Perceived Family Obligation on Church Commitment

Alfred Adler’s birth order theory (1966) holds that firstborn children are included in family obligations. Some priests are firstborn. Catholic priests in Sub-Saharan Africa always face challenges to tackle poverty in their families.The work concluded that family members have high expectations to get support from the priests especially financial support which affects the commitment of the priests to pastoral activities. From the results it was recommended that bishops and /or superiors need to devise a mechanism to help family members of the priests to understand that priests should not be part of family obligations. Further it was recommended that priests need to be compensated to manage family obligations and thus improve their commitment to the church.