Sacred Callings

<p><em>Sacred Callings</em> is an innovative sociological study of cross-national trends in the global Catholic priesthood. Based on a comparative-historical analysis of priesthood trends in Argentina Malta Nigeria and the Philippines during 1950-2010 the monograph investigates how significant developments within the Catholic Church have shaped the evolution of vocations over time.</p><p>The book introduces and tests a new critical events theory proposing a four-part framework-ecumenical councils prophetic stances sexual scandals and papal visits-to help explain variation in priesthood trends. It demonstrates how these events operate as cues for religious callings as well as how they interact with another. </p><p>Amid a global demographic shift in the Catholic priesthood -marked by declining vocations in Western regions and growing numbers in countries such as Nigeria-<em>Sacred Callings</em> provides a timely analysis of an important dynamic in the contemporary Church. In doing so it offers fresh theoretical and empirical insights into the role of short-term events in shaping religious change in modern societies.</p>