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The present study sets the psychological type profile and temperament of 190 Catholic priests serving in England, Wales, and Ireland alongside the profile of 1,298 Catholic priests reported by Ruppart in 1985. In the current study 68% of priests preferred introversion, 61% preferred sensing, 53% preferred feeling, and 84% preferred judging, confirming the findings of other recent studies of Catholic priests in Australia and Italy of a trend towards introversion, sensing, and judging, and away from feeling. In the current study 55% presented as Epimethean Temperament (SJ) and 21% as Apollonian Temperament (NF), also confirming other recent studies that report a move toward the SJ temperament and away from the NF temperament. The implications of these findings are discussed for the expression and experience of ministry within the Catholic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the complexities facing the Catholic Church in Britain and Ireland as it sought to minister to Catholic combatants in the First World War. Some of the problems arose because of Catholicism's place in British society as a not wholly trusted minority. Nevertheless as the war continued the government made generous provision for Catholic chaplains quite out of proportion to the number of Catholics engaged in the war. The political tension between Ireland and Britain, exacerbated by the 1916 Rising, contributed to difficulties in recruiting chaplains from Ireland, and the shortage of chaplains was a problem throughout the war years. Nevertheless, the service Catholic chaplains provided made a deep impression on combatants and on general public opinion. Catholic padres were not necessarily any more heroic than those of other denominations, but the fact that Catholic sacramental practice necessitated priests being at the side of dying soldiers and sailors meant that their services were more conspicuously in the front line of action than the ministry of other denominations. The pastoral effectiveness of Catholic priests in the services is attested even by non-Catholic sources, but it is here argued that this effectiveness was in virtue of the needs and desires of Catholic combatants themselves, who had been brought up to view the sacraments administered by a priest as the only sure means to salvation. The difficulties of sacramental administration in the circumstances of total warfare were increased by initially chaotic organisation on the part of the War Office and by internal problems posed for the church by Cardinal Francis Bourne, archbishop of Westminster, who wanted complete control over chaplaincy arrangements. This angered his fellow-bishops, especially the Irish, and provoked Vatican displeasure. The War Office was indifferent to papal intervention because of the perception that the pope was pro-German. Ultimately the experience of the war confirmed for the Catholic Church its role in ministering to those engaged in warfare despite the ambiguities arising from Christ's teaching on the matter of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the interwar and immediate post-war years, the persistently high rates of emigration by young, single Irish women gave rise to worries over their moral and spiritual welfare. This was partly because of their assumed extreme vulnerability as women coming from rural locations to the metropolises of England. It seems that the combination of their singleness and their gender was the prime reason for the concern evinced predominantly by the Roman Catholic Church, but also by lay organisations and the Irish governments. Multiple sources of danger for girls were perceived from their journey 'across the water' to their places of employment, from which they were in need of help and protection, if not prohibition. The majority of pronouncements on the topic were negative towards women, but no equivalent amount of concern was given to male migrants often of similar age and background and who also migrated as single persons. Thus, singleness was a gendered 'problem'. Whilst studies of Irish female emigrants have focused on their experiences of being immigrants and their identity as white women who are in Bronwen Walter's words 'outsiders inside', less attention has been paid to ways in which their single status became a marker of concern over morals and behaviour. Indeed, it is argued here that this was the particular reason why such moralistic discourses existed. This article seeks to explore some of the complexities of the public and private voices engaged in the debates over whether single female emigration could be equated with sinful behaviour and the gendered implications of migrants' marital status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]