Exploring Seminarians’ Motivation to Pursue Priesthood

Exploring Seminarians’ Motivation to Pursue Priesthood

*Maximus Manu, *Yosep Uskono

Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology 

*Corresponding Author 

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.806190

Received: 11 June 2024; Accepted: 22 June 2024; Published: 18 July 2024

ABSTRACT

This quantitative study is conducted to explore factors motivating seminarians to pursue priesthood. The exploratory factor analysis was used to determine reasons behind the seminarians’ decision to enter into seminary and follow the formation process to become priests in the Catholic Church. A total of 156 college seminarians responded the Motivation for Priesthood Questionnaire. The Age of the participants ranged from 16-43 years (mean = 20.5, SD = 4.3). The results show that there are five factors that motivate the seminarians to pursue priesthood: to follow the Lord and to serve His people, to please others’ expectations, to satisfy personal needs, to follow the life and good example of others and self-awareness. The seminarians realize that they are primarily called by God to follow Him by serving His people. Besides, they are also extrinsically motivated by others on their journey toward priesthood.

Keywords: Motivation, seminarian, priesthood

INTRODUCTION

In his letter to seminarians, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “You, dear friends, have decided to enter the seminary and to prepare for priestly ministry in the Catholic Church, in spite of such opinions and objections. You have done a good thing. Because people will always have need of God, even in an age marked by technical mastery of the world and globalization: they will always need the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, the God who gathers us together in the universal Church in order to learn with him and through him life’s true meaning and in order to uphold and apply the standards of true humanity … God is alive, and he needs people to serve him and bring him to others. It does make sense to become a priest: the world needs priests, pastors, today, tomorrow, and always, until the end of time” (Benedict XVI, 2010, p. 13). Pope Benedict wrote this letter in responding the question asked by the modern culture regarding the room for the priesthood in the modern world. Pope Benedict emphasized clearly and bravely that the priests are still and always needed. He even said that it is not the priesthood that is passing away, but the secular culture. The priest is the man of future.

Every year, young men enter the priestly and religious formation houses in the Roman Catholic Church to begin their preparation program to become priests.  Every year, the Catholic Church witnesses the priestly ordination. And every year, the Catholic Church sends and receives priests and missionaries to proclaim the word of God and to serve His people. However, every year, the Catholic Church also undergoes the decreasing number of seminarians who cannot persevere to follow their vocation journey in the seminary. Reasons for this decline vary and are often contradictory (Hankle, 2010). Some might decide freely to quit and leave because they feel unable to pursue priesthood vocation, while others might be asked by the congregation or diocese to withdraw due to some unexpected behaviors and actions. Study showed that the Roman Catholic Church in USA and Europe has been undergoing the decreasing numbers of vocations to the priesthood. For example, in 1965 there were 48,046 seminarians in the United States, but in 1970, there were only 28,819 seminarians. By 1995, the number of American seminarians was 5,083 (Stark & Finke, 2000).

To properly understand this phenomenon, it is important to understand the seminarians’ reasons behind their decision to enter into seminary and follow the formation process to become priests. Pable n.d), describes three signs by which a seminarian can judge whether he is being called to a religious vocation or not. The three signs are a desire for the religious life, the right motivation, and fitness for the religious life.  Therefore, motivation is an essential aspect to be considered in the formation process to the priesthood. In fact, it is one of the most important aspects to be assessed for seminary candidates (Coleman & Freed, 1999). The seminarians need to know and realize that they want to pursue priesthood for the right reasons or for the right motivations.

As ordinary people, seminarians might have divergent motivation for desiring to become priests. Sometimes, this motivation is not very clear at the time of admission into the formation program, but it will be clarified and solidified as one progresses on the initial program. It is common to find among the reasons given by seminarians, for some, they would like to pursue priesthood vocation because they are inspired by others such as parish priests, parents, relatives, teachers, or friends; while for others, they also embrace this vocation as a result of their own personal response to the call of God to the priestly life (Angmor, 2008).

This study is conducted to find out factors that motivate seminarians to become priests. The researcher realizes the importance of knowing the factors that motivate seminarians to pursue priesthood. By knowing their motivations, the seminary and its formator will help them to go maturely and integrally especially those who are still in doubt about the priesthood or those have less autonomous motivation if they really want to become priests.

Motivation is one of the most important factors that lead individuals to achieve their goals. Ryan and Deci (2000) define motivation as reasons for action. It concerns energy, direction, persistence and equifinality that drive individuals to arrive at their destination. Motivated individuals are energized and active in doing things in order to achieve their goal. According to Ryan and Deci, people can be motivated because they value an activity (internal) or because there is strong external coercion.

