Abstract
Personal experience on the increasing cases of burnout among Catholic Priests has necessitated the present study to investigate whether Community Life, Apostolate, Profession and Organization could be predictors of burnout among Catholic Priests in the Eclesiastical Province of Abuja. In pursuance of the aforementioned objective, five research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The design adopted was a correlational survey. Subjects for the study consisted of 526 priests drawn from 598 Priests in ecclesiastical province of Abuja, made up of Abuja, Gboko, Idah, Katsina-ala, Lafia,Lokojo, Makurdi and Otukpo dioceses. The instrument used for collecting data was a questionnaire named “priest burnout questionnaire (PBQ)”. The instrument was validated by three experts in the field of guidance and counseling, Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the coefficient of internal consistency. The overall alpha coefficient was 0.95. The research questions and hypotheses were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, linear regression and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed among others that: Catholic Priests experience varying degrees of burnout. Priests experience emotional exhaustion seldomly, personal accomplishment often and depersonalization seldomly. Community life significantly predicted burnout among Catholic priests. Apostolate significantly predicted burnout among catholic priests. Profession was a significant predictor of burnout among priests. -Organization was a significant predictor of burnout among priests. Years of experience however is not significant in predicting burnout among catholic priests. Based on the findings, some implications were drawn. One of such is that the knowledge of how community life, apostolate, organization and profession could lead to burnout will help the Psychologist and Guidance Counsellor to identify the signs and symptoms of burnout among the priests. Recommendations were made which included that: the seminaries and religious communities should add to their curriculum, a treatise on stress and burnout management programme. This will go a long way to help the would-be-Priests to be aware of the existence of such syndrome and be on alert.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Priesthood is one of the helping professions of the world. The Priesthood is simultaneously four things: it is a sacrament of the new law instituted by Christ, it is a state of life to which some men are called by a special vocation from God, it is an institution without which there would be no Christianity on earth today. And it is a ministry of the Catholic Church by which Christ continues his own Priestly work of saving and sanctifying the souls for whom he shed his blood on Calvary. A Priest according to Geddes & Grosset (2007) is a person authorized to perform sacred rites; an Anglican, Eastern orthodox or Roman Catholic clergyman ranking below a Bishop. Catholic priests belong to different congregations or organizations in Nigeria, such congregations include the Vincentians, the Holy Ghost, the Claretians (Religious) and the Diocesan congregations. It is generally acknowledged that the priesthood as a vocation is inherently stressful given the intensive people helping component of the work (Arumugam, 2003). There is little doubt that priesthood stress and burnout can be detrimental to the mental health and wellbeing of the Priests and other related social systems.
Burnout is a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when one feels overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demand. Burnout according to Sarros & Densten (2011) is a maladaptive coping mechanism to working conditions that are stressful, demanding, or lacking sufficient challenge and recognition. Maslach and Leiter (2008) defined burnout as an emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do ‘people work’ of some kind. For Pines & Aronson (1988), burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long term involvement in emotionally demanding situation. It is not just physical and external, but internal and emotionally exhausting. Pines and Aronson went further to describe it as ‘having a tired soul’. Burnout is a gradual process that occurs over an extended period of time. It does not happen overnight, but gradually happens if one is not paying attention to the warning signals. The signs and symptoms of burnout are subtle at first, but get worse as time goes on.
The physical signs and symptoms of burnout include; feeling tired and drained most of the time, lowered immunity, feeling sick a lot, frequent headaches, back pain, muscle aches and change in appetite or sleep habits. Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout includes; sense of failure and self-doubt, feeling helpless, trapped and defeated, detachment, feeling alone in the world, loss of motivation, increasing cynical and negative outlook, decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Behavioural signs and symptoms of burnout includes, withdrawing from responsibilities, isolating oneself from others, taking longer to get things done, using food, drug, or alcohol to cope, taking out frustrations on others, skipping work or coming in late and leaving early (Frendenberger, 2011). For the purpose of this study priestly burnout could be said to be a condition characterized by a depletion of energy at the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels. Priests in Abuja ecclesiastical province have enormous work at hand which includes:- family visitations, sick calls, marriage counselling, youth guidance, celebration of many Masses on Sundays, lengthy confessions and preaching the word of God, among others.
The priests in Abuja ecclesiastical province have enormous work at hand as apostolate. The population of the faithful is too large and a few Priests lead them in various Dioceses (www.catholic.hirarchy.org.2013). In fact, Hart in Arumugam (2003) noted that priests lack boundaries in their apostolic work. According to Hart, no priest can visit enough, pray enough, study enough, prepare sermon enough or be involved enough in social issues. No priest ever has a weekend off. He is always on call. Thus, it is always easy or normal for priest in Abuja ecclesiastical province to feel that his work is never finished and that he can always cope with the demands on his time, let alone catch up on backlog. It is hard for him to feel a sense of closure or completeness. The majority of the studies such as Arumugam (2003), Francis & Ruthledge (2004) in the field of clergy stress and burnout document the high cost to clergy, families and congregational systems. This means that when a priest is experiencing burnout, it affects the Priest, the family and the congregation. This high level burnout has been attributed to the Priest’s community life, his apostolate and organization of his profession.
