The study unearths the psychological effects on priests undertaking both religious and priestly duties. It examines how devotion to Godly duties could be associated with the psychological welfare amongst both active and non-active priests from the Roman Catholic Church. The priests psychological integrity is determined by administering a survey questionnaire to a selected sample of priests determined by factors including self-autonomy, positive relationships with others, personal growth and development, self-acceptance, and their inherent purpose in religious life. The study reports that majority of non-active priests reported to have undergone severe psychological stress before and after they quit priesthood (Kirkpatrick 2005). Equally important, the study investigates how multiple roles in priesthood and religious life affect priests psychological welfare and development. Finally, the study shows how multiple roles in priesthood and religious life affect the psychological healthy of priests and the correlation between their attachment to God to their overall psychological wellbeing.

The 21st Century Church is in crisis. Throughout various Christian denominations humanity is lost on its definition about the Messiah and how they personally relate to him at individual level. Compared to other complement religious faiths, Christianity can be said to have lost its actual interpretation about the suffering, death and resurrection of the Son of Man. Christians are also responsible for wondering away from the true faith given the rebellious nature of man and love for the creation rather than the Creator Himself. As a result, many people have found "comfort" in things that do not satisfy and largely deviate from the teaching of our Lord about seeking his Kingdom first and the rest to follow. In Christology, change is almost the source of uncertainty and a measure of fear and anxiety. For many, this fear is difficult to manage, and it causes various reactions. Some negative reactions to accept Christ include denial, ignorance, isolation, anger, resistance and resentment. These reactions can cause serious effects on the environment in which the change is taking place. The results can be oppression, suppression, violence, and lack of self-control. A personal brief Christological study will reveal such reactions when humanity lacks a clear definition and relation with Christ. The drastic transition taking place in social structures and the shifting of the long held beliefs is destroying the defining lines between Christ and Humanity. The impact of these confusing ideas has been always negative where humanity no longer upholds to the teachings of the church. Many people suffer violence and murder, children have become victims of resentment and Christianity bears the scars of deterioration. This book addresses answers to these critical occurrences from the perspective of modern Christology. The purpose, the relationship and role of human experience is explored, presented and supported by biblical concepts in line with the original concept of creation and why Christ had to be presented as the Son of Man; in human flesh.

Searching for answers in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis in the church, many blamed the clerical culture. But what exactly is this clerical culture? We may know it when we see it, but how can we 'whether clergy or laypeople 'go about dismantling it and putting in place a new, healthy culture? George Wilson has spent decades working with organizations to help them discover, and often recover, their foundational calling. He is also a Jesuit priest engaged in the lives of congregations. In Clericalism: The Death of Priesthood he brings together both capacities and gives his sense of the challenges facing the church. As members of the church, Wilson maintains, we are all responsible for creating a clerical culture. And we are also responsible for that culture's transformation. Clericalism aids this transformation by helping us examine some underlying attitudes that create and preserve destructive relationships between ordained and laity. After looking at the crisis and establishing where we are now, this book challenges us with concrete suggestions for changing behaviors. We are lay and ordained, but all baptized into the royal priesthood of 1 Peter 2:9, all called to spread the Gospel and do the work of God's love in the world. Ultimately, this is a hopeful book, looking for the restoration of a genuine priesthood, free of clericalism, in which we become truly united in Christ..

Pope John Paul II once said that the priest is above all, a man of the Eucharist. In the spirit of this statement, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti weaves together reflections on the Eucharist from over twenty notable contributors, including Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop Donald Wuerl, and the late Cardinal Avery Dulles. Moving personal narratives combine with timely and accessible spiritual reflections to make this book a must-read meditation on the importance of the Eucharist in the life of the priest, and that of the Church.

Mental Health and Wellbeing is a timely new book that explores these increasingly important subjects from an intercultural perspective. This is essential reading for anyone studying or working in mental health at this time of unprecedented levels of human migration and when mutual understanding of diverse cultural perspectives is of vital importance.

This book gathers the foundational concepts which characterise the approach to the person, as human and as Christian, which has been developed at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University during its more than 35 years of activity. The book directs these concepts towards further paths for investigation and puts them in dialogue with sister schools of depth psychology and with other areas of scholarship (in particular philosophy and theology) which are equally interested in exploring the human mystery. Hence the variety of authors - psychologists, philosophers and theologians - brought together by a common interest in understanding and forming the human person in better ways. The reflections contained in this book gain concrete expression in an educative-therapeutic practice, and they review the nodal points which are part of every journey of growth and of psychotherapy: personal identity, interaction with the external world and the attainment of personal truth, inner imagination, desires and affections, conflicts. Instruments are offered to enable the formator and the psychotherapist to make the best possible use of the great energies which are made available by their application: how to identify the real problem, where to concentrate one's attention, what to listen to, how to handle the relationship, on what element to act in order to promote improvement/cure, what kind of change to propose. While accompaniment and psychotherapy are different procedures, they nevertheless have many similarities and points of contact. The dynamic relations and the factors involved in growth which this book describes are valid for both modalities of intervention and will be of interest to anyone who wishes to help others in a more enlightened educative dialogue.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Laws mandating cooperation with the state’s new sexual orthodoxy are among the leading contemporary threats to the religious freedom of Catholic institutions in the United States. These demand that Catholic schools, health-care providers, or social services cooperate with contraception, cohabitation, abortion, same-sex marriage, or transgender identity and surgeries. But Catholic institutions’ responses seem thin and uninspiring to many. They are criticized as legalistic, authoritarian, bureaucratic, retrograde and hurtful to women and to persons who identify as LGBTQ. They are even called “un-Christian.” They invite disrespect both for Catholic sexual responsibility norms and for religious freedom generally, not only among lawmakers and judges, but also in the court of public opinion, which includes skeptical Catholics. The U.S. Constitution protects Catholic institutions’ “autonomy” – their authority over faith and doctrine, internal operations, and the personnel involved in personifying and transmitting the faith. Other constitutional and statutory provisions also safeguard religious freedom, if not always perfectly. Catholic institutions could take far better advantage of all of these existing protections if they communicated, first, how they differ from secular institutions: how their missions emerge from their faith in Jesus Christ, and their efforts both to make his presence felt in the world today, and to display the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. Second, they need to draw out the link between their teachings on sexual responsibility and love of God and neighbor. Drawing upon Scripture, tradition, history, theology and empirical evidence, Helen Alvaré frames a more complete, inspiring and appealing response to current laws’ attempts to impose a new sexual orthodoxy upon Catholic institutions. It clarifies the “ecclesial” nature of Catholic schools, hospitals and social services. It summarizes the empirical evidence supporting the link between personnel decisions and mission, and between Catholic sexual responsibility norms and human flourishing. It grounds Catholic sexual responsibility teachings in the same love of God and neighbor that animate the existence, operations, and services of Catholic institutions.