The Worker-Priest Archetype

• Published in: Psychological perspectives Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 445 - 464
• Main Author: Rutte, Joseph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 02.10.2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Archetypes; Catholic churches; Catholicism; Clergy
• ISSN: 0033-2925; 1556-3030
• DOI: 10.1080/00332925.2017.1389203

The concept of the worker-priest archetype, in its most recent official form, originated in France's Roman Catholic Church as a missionary attempt to "rediscover the masses" of the industrial class workers in the French factories of the 1940s. This effort was shut down by the Vatican in the 1950s out of fear of Communist influence within the movement. With the advent of the Vatican II Council (1962-1965) of the Catholic Church, new life seemed to have been infused into this archetype. For example, the liberation theology movement in Latin America was strongly influenced by Vatican II. In the United States, many new forms of liturgical celebration were created, and social reform movements, doubtless as part of the 1960s social-revolutionary energy, emerged and were fostered. When the conservative faction within the Catholic hierarchy reacted to what they perceived as dangerous and threatening developments in the church, they acted to stop this liberal movement. One likely consequence of this slamming shut the windows that had been newly opened by Vatican II was a mass exodus of Catholic priests in the United States who left the clergy and entered civilian life.  This article focuses on interviews with three of the men who were active Catholic priests, two of whom chose to leave the priesthood and one who remained a priest but moved the focus of his work to the "inner city." There he cared for young black men as an unofficial social worker/priest, operating on his own to serve a population traditionally underserved by the Catholic Church.