UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider
This is the result of a study published in the latest issue of “Pastoral Psychology”
FABRIZIO MASTROFINI
ROME
The psychological profile Catholic priests in the U.S. comes under the category of “introverted”. They are more interested in the ministry in the strict sense and less involved in the social dimension of the apostolate. They are also less focused on the mission. This is according to the latest study published by a British team, led by Leslie Francis, an Anglican professor at the University of Warwick. The study appears in the current issue of “Pastoral Psychology,” an authoritative magazine on international studies published in the United States. Prof. Francis is a prominent figure in the field of psychology of religion and he has developed a special version of the test that is based on the theory of “Psychological Types” of Carl Gustav Jung and the statistical questionnaire developed by Myers and Briggs in the Sixties.
The inquiry carried out by Francis and his team is based on a fairly small sample- partly because of the complexity of the test to be administered – and it is compared with other similar surveys carried out in the Eighties and Nineties. What is new about this study, is that it looks into the inner center of gravity of the new generation of Catholic priests in the United States.
The first trait that characterises them, is “introversion.” The second is “sensing”, that is, the way in which information is gathered to make judgments. “Sensing” happens via the five senses, as opposed to ‘intuition’ for those who make exclusive use of intuition. “Sensing,” Francis notes, “meant to have priests that relate exclusively to the inherited tradition and do not care to adapt it to the needs of new generations”. Priests are accustomed to preserving rather than promoting changes in their pastoral activities. “They place an emphasis on preserving the existing rather than on the missionary dimension”. And this happens despite Pope Francis’ insistence on the missionary dimension of pastoral activity, on going outside the confines of the parish and welcoming anyone who knocks at the Church’s doors.
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