Career Commitment among Continuing and Exiting Seminary Students

Abstract

To study the relationship between commitment and staying in 0 r leaving the seminary, the author administered a questionnaire to a reconstituted student body of 93 dropouts and 124 stay-ins from Lakeside (a pseudonym) Catholic diocesan seminary. The questionnaire included measures of two kinds of commitment, intrinsic and extrinsic. Stay-ins were generally more committed than dropouts but dropouts tended to be more extrinsicall~, committed than stay-ins. Particularly, dropouts seemed to enter training for the priesthood earlier than did stay-ins, and mothers of dropouts seemed to have encouraged the vocation more than mothers of stay-ins. Demographic variables and community influence could not account foj differences in commitment. The findings were interpreted as underscoring the importance of attribution of freedom of choice to one5 self for continuance in a career leading to the statu.~ of priest.The priesthood has long been considered the embodiment of dedication and commitment. Popular opinion considers practitioners literally to have a "calling." Once seminarians take Holy Orders, they are obliged to practice celibacy and saya daily prayer (Breviary) for the rest of their lives. In the major seminary seminarians have the last opportunity to opt out of the priestly career without obligation. The seminary should, therefore, serve asa crucible for the study ofcommitment.Some students continue, others drop out. In what ways do these students differ? Specifically, what attitudinal and behavioral differences are shown in a comparison between stay-ins and dropouts from a Catholic maior diocesan seminary? Reviewing studies of student dropout from college, Boocock (1972) concluded that dropout occurs largely because the goal of the individual does not mesh with the goal of the educational program. Likewise, Thomas (1968) suggests that dropping out from seminary may be a function of"role personality malfit." The dropout may come to see his personality as so different from the role of the priest as he perceives it that staying in seminary is contraindicated.The notion of commitment thus acknowledges that the process of socialization is bilateralothe student is an active agent nota passive pawn. By the act of entering seminary, he opens himself to socialization influence; by the act of exiting, he closes off such influence. By virtue of the choice to continue or to exit, the student in effect conditions the official attempt of the seminary at professional socialization. The Background of CommitmentCommitment has been conceived in the scientific literature in a way that needs simplification and in popular parlance in a way that needs specification. Some