Sacred Callings: An Eventful Analysis of the Global Catholic Priesthood

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.

Amid a global demographic shift in the Catholic priesthood —marked by declining vocations in Western regions and growing numbers in countries such as Nigeria—Sacred Callings 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.