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There's no doubt Bobby C was under both intense societal and familial pressure to marry his pregnant girlfriend - which was a very common solution in the 1970s. These days, there would be less chance his girlfriend would object to an abortion (he wanted the Pope's Okiedokey to do so!).

Even if she decided to keep the baby, in today's world there would be very little societal or familal pressure to marry, so Bobby's problem was kind of a problem of the times.

He didn't want to get married, he didn't want a family, but he also didn't know any way out.

I suppose it was Bobby C's death that made Tony finally "cross the bridge". Tony was so shook up after Bobby's fall, maybe he was worried that the same thing could've happened and someday would happen to him.

One thing though, how did Frank lose the respect of his family? I thought they proud of him being a priest? Or are you referring to after he left the priesthood?

There are all sorts of different societal pressures. There's peer group pressure, which tells the young male characters to act like idiots. There's familial pressure, which tells people to marry their pregnant girlfriends and stay in the church. There's community-level pressure, which tells everyone to conform. But then there's pressure from the larger society, which tells people to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make something of yourself! And then there's the individual pressures on the Bobby C's of the world, which tells them that they're losers and nothing they will ever do will work out

So I kinda think your "societal pressure" is an oversimplification. Society tells Tony to make something of himself, his family tells him to make something of himself without leaving home or his community, and his peers tell him to screw around and risk his life in really stupid ways. All pressures on one guy.

He was a scared little guy who got himself in a tough situation that he didn't know how to deal with.

First off, Pauline was in high school. How do we know this? Bobby said he talked to everyone about the pregnancy, including the high school guidance counselor. Why would a high school guidance counselor get involved if one of the two were not in high school? Bobby was not in high school. He was 18 or 19, old enough to drink at the disco back then.

What would “crossing the bridge” mean to Bobby? Running away and leaving pregnant Pauline to deal with this alone? Marrying a teenage kid then spending his life in a loveless marriage trying to make enough money to support them? His options sucked.

But one option was never put on the table. Adoption. Helping Pauline have the baby discretely and finding a nice couple to adopt the baby. He could have sold his car to help pay her way into one of those country inns for young mothers. They had places like that back then for rich girls who “got in trouble”. Why would a high school girl want to forfeit all her opportunities and hopes too? Disappointed Father Frank didn’t suggest it. He was no help at all to Bobby and would have made a lousy priest.