Priest as Teacher II: Understanding Priests’ Communicative Misbehaviors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify what Catholic parishioners perceive to be Priests’ communicative misbehaviors. Building from Kearney, Plax, Hays, & Ivey (1991) original work on teacher misbehaviors, Priests’ communicative misbehaviors are considered those messages that detract from Mass/worship. Parishioners were able to identify perceived Priests’ misbehaviors and their own reactions. Misbehaviors primarily related to interaction, Priests’ messages, and perceived procedural violations. Informing findings, parishioners reported both their emotional and behavioral reactions. Results can be used to help train religious leaders, as a metric for the assessment of religious leaders’ performance, and as a tool to evaluate existing training programs. Findings inform communication research by utilizing both an under-researched sample and site, as well as offering a rich description of perceived misbehaviors.

Keywords:

• Behavioral Responses
• Church
• Emotional Responses
• Misbehaviors
• Priests

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sean M. Horan

Sean M. Horan (Ph.D., West Virginia University, 2009) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University. Rev.

Peter C. J. Raposo

Peter C. J. Raposo (M.A., Sikkim Manipal University and M.A., DePaul University) is a Catholic Priest and doctoral student at Ohio University.

Shannon T. Carton

Shannon T. Carton (M.A., DePaul University, 2012) is a Doctoral Student in Communication Studies at West Virginia University. The authors wish to thank Helen Tulen and Mary Turcuato for their assistance.