Survey finds priestly dissent from church teaching

LONDON — A survey of Catholic priests engaged in parochial ministry in England and Wales found that 43 percent of them oppose the church’s official teaching that artificial contraception is wrong and a further 19 percent are unsure about the teaching.

The survey was carried out by Leslie Francis, an Anglican priest who is a professor of theology at the University of Wales, Bangor, and a Catholic priest, Stephen Louden. Their findings are contained in a book, “The Naked Parish Priest,” due to be published in September. The researchers sent questionnaires to all 3,581 priests working in parishes in England and Wales and received responses from 1,482 of them or 41.4 percent.