents and consequences of diocesan resignation rates among American Catholic priests during the period 1966-1970. A national survey with a 74% return rate (941 priest-informants) yielded usable data on 131 American Catholic dioceses-i.e., 96% of the population as defined. Resignations appeared to derive directly from the following diocesan conditions: percentage of parishes run by religious clergy, regional dominance (i.e., status of dioceses as province), percentage Catholic in area population, percentage of diocesan priests engaged full-time in nonparish work, and estimated degree of priest passivity and disillusionment. Indirectly, traditional authority structures, ideological divisions, and the absence of social solidarity also increased the probability of resignations. Resignations appeared to have no immediate feedback effect on episcopal policies. Such findings are in partial accord with other research indicating a deprivation syndrome leading to resignations. But the special salience of facilitating, rather than causative, factors, along with the absence of feedback, strongly suggests that the Catholic church of that era was a lazy monopoly. Such organizations are slow to make essential changes; they allow radical personnel to depart rather than deal with their criticisms.