The term motivation is derived from the Latin verb movere, which means to move (Pintrich, 2003). Therefore, to be motivated means to be moved to do something (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). There is something to be achieved and motivation leads people to obtain that goal. According to self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), there are three types of motivation, i.e. amotivation, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation.

Amotivation. Amotivation is the state of lacking an intension to act. It results from not valuing an activity, not feeling competent to do it, or not believing it will yield a desired outcome. The motivated individuals do not perceive contingencies between outcomes and their own actions. They perceive their behaviors and actions as caused by forces out of their own control neither intrinsically nor extrinsically (Vallerand et al. 1992; Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to the fact of doing an activity for its inherent satisfactions. It is driven by an interest or enjoyment to task itself. There is pleasure and satisfaction derived from participation (Deci, 1975; Deci and Ryan, 1985; Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991; Vallerand, et al. 1992; Dev, 1997; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsically motivated people engage in activities that interest them, and they do so freely, with a full sense of volition and without the necessity of material rewards.

Intrinsic motivation exits within individuals (Ryan & Deci, 2000). It is in the relation between individuals and activities. Some people are intrinsically motivated for some activities and others do not, and not everyone is intrinsically motivated for a particular task. Therefore, intrinsic motivation is an essential part of the self.

Because intrinsic motivation exits in the relation between a person and a task, Ryan and Deci (2000) investigated what task characteristics make an activity interesting. Furthermore, they explored what basic needs are satisfied by intrinsically motivated behaviors as asserted by learning theory (Hull, 1943 as cited in Ryan & Deci, 2000) that all behaviors are motivated by psychological drives, intrinsically motivated activities were said to be ones that provided satisfaction of innate psychological needs, namely, the innate needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness.

Extrinsic Motivation. Extrinsic motivation refers to the fact of doing things for separable outcomes. It comes from outside of the individual (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Singh, 2011). The behaviors are performed not out of interest but because they are believed to be instrumental to some separable outcomes. Extrinsically motivated individual engages in activities not for their own sake (Deci, 1975; Ayub, 2010).

According to self-determination theory, there are four types of extrinsic motivation. First, external regulation. It is a behavior performed to satisfy an external demand or reward contingency (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991; Vallerand, et al. 1992; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Ayub, 2010). Externally regulated behaviors are performed to satisfy and external demand or obtain an external imposed reward contingency. External regulation is the only kind of motivation focused on by operant theories such as Skinner (1953) and it is type of extrinsic motivation that was typically contrasted with intrinsic motivation in early laboratory and field studies (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Second, introjected regulation. It a behavior performed to avoid guilt or anxiety or to attain ego enhancement such as pride (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In this state, the individual begins to internalize certain behavior because there is an ego involvement in a particular activity.  However, it is not truly self-determined because he or she is taking it in but not accepting a regulation as his or her own (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991).

Third, identified regulation. The person has identified with the personal importance of a behavior and has accepted its regulation as his or her own. Regulation through identification is more autonomous (self-determination) form of extrinsic motivation (Valerand, et al. 1992; Ryan & Deci, 2000). With this identification, the regulatory process has become more fully as part of the self. The individual performs certain activities more willingly (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991).

Fourth, integrated regulation. It occurs when identified regulations have been fully assimilated to the self. Integration occurs through self-examination and bringing new regulation into congruence with one’s other values and needs (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In this regulation, the regulatory process is fully integrated with the one’s coherent sense of self (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991). The more one internalizes the reason for actions and assimilates them to the self, the more one’s extrinsically motivated actions become self-determined (Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, integrated regulation and intrinsic motivation are still different. Integrated regulation behaviors are characterized by the activity’s being personally important for a valued outcome, whereas intrinsic motivation is characterized by the interest of the activity itself (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991).

There are very few studies on motivation in relation with the vocation to the priesthood or religious life. Rulla (as cited in Egenolf, 2003), conducted empirical studies on the psycho-social processes underlying decisions to embrace a priestly or religious vocation, persevere it, or to abandon it. He made empirical tests and conducted depth-psychological interviews with American religious and seminarians. He was able to show that the decision regarding entry, perseverance and leaving were significantly influenced by unconscious motives.

In 2008, Manullang and Guzman conducted an exploratory study on Filipino and Indonesian adolescent motivations for entering minor seminaries: cross-cultural and developmental perspectives. The results showed the top motivational goals of seminarians in the Philippines and Indonesia to enter the minor seminary were subjective goals (transcendence), a desire to experience different kinds of thoughts and feelings as a result of being close to God or serving other people; cognitive goals, different kind of mental representations that people may want to construct or maintain; and integrative social relationship goals, a desire to maintain or promote the well-being of other people.

