Does my Dream Career Violate My Catholic Faith?

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Fair, I suppose you deserve an answer.

There’s an opportunity for me to get into themed entertainment, i.e. experiences like theme parks, zoos, aquariums, resort experiences and the like. As I’ve stated, it’s a dream job. And a decent one, I’m not doing it for money, but to put a smile one peoples faces. I’ve been blessed to have a multitude of experiences in these sectors that have arisen massive inspirations in me.

I should clear up some things.

Firstly, I myself do not intent to work any Sundays, and missing Mass is completely out of the question. My conflict is supporting an industry in which others working on this day is just a fact of life, and I’m having some involvement in it. (For example, the idea you could be at fault for causing another to work on a Sunday.)

Secondly, beyond that, there is a chance I’d be managing individuals working on these days. Again, by no means do I wish this, but it’s a side effect of the job.

I think the conflict is obvious, there’s a clash between a distaste for working on a Sunday, but that’s pitted against a steep desire to do the work. It’s not the desire to take a job for money, or for a better position, it truly is to do what I love and to make other people happy doing it.

Thanks for all the comments, it’s been an interesting discussion so far.
 
While my job doesn’t require working every Sunday, it does require me to be on call once every couple months. Essentially, problems arise, and we need someone to either fix it quickly or acknowledge it for later. In terms of operations, this is pretty necessary, and you can’t really afford for the service to go down on Sunday. If we indicated that we were willing to tolerate that, it would put the company at great risk in multiple ways.

Once you start getting into that, it reminds me of Jesus’ talk about helping a sheep that fell in a ditch (Matthew 12:11). Many people’s livelihoods are at stake here. Sure, if the industry just collectively decided Sunday was a permissible day for services to be offline if something happened, that would also fix it, but that isn’t happening. So personally, I’m willing to help the “sheep” get out of the “ditch”. That said, I still go to Mass and will let the backup know to take over during that time, and I still intend to spend time with family.

Basically, there are times when working Sunday seems permissible, so long as we make our best possible effort to attend Mass and spend time with family. Perhaps not every job falls under this category (not naming names, but I can think of at least one really popular company that requires Sunday work for, as far as I can tell, no good reason), but I think this should be taken on a job-by-job basis and the nature of the work.
 
Perhaps you work very long shifts. In my past experience, the longest shifts I worked were 12 hours, however it was 4 days on 4 days off. When I’ve worked an 8 hour shift, I have time either before or after the shift to go visit friends or to go to a movie or to swim, as I said, that is my personal experience.
 
I think we need to know what the job is before we can answer.
 
Yep.

Entertainment venues could mean everything from trudging around Disney sweating inside a character costume or taking tickets at the local AMC and a world of things in between.
 
You know we’re allowed to work on Sundays, right? We’re not Orthodox Jews. This whole dilemma is based on a faulty assumption.
 
I’m senior enough to not be on reserve but so junior I get the privilege of working weekends and holidays.

A quote from my chief pilot day one of indoc “are you religious? Flying will suck the religion right out of you.”
 
Opus Dei runs a school for hospitality management. They wouldn’t offer a program like that if working on Sunday was prohibited.
 
I don’t know if anyone’s interested, but I figured I’d post an update. The decision has continued to weigh on me, but today I experienced such a sense of joy, feeling a lot better about going after the career.

Not gonna lie, that positive vision has kind of changed. I continue to battle with thoughts regarding if this is God’s plan for my life, or if it hinders my ability to grow with Him, that this is an obstacle, an idol. I thank all those who have weighed in, I will contact my priest this week.

I believe the most freeing thing has been trusting that God does have a plan for me, and He wants me to be happy. I figure at the very least, He will give me the freedom to pursue a career in the sector, even if it’s not the exact job I have been deciding on. Thanks to the wonderful support on CAF!
 
Is there a specific aspect of the hospitality industry that you are interested in or are you just interested in it in general?
 
The bed bugs, roaches, and legionnaires disease are very interesting aspects of the field 🤓
 
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