Church attendance linked to priest’s credibility

Mar 21, 2014

PANAJI: The research of a Goan Catholic priest has revealed that a parish priest’s credibility has a direct bearing on Church attendance amongst parishioners.

The study by Pilar Fr Peter Raposo reveals that when priests convey competence, trustworthiness, goodwill, closeness, and are both responsive and assertive, parishioners are more engaged in church service.

Findings of Fr Raposo, former editor of Vavraddeancho Ixtt, and researcher Dr Sean M Horan were published in the Journal of Communication and Religion. It asserts that the perception of a priest’s credibility affects parishioners’ responsiveness during church attendance.

The research paper entitled, Priest as Teacher I: Understanding Source Credibility examines the role of priests as teachers in the instructional settings of the Catholic Church.

This study is the first in the Priest As Teacher series conducted by the same researchers. In line with the same programme of research, the two communication researchers have also examined priests’ communicative misbehaviours, and the effect of parishioners’ nonverbal responsiveness on priests’ performance as teachers, which are currently in the press and due for publication.

The study says that priests ought to have training programmes addressing instructional communication practices where priests are trained to communicate credibility and nonverbal immediacy during services, where appropriate, along with responsive behaviours. -- ucanews.com