Hankle (2009) conducted a study to explore the psychological process of discerning the vocation to the Catholic priesthood. Through this study, Hankle underlined the importance to understand exactly what a priest is, what is meant by vocation, what is discernment as a process of decision making, and how psychology is utilized for screening, nurturing, and counseling men interested in the vocation to the priesthood.

To date, there has been no study yet on factors motivating college seminarians to pursue priesthood. In fact, there is no measurement established for priesthood motivation. Sometimes, the assessment and evaluation of the seminarians are only based on the assumption and observation. Therefore, this study aims to explore factors that motivate college seminarians to enter into seminary and to follow formation process to become the future priests in the Catholic Church.

METHOD

Participants

A total of 156 college seminarians who study at Christ the Seminary, Manila, in the School Year 2014-2015 responded the Motivation for Priesthood Questionnaire, with the distribution: twenty-seven (17.31%) students of the First Year, twenty five (16.03%) students of the Second Year, Forty three (27.56%) students of the Third Year, thirty nine (25%) students of the Fourth Year and twenty two (14.10%) students of the Associates.

The respondents were from different religious orders and dioceses. There are seventeen religious orders seminarians (e.g. Society of the Divine Word, Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, Society of Infant Jesus, Society of Monfort Missionaries, Congregation of the Sons of Mary Immaculate, Society of African Missions, Missionaries of Jesus, Missionary Society of St. Columban, Opifices Christi, Missionary Society of St. Paul, Servie Marie Reginae Apostolorum, Holy Rosary Brothers of St. Dominic, Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor, Disciple of Hope, Order of Friars Minor Coventual, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and four dioceses (Diocese of Malolos, Antipolo, Cebu and Balanga). The total number of religious order’s seminarians were 152 (97.44%) and the total number of diocese’s seminarians were four (2.56%).

The participants’ ages range from 16-43 (mean = 20.5), SD = 4.3) with the birth position as follows: fifty-two (33.33%) are the first-born children, sixty-four (41.03%) are the middle-born children, thirty-four (21.80%) are the last-born children, five (3.20%) are the only-born children and one (0.64%) is not mentioned. They are coming from different family background. In terms of parents’ education, there are seventy-two (46.15%) fathers and fifty-one (32.69%) mothers having non-college degree; sixty-five (41.67%) fathers and eighty-four (53.85%) mothers having college degree; three (1.92%) fathers and two (1.28%) mothers having post-college degree; and sixteen (10.26%) fathers and nineteen (12.18%) mothers are not mentioned. Regarding the income, there are twenty one (13.46%) fathers and seven (4.49%) mothers working as government employees; thirty five fathers (22.43%) and forty six (29.49%) mothers working as private employees such as businessmen or businesswomen, seamen, Bank manager, engineer, and so on; seventy six (48.72%) fathers and eighty two (52.56%) mothers are self employed such as vendors, carpenter, driver, farmers, housekeeping  and so on; fifteen fathers (9.62%) and sixteen mothers (10.26%) are not mentioned; and nine fathers (5.77%) and five mothers (3.20%) are deceased.

Procedure

Following self-determination theory, the researcher constructed a questionnaire consists of 60 items. These 60 items were reviewed by three validators and there were 10 items rejected. After rejection of 10 items, the questionnaire finally had 50 items. Furthermore, in order to administer the questionnaire, the researcher secured permission from the rector of Christ the King Mission Seminary located at 101 E. Rodriguez Senor Avenue, Quezon City, Metro Manila, 1100. In assisting the researches, Father Rector asked an SVD Seminarian who is doing his regency year and College Registrar Officer to administer the questionnaire. Father Rector and the researches met the SVD seminarian and the College Registrar Officer to explain the purpose of the study and how to administer the questionnaire. Before answering the questionnaire, the seminarians were informed about the purpose of the study. In order to get their honest and sincere responses, the seminarians were asked not to write their name but only their age, their year levels, father and mother’s education, father and mother’s occupations, siblings family, their birth position and the congregation or diocese they joined. They also were made aware of the benefits of this study.

Measure

As mentioned above, guided by self-determination theory, the researcher developed a questionnaire to identify factors motivating seminarians to pursue priesthood. The seminarians were asked to rate the 50-item on the extent to which they agreed with each statement using a 6-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).

