Indian catholic priests identity relational autonomy and attachment to god a narrative analysis

Abstract

A thematic narrative analysis was carried to explore the 28 South Indian Roman Catholic religious priests identity, relational autonomy and attachment to God. Fourteen participants were selected from the structured priestly ministry settings newlinenamely education ministry and, another 14 participants from the semi-structured newlinepriestly ministry settings namely parish and priestly formation ministry settings. The newlinequalitative data collected through the interviews were analyzed through the narrative thematic analysis method. The thematic narrative analysis found five major themes, influence on the priestly identity, value-oriented life, purpose in life, priestly celibacy and challenges in the priestly ministry and 46 subthemes for the participants priestly identity narratives. For relational autonomy, the study found five major themes, impactful childhood, the influence of priestly formation, nterpersonal relationships, relationship with the person in authority and decision making and 42 subthemes. For attachment God, it found six major themes, God as an attachment figure, seeking and maintaining proximity to God, God as a haven of safety, God as a secure base, newlineperceiving God as stronger and wiser, and individual differences in attachment to newlineGod, and 24 sub-themes. The study results revealed strong support for the newlinecorrespondence pathway, as the majority of the participants had narratives of newlinecorrespondence between the attachment to their parents and their attachment to God. newlineIt also found evidence for the theme of compensation in three participants narratives. The qualitative comparison between the groups found that for 19 sub-themes for priestly identity, 20 sub-themes for relational autonomy and 13 sub-themes for newlineattachment to God, the priests from the structured ministry settings differed from the priests from the semi-structured ministry settings.