Catholics may be surprised to learn that many U.S. bishops describe their lives as both all-consuming and satisfying, a priest-researcher said.

“These are guys who generally get up very, very early in the morning, pray about two hours every day and work about 10 hours a day,” said Father Stephen Fichter, a research associate at the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington, which conducted the survey. “(They) just really do some interesting things and there are a lot of difficulties that they’re dealing with all the time.”

A priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, Fichter explained the results of a 2016 survey of active and retired U.S. bishops in a talk at St Mary’s University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus on Jan. 15. The survey was the first to look at the lives of bishops since 1989.

The study is the subject of a 2019 book published by Oxford University Press, Catholic Bishops in the United States: Church Leadership in the Third Millennium. Fichter is one of four co-authors of the book.

The researchers wanted to carry out a comprehensive study, develop a profile of bishops and chronicle the experiences of prelates in their ministerial roles, Fichter said.

The average age of active bishop respondents was 66. They are white and theologically moderate or traditional. Some bishops described themselves as moderately progressive.

Of 429 surveys sent, 213 recipients responded. They included bishops ministering in the Latin and Eastern rites. Respondents included bishops who head a diocese or archdiocese; auxiliary bishops; and retired bishops.

The survey, Fichter said, revealed demo-graphic changes among the bishops. Of the 126 Latin-rite bishops heading archdioceses or dioceses who responded, 97percent were born in the United States. Meanwhile, 76% of the 33 Latin-rite auxiliary bishops who responded were U.S. born. (Because of the foreign-based nature of their churches, Eastern-rite bishops are more likely to be born outside of the U.S. than those in the Latin Church).