Data Analysis

To determine factors motivating the seminarians to pursue priesthood, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is conducted. The data is analyzed using the statistical.  The mean, median, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and skewness and kurtosis were first computed. The items with very high skewness and kurtosis were removed. The value of factor loading is ˃ .40 and eigenvalue value is ˃ 1.00. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each factor is calculated to determine the internal consistency.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Result

Before conducting statistical analysis, the data were thoroughly screened to ensure the accuracy of the data. There were two items with very high skewness and kurtosis removed. The remaining data (48 items) were computed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA produced five factors with cumulative eigenvalue is 48.9%. The factors are named by the researches in the following way: Factor 1,  Following the Lord to serve His people consists of 10 items. Factor 2, Pleasing others’ expectations consists of 6 items. Factor 3, Satisfying personal needs consists of 6 items. Factor 4, Following the life and good examples of others consists of 9 items. Factor 5, Self-awareness consists of 6 items. Descriptive statistics for each factor including the Crobanch’s alpha are provided in table 1.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of all the Factor

As it has been hypothesized, there are factors motivating seminarians to pursue priesthood. The results of the EFA show that at least five factors that lead the seminarians to become priests. Details about the factors and its items are presented in table 2.

Table 2: Motivation for Priesthood and Factor Loading

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study is to determine factors motivating seminarians to pursue priesthood. Those factors are about human and divine motivations. Every human’s act has a motive; and even more than one motives (Lecher, 2013). The results of the EFA show that there are five factors that motivate our seminarians to pursue priesthood. These factors can be found both intrinsically and extrinsically.

First factor is to follow the Lord to serve His people. The seminarians feel intrinsically moved by God to become priests. They enter into seminaries and follow the formation process because they feel that they are called by God. This call is an inner reality. It is difficult to quantify but it is real (Iorg, 2008). In the other words, the seminarians are aware that it is God’s will for them. And God calls them for a purpose such as serving the people especially the poor and marginalized, making people more human, doing social work and establishing justice in society, working for salvation, and so on. However, in order to bring God to others, first and foremost they have to be united with the Him. They only share with others what they have in them.

The Gospel tells us very clearly that before going back to His Father, Jesus sent his disciple to the world. “Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age” said the Lord (Mt. 28:19-20). Jesus called his disciples and sent them to continue doing His mission. He is the one calling some people to go the world and serve His people. He said, “You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures” (John 15:16).

Second factor is to please other’s expectation. It means that they want to become priests because they would like to please others’ desire such as parents or follow their spiritual director’s advise. They maybe also want to follow their friends or because of priest’s social status. Others might think that they want to become a priest because they want to be served by many people.

When God calls people to follow him, He does not just jump out of the sky and tap on one’s shoulder. He may call people through the prompting of others. He sometimes speaks through the church to reveal his will (Iorg, 2008). Therefore, it is important to be considered in the vocation journey regarding the input of the spiritual leader or director, family, formators, friends, or other people through whom God’s call comes to us. In fact, in one way or another, the seminarians need other people such family members, relatives and friends to encourage and support them (Pettit & Mangum, 2013).

Third factor is to satisfy personal needs. There are a lot of needs to be fulfilled as one grows physically and psychologically. The personal needs to be satisfied as showed in the results are, for example, to live a peaceful life, having a lot of friends, accepted in the society, getting the support from other people and being nurtured by people. Ryan and Deci (2000) has identified three psychological needs, namely, the needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy, that appear to essential for facilitating optimal functioning on the natural prosperities for growth and integration, as well as for constructive social development and personal well-being.

Fourth factor is to follow the life and good example of others such as family, friends or priests they know. They are moved by other’s actions and behaviors; for example, simplicity and holiness of their family, imitating their parish priest or the priests they admire, going to other countries or celebrating the mass as they see the priests do. They realize that the priesthood is a privileged vocation and it has a social charm.

Again, other people have also played an important role in vocation journey of the seminarians. If the seminarians are open to other’s prompting, the family members, friends and relatives can be used by God to help keep them grounded in their vocation (Pettit & Mangum, 2013). God will bring into the life of seminarians other people who will help them to accomplish their training in the seminary.  However, they should always realize that they respond God’s call not out of fear or guilt but freely and responsibly.

Fifth factor is self-awareness. This is relating to the desire to view themselves as useful, competent or virtuous (Manullang & Guzman, 2008) for the call to become priests (e.g. I want to know myself better, it has been my only desire from childhood, I feel that marriage is not a call for me, I am inspired by the life and good example of priests I know, I am destined for it and I do not view myself having a family).

