The following comes from a December 10 Crux article by Michael O’Loughlin:
An estimated 250,000 young women in the United States have given serious thought to joining religious communities, but if sisters and nuns hope to attract new members, they’ve got to do a better job explaining the benefits of such a counter-cultural lifestyle — and get Catholic parents, laypeople, and benefactors on board.
“In general, women religious can do a better job of explaining who they are,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame and the author of a report released Wednesday about the current state of nuns and sisters in the United States.
If these communities fail to “develop an identity that can be easily and clearly articulated to the outside world, both in Catholic settings and in the wider culture,” the report says, “they will not attract many new members.”
About 2 percent of all unmarried Millennial women — those born after 1981 — have “very seriously” considered becoming a nun or a sister, translating to more than 250,000 potential recruits. Young women are most persuaded to join religious life by seeing the joy among current members firsthand, the report found, but they must also be invited and encouraged.
The report, “Understanding US Catholic Sisters Today,” notes that the total number of nuns in the United States continues to decline, a trend in the works for about 50 years.
But it calls the huge numbers of nuns in the 1950s and 60s “an anomaly in the history of US women’s religious life rather than a standard to which sisters could or should return.”
The report found that there are currently more than 1,200 women preparing to enter religious communities, equally split between orders perceived to be liberal and conservative.
In addition to the lack of encouragement from parents and lay Catholics, educational debt remains a big challenge in fostering new vocations.
About a third of all women who take steps to join a religious community have student loans, usually totaling more than $20,000, the study found. This leads to about half of all applicants being turned away. Wary of tightening budgets and skyrocketing healthcare costs, communities are hesitant to take on new members with large amounts of debt.
Where would they go? Where would they live? What would they do? They aren’t the same as they used to be. Many many convents have closed. Many many that had special missions have faded away. Besides, it is very hard to recognize a real nun these days in dress, appearance, and holiness.
https://www.sistersofmary.org/
https://www.nashvilledominican.org/
https://www.carmelitesistersocd.com/
https://ssfpa.org/
https://www.sisterspreciousblood.org/index.htm
I feel it is important that the Sisters ware a habit or at least dress in a way that would distinguish them as consecrated. They are giving their lives over to Jesus and we the laity should give them our respect and appreciation.
I feel their ability to sustain themselves financially should come from the laity also. At present it appears to me that it all falls on the convent or order to send out mailers, etc. soliciting for financial help. Maybe help could come from various parishes who have formed committees that have a special mission to help these dedicated women. I feel a return to large communities of nuns could be a real spiritual boost for our Catholic society in these difficult times.
There are a sufficient number of women religious who are faithful to Christ and His mission. They pray the liturgy of the hours, the Eucharist, live in community with the rule of the founder, and have an apostolate. They renounce fashion and coiffure by habits and veils. Among them are the Carmelite sisters in Alhambra, the Dominicans of Nashville, Dominicans of Ann Arbor. Each group needs to be investigated by the prospective sister to see if this way of life is one to which she is called.
When I was discerning priesthood, I visited several orders, inquired of others, was discouraged by some, and found my place in diocesan priesthood. The women who are sincere can do the same.
We will take our daughter at the end of January to enter the Carmel in Valparaiso, NE where she will continue her discernment as a postulant. Only God knows if she will stay. It is my understanding that the faithful orders are growing while the others are not, contrary to what the article states. This order is growing as are the Benedictines in MO, the Dominicans in Michigan and Tennessee, Sisters for Life, etc.
Bless you and your daughter! This is wonderful news! The Valparaiso, NE Carmel, sounds just wonderful! There is also a new Carmel in Kensington, CA, (Oakland Diocese) in an old, restored Carmelite monastery there. Kensington is located in the East Bay, in the Oakland/Berkeley area– right across the Bay, from San Francisco. I think these two Carmels are related.
Also, please aware of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal and the Sisters of Life based in New York and serving across the country and abroad……….
Back in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up, a high percentage of cities and small towns throughout the United States had Roman Catholic schools with nuns as the teachers. The closest Convent we had from my home town of 1,700 people then was just 50 miles away. It was like a Mother House during the summer for the many sisters to return to after living in the many surrounding towns teaching at all the Roman Catholic schools. The opportunities for young interested girls were so many, now as we can see from the helpful prior comments, the opportunities are so few. Thank you (sarcastically speaking) V2 for ruining and decimating this once so beautiful vocation.
One can disregard the article, its author, the report cited and its author, Crux and its staff, and Crux’s leftist anti-Catholic publisher The Boston Globe. None are in line with Catholic teaching. Crux is down there with the National Catholic Reporter and the Jesuit magazine America.
I don’t care for this article, from the Notre Dame researcher– taken from” Crux,” which is of the “Boston Globe.” Such liberal Catholics, have lost their understanding of the Church and its mission! They also have little understanding of religious life, and of holiness!