PASTORAL DEMANDS AND BURNOUT AMONG CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF LUANDA – ANGOLA

Abstract

Burnout among Catholic priests has been recognized as a psychological concern and associated with an increase of challenges on pastoral demands through their workload ministries in many parts of the world. The purpose of the study was to explore pastoral demands and burnout among Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Luanda. Furthermore, the study was guided by the specifics objectives that are: to assess the level of burnout among Catholic priests of the Archdiocese of Luanda; to establish the challenges of burnout among Catholic priests of the Archdiocese of Luanda; to assess pastoral demands among Catholic priests of the Archdiocese of Luanda and to identify different coping strategies to burnout among Catholic priests of the Archdiocese of Luanda. The sample size used in the study was 123 participants. This study used two theories, namely: Job demand resources theory, and the Self-determination. The study used mix convergence design based on Census for quantitative method, using analyzes, inferential statistics and descriptive statistic in frequencies and percentages. For the qualitative design the study used phenomenological method using themes and contents with subsequent analyzes. The target population was Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Luanda with age from 25 years old to 66 years old and above. The study used the standardized questionnaire of Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) based on two Scales namely of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM) and Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIM). Scale properties have been reported elsewhere in a study of over 6000 clergy drawn from a range of denominations in Australia, New Zealand, and England in which both scales showed high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha for both scales = 0.84). The results of the study revealed that there is a moderate positive correlation between emotional exhaustion and pastoral demands and challenges among Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Luanda (0.316) with 60.68% of the population of Catholic priests suffering from burnout. The data was considered statistically significant following the significant value of p (0.001) < α (0.01) meaning that the correlation is highly significant. Most participants admitted facing most of the indicators of exhaustion either often or very often and they were facing challenges leading to their dissatisfaction, physical drain and lack of motivation. The study recommended that; the Archdiocese of Luanda should consider setting up functioning counselling centers where priests and other pastors of different religions can feel free to go and talk of searching counselling services from psychologists and counsellors in reference to various challenges that they are facing and open up about their level of exhaustion and burnout. The implications of this study are to bring more awareness and break the stigmatization among Catholic priests in what concern exhaustion and dissatisfaction that lead to burnout in their pastoral demands in the Archdiocese of Luanda- Angola.