In dealing with this factor, the seminarians have to be aware that every life vocation is worthy before God. They should not negatively view the life of other vocations. In other words, each life vocation is God’s call and therefore it is worthy as well as vocation to the priesthood. In fact, each vocation is a commitment to love in a certain way. The object of every vocation is God. It is important not to compare the value of different vocations but to appreciate the value of each one and to discover which one is right for you.

As the above results show, there are many reasons given for pursuing priesthood. The decision to become a priest is influenced by numerous factors internally and externally. The interplay between intrinsic factors and extrinsic motives determine the seminarians’ behaviors and actions.

As described in self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation refers to the enactment of an activity for it inherent satisfaction and enjoyment (Ryan & Deci, 2000, Neyrinck, Lens, Vansteenksite & Soenens, 2010). In human beings, intrinsic motivation is not the only form of motivation but is pervasive and important (Ryan & Deci, 2000). It means that in order to be successful in the life’s journey or to achieve life goals, one has to be intrinsically motivated. They have to enjoy doing the activity or tasks trusted to them.

This can be applied to the vocation journey of the seminarians to become priests. They have to realize that vocation to the priesthood is a call from God, and anyone who has felt God’s call knows how the process is. This is an inner call. God actually gives quite different vocations to different people. He does not call all by the same road (Rumble, 1944). The seminarians have the inner call which is God’s call and they are to respond to that call freely. According to Rulla, this call is an unmerited gift. Human can accept the call only because of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit with them. Rulla then defines vocation as a call to be a witness to a love that is self-transcendent and centered on God, in other words to take as the focus of his or her life the transcendent virtues which were revealed and lived by Christ. The essence of Christian vocation is to be transformed in Christ, so that one internalizes his virtues to the point of being able to say, ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Egenolf, 2003).

Another type of motivation in self-determination theory is extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is different from intrinsic motivation. It refers to doing an activity to attain an outcome that is separate from the activity itself (Ryan & Deci, 2000, Neyrinck, Lens, Vansteenkiste & Soenens, 2010).

Regarding the motivation to the priesthood, God’s call does not come through mysterious visions. As in so many areas of life and faith, God works through secondary causes. His call is awakened us by the life and example of other priests, by our parents or by many other needs. The important thing to do is to distinguish these original sparks from our real calling. God works in mysterious ways. It means that the vocation to the priesthood is not an individual’s choice to make alone, but is mediated through the Church (Hankle, 2010).

The seminarians are not journeying alone. People who know them such as family, friends, relatives, members of the parish communities, help them to judge the validity of their call. If there is potential priest in them, people will give the affirmation and support them. As they follow the process of formation, they may start with amotivation or external motivation and move onto internal motivation.

This is the reality. There are motivations that are not to be intrinsically interesting for seminarians. However, there are ways to encourage them to value and self-regulate such motivations and without external pressure, to carry them out on their own or to become more self-determining. This is described in self-determination theory in terms of fostering the internalization and integration of values (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Ryan and Deci define internalization as the process of taking in a value or regulation, and integration as the process by which individual more fully transform the regulation into their own so that it will emanate from their sense of self (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Considering the external motivations of seminarians, the seminary and its formators should assist the seminarians in the formation process to discern about their vocation and to internalize and integrate such motivations if they really feel called to become priests. Each and every seminarian should be helped through the formation program to grow and develop maturely and become an integrated person including their motivations.

CONCLUSION

Priesthood is not given in the first place for a man who is perfect, but in order for him to serve Christ as his representative; he needs to work on holiness in the process of growing in his vocation journey by binding himself more closely to God. Seminarians are called by God to process their lives’ journey according to His will in order to serve him, to proclaim His word and to save souls in this world. In following the process of formation, they will be helped by the seminary and its formators to identify their motivations. If they have external motivations, they will be assisted to internalize them so that they can become more mature in responding God’s call.

The results of this study measured by EFA showed that there are factors that motivate seminarians to pursue priesthood. Some of the factors are coming from within themselves (internal) and some factors are coming from their environment (external). First and foremost, one has to be aware that there is a call coming from God and he is to respond that call freely and joyfully. Some seminarians may be very sure that they want to become priests because they want to follow Jesus, to be united with God and to serve His people and work for salvation. Others might be still in doubt about the priesthood. They are not so clear yet about their motivation. They are still confused to distinguish between family and relative expectations and God’s call.  As one progresses this kind of confusions can be clarified so that at the end they have a strong motivation to follow Jesus, to proclaim His word and to serve His people.

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