Msgr. Stephen Rossetti was the speaker at our Spring Clergy Day yesterday (4-19-2010) for the priests working in our diocese. He presented some results of a Priest Wellness Study he has done. In the study he found that:
- Over 90% of priests report themselves as happy and with good morale.
- Only 4% of priests believe themselves to be suffering from ‘burnout.’
- 84% report a strong sense of inner peace.
- Almost 80% have a positive view of celibacy in their life. This is much higher than the general population’s positive view of marriage.
- Just around 3% of priests felt they needed to leave the priesthood in order to be happy.
- Compare these results to the stereotypical idea of priests as lonely, isolated, frustrated, unhappy, with low morale and are trapped in an unsatisfying life.
When looking for the things that lead a priest to feel happy about his priesthood, he generally found that working toward holiness is the best predictor of happiness. That may seem obvious when stated, but compare that with what society is telling us that priests should be doing, and it rarely includes steps toward holiness.
He then outlined those 10 steps and we each received a booklet of his steps.
Thank you Msgr. Rossetti, and thank you Bishop Olmsted for bringing him here to tell us this good news.