Vocation, Identity Work and Reflexivity: Career Transitions of Former Priests and Seminarians

The influence of vocation on the lives and careers of professional workers has emerged as an important research issue. The stages of acquiring and fostering a calling, and its flowering into a commitment to the work of service, have been the subject of many studies. There is less focus, however, on the unravelling of commitment and the decision to withdraw from one profession and re-site a calling in another. In this paper we explore these issues in relation to a group of former Catholic priests or seminarians who trained together in the 1960s. The great majority chose to leave the Church, many of them after serving as a priest for a considerable time. Based on in-depth retrospective personal accounts, the paper examines the research participants' background in the Church; their decision to leave it; their transition to a new career; and the experiences and achievements they enjoyed there. It is suggested that their choices of alternative career, many of which involved work akin to that of the priesthood, show that their ideals remain intact. We reflect on the implications for individuals and for organizations.MAD statementThe paper provides an in-depth analysis of the dilemmas faced by a group of people who trained together at a Catholic seminary in the 1960s. Their retrospective accounts of their working lives show how their sense of vocation - though not their religious faith - was tested by their experience of working in the Church. The great majority made the decision to leave, but they were able to retain their sense of vocation by taking up in new careers in which their willingness to serve could be applied in a different way. In looking at the case in which a sense of vocation is likely to be at its strongest, the paper has implications for how similar dilemmas might be faced in other situations. It also has important implications from a management point of view, underlining the need to understand the strength of the various components of employee motivation and career orientation.