Abstract
Pastoral effectiveness is an important factor in the success of pastoral activities in Catholic organizations, particularly at the parish level. Pastoral effectiveness can be influenced by transformational leadership and by lay participation. The aims of this research are (1) to examine and analyse the influence of transformational leadership and lay participation on pastoral effectiveness in Saint Antonio Parish, Motael, Dili, (2) examine the influence of transformational leadership on lay participation; and (3) to examine how lay participation mediates the relations between transformational leadership and pastoral effectiveness in this same parish. This research used questionnaires to collect data, with a total of 378 samples, and SMART-PLS 3.1 was used to analyze the data. The results of the research show that transformational leadership and lay participation indeed have a significant and positive influence on pastoral effectiveness. Transformational leadership also has significant impact on lay participation, while lay participation plays a significant role on the relationship between transformational leadership and pastoral effectiveness. This research could enrich the inferential studies on transformational leadership, lay participation and pastoral effectiveness in Catholic Church context which is still lacking. It also contributes to the improvement of pastoral effectiveness, especially within Saint Antonio Parish, Motael, Dili, and in the archdiocese of Dili in general by adopting transformational leadership and lay participation.
Highlights
In the context of recent dynamic change, pastoral effectiveness is needed to ensure that Christians keep their faith in God and their commitment to humanistic values
Transformational leadership can be a good choice for parish priests because priests as transformational leaders will motivate, inspire, and encourage lay people to participate in carrying out church activities and achieving the parish’ goals (Alapo, 2018)
This study confirms that transformational leadership will motivate, inspire and lead subordinates to engage more in works in order to creatively take organization to continuous change and achieve high organization performance (Liu & Huang, 2020)
Summary
In the context of recent dynamic change, pastoral effectiveness is needed to ensure that Christians keep their faith in God and their commitment to humanistic values. Parish priests play an important role in ensuring that Christian communities understand and implement Christian values in their lives (Cassimy, Jules, & Satelmajer., 2009). Parish churches need good leadership to ensure pastoral activities are carried out effectively. Transformational leadership can be a good choice for parish priests because priests as transformational leaders will motivate, inspire, and encourage lay people to participate in carrying out church activities and achieving the parish’ goals (Alapo, 2018). Parish priests need lay participation in pastoral activities, including spiritual, economic, moral, social and evangelism aspects. The Vatican II Council and Saint John Paul II outlined numerous pastoral activities in which laity can participate in ordinary family and social life, such as promoting the dignity of persons and life, defending legitimate freedom, protecting family life, and participating in charity and public life (Pham & del Castillo, 2017)
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