Community life may be defined as the interpersonal relationship experienced among individuals that are living together for a common goal (Eggenberger, 1981). It also refers to a system in which most properties are publicly owned and each person works for the common benefit. This could be either in the religious or secular life. Community life in the Roman Catholic Church according to Style (2010) refers to a common life embraced by a group of men or women that generally accept a rule of life that emphasizes humility and the renunciation of worldly goods and pleasures. In the context of this work therefore, community is a body of people having common organization or interest and living in the same place and under the same laws.
Just as there are different congregations in the Catholic Church, so are communities, where priests live together as one family. The Holy Ghost, the Claretians, the Vincentians, the Diocesans Priests have their communities scattered all over the province. Generally, the Christian concern for community life is two- fold: involvement in the historical-socio-cultural condition of man which is always communal, and the affirmation of the essential of incarnation through community as an incorporation of individuals into Christ (Eggenberger, 1981). For the purpose of this work, community life can be defined as a situation where by a group of people live together for a common goal and under the same law.
Some of the qualities of community life include the following; tolerance, solidarity, respect, love, sharing, forgiveness, prayer and conflict. Conflict was included in the list of what makes the basic qualities of community life because it is inevitable. Conflict is not meant to show that a community has degenerated; instead it shows that the members of that community are alive and are participating in the affairs of the community (De Mello 1997). Conflicts at any level if not resolved amicably through appropriate communication, dialogue and understanding can be a stressor to the members of the community which might lead to burnout. A good understanding of apostolate will however help to foster a proper integration of members in the life of the community, where everyone sees his role as essential in the realization of the common goal.
Apostolate generally means the work, the ministry that a religious person and his or her community do. It is stated that every activity of the mystical body which is intended to spread the kingdom of God is to be called by the name of “apostolate” (Flannery, 2001). The word Apostolate is used to refer to the condition and office of the messenger than to his action (Klostermann, 1967). Thus apostolate simply means work and in this study is the work done by the Priests even those within the geographic focus of this work. For the purpose of this work, apostolate can be defined as the work which the Priest or a religious person does for the propagation of faith. The Priests here, in their apostolic work of sanctifying the world are vulnerable to burnout. The apostolate of each congregation rests on the vision of its founder.
The major apostolate of the congregation of the mission or Vincentian priests center on reaching out to the poor, formation of priests, educating the youth and preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Thus the congregation of the mission has as her motto “pauperibus misit me” (I am sent to preach the good news to the poor) (Muller, 1984). The Vincentian priests founded in 1625 by St. Vincent de Paul go to the interior and very backward communities to share with them the gospel of Christ in order to live out the spirit of the founder. St. Anthony Claret who founded the Claretian priests 1849; primarily prepare them for the youth ministry and propagation and devotion to the immaculate heart of Mary. Claretian priests understanding this challenge of their founder, dispose themselves to go to any part of the world where they are needed. They are therefore called servant of the world. In other to reach the youths, they involve themselves in school apostolate, pastoral work and youth ministry. Rev Frs. Francis Liebermann and Poullart des Places, founded the Holy Ghost congregation of priests in 1703. They have as the chief apostolate, the pastoral ministry or pastoral care. In other to live out this vision of their founder, the Holy Ghost priests prepare themselves to carry out their pastoral ministry to even the most difficult places. To care for the faithful holistically, they involve themselves even in school missions and hospitals (Okpaleke 2002). Such commitment of priests could lead to stress. When high aspirations are not matched by high achievement, stress is inevitable and this is the type that breads burnout (Boyd 1982). Often the priest takes full responsibility for failure in any of the many areas that his job involves and this may be caused by improper organization of his apostolate which in turn is a fertile ground for burnout in his ministry.
Organization is seen in terms of arrangement, configuration, design, format, composition, constitutions, make-up, pattern, and structure. Catholic priesthood has a kind of organization, which is called religious congregation. Each congregation has its own organizational structure. The organizational structure of the Vincentian priests includes the Superior General and his Council, the Provincial Superior and his Council, then the Local Superior. The Holy Ghost priests have their organizational structure as follows: the Superior General and Council, the Provincial superior and Council, the Local Superior. The Claretian priests have their structure as follows; the Superior General and his Council, the Provincial Superior and his Council and the Local Superior. The Diocesan organizational structure includes: the Bishop, his vicar and the consultors. As can be seen from these structures some have short organogram, for easy flow of communication while some others have longer organogram. Such longer organograms make communication flow somehow difficult for priest in distress. For example, a priest in the diocese who has a conflict with a colleague in the community may find it difficult to get the conflict resolved earlier because the major Superior who is the Bishop of the diocese may be hard to reach easily. The long process involved in resolving the conflict is such that the Bishop has to reach his consultors first before taking decision on resolving the issues, whereas those with short organogram such as the religious, the local Superior is always at hand to listen and dialogue with the confreres in distress; identify the problem and resolve the issue amicably without reaching the major Superior. This therefore entails that if a priest in distress is given immediate attention, he will be freed from his worries which might lead to burnout.
