Diocesan priests experienced significantly more burnout than religious priests. It was the findings of Antony Raj and Karol E. Dean, two researchers in the field of pastoral psychology. They conducted a study among 50 diocesan priests and 51 religious priests randomly selected from two dioceses in South India. Similarly, in 2010 another study by Hans De Witte, Eugene Joseph, Patrick Luyten, Jozef Corveleyn among 511 diocesan priests in South India confirmed the significant presence of burnout among the participants.
Emotional and physical exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, sense of incompetence, lowered performance and productivity, feeling useless, wandering mind, cynicism or negative attitudes toward oneself and others, sleep problems etc. are some of the signs of burnout.
The above-mentioned studies highlight some of the reasons for the burnout among the participants. It was positively correlated with their ministerial engagement. Diocesan priests generally engaged in the pastoral, liturgical, spiritual and administrative needs of a specific parish, while a religious priest’s work usually depends on the charism of the religious order; such as teaching, working with the poor, preaching, assisting the elderly, etc. Religious might get more possibilities than secular priests to plan for their ministry, since there is less probability for many a surprise. This study also found that the emotional exhaustion experienced by priests who had been in the priesthood for 10 years or less were more intense than those experienced by their older counterparts. Maybe, due to the years of experience priests develop internal strategies for coping with challenges, surprises and stressful situations.
Loneliness was another pivotal reason pointing towards the burnout experiences of diocesan priests. Unlike religious priests who live in religious communities, diocesan priests live autonomous lives. Lack of support and encouragement from the fellow priests and bishop add reasons to the loneliness as well as emotional burnout.
It is impossible to take away the natural challenges related to the role of a diocesan priests. Whereas, it is important to train seminarians to equip themselves for the challenges. Seminary has an artificial set-up. An effective pastoral formation with enough experiences in the parish set-up and sufficient exposure to the challenges in a parish can create a candidate further prepared for addressing the real pastoral challenges. Meaningful friendships among fellow priests and deeper bonding between the bishop and the priests can better address the loneliness among diocesan priests.