The website of the Philadelphia Archdiocese reports, several hundred religious institutes of women are likely to disappear in the next few decades. This report deals with nuns in America alone, so the situation in Africa and Asia is no doubt different.
A question that historians will ask is why, in a relatively short space of time, did so many religious orders disappear. That remains a hard one to answer. After all, wasn’t Vatican II supposed to usher in a new age of renewal in religious life? Instead, many orders renewed themselves out of existence. As Catholic Philly tells us, and there is no arguing with statistics this dramatic:
“The number of women religious in the United States has declined from a peak of 181,421 in 1965 to 47,160 in 2016, National Religious Retirement Office statistics show. About 77 percent of women religious are older than 70.
As many as 300 of the 420 religious institutes in the United States are in their last decades of existence because of aging membership and declining vocations, officials said.”
But as with all statistics, this requires interpretation. What about the 120 or so orders that are not facing extinction? Presumably they are attracting vocations, and presumably the 77% who are over the age of 70 are disproportionately found in certain orders and not others. In other words, while many orders may be on the brink of shutting up shop, not all are. Why is this?
The answer could well be found in recent history. Some years ago, the Vatican initiated a visitation of all American female religious orders. This was not, to put it mildly, universally welcomed. Some saw it as an ‘attack’ on American nuns, others as a sinister attempt to ‘rein them in’. Whichever way, the visitation produced no tangible results. Indeed, one feels that the Vatican, for a variety of reasons, gave up on the enquiry and decided to let nature take its course. Certain orders are not going to continue, while others are; the orders women still want to join are by and large, for want of a better term, traditional ones. Those facing extinction, not so much.
There are signs of growth in the Church, thanks to the grace of God; but the hard fact remains that the Church of just a few decades ago, staffed by an army of nuns and religious brothers, is now a thing of the past. Its disappearance has taken little longer than a generation.
Full story at Catholic Herald.
Some accept the ‘traditional’ orders and join them. Others view the Church as an ’employer’ which restricts their job opportunities, and go elsewhere.
When a young man or woman joins a religious order, it is not for “employment”— it is only o serve Christ! That’s all! The post-Vatican II Church is very worldly– not conducive to holiness and giving one’s life to God Alone!
Before the Council, ever since the time of Christ– the Catholic Church was firmly focused on leaving the sinful world, leading a holy life, and preparing for Heaven! The monastic life was the ideal, and formed the backbone of the Church. The Fathers of Vatican II desired to “update” the Church, open the Church to the world, with a great deal of emphasis on social justice, as well as prayer and penance. The New Mass, in the vernacular, was intended to reach “everyman,” of the modern era. Catholics had been criticized for being “too elite,” and too withdrawn into a life of prayer– rather than involved with the world’s problems (through social justice). The traditional life of religious orders– was killed off!
That is an oversimplified history. The monastic life was an innovation in its time, not to say a bad one, but far different from what Jesus and the apostles taught. The earlier way was to live in normal circumstances (families, in towns, adulta doing normal jobs) but with Christ’s radically loving values, plus worshipping both privately and communally. The only constants through ALL of Christian history are salvation through faith in God and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Eucharist, and baptism. Everything else has developed and adapted with changing times. Even the New Testament was written by inspired believers and edited by Church leaders as years went by. So condemning large groups with broad brush strokes…
I am the last person one should listen to with regard to this problem, but let me take a stab at it anyway. In no particular order: 1. Smaller families reduces the pool of applicants 2. Lukewarm parishes not inspiring vocations; 3. Feminism, which sees the religious vocation as a subjugation to patriarchy 4. Religious orders having lost their charism and whose adherents are virtually indistinguishable from single working women 5. Liberal theology which reduces the supernatural aspect of faith and introduces doubt, esp with regard to Church teaching on sexual matters. Maybe one of these hit the target, and if not, it’s back to the drawing board.
Why be apologetic? Yes, young women of Faith and intelligence and love of Mankind are joining Traditional orders (some exceptions). Further, as demonstrated on several Catholic blog sites recently, a number of Novus Ordo religious orders are in the process of deciding to become fully Traditional (i.e., wearing full habits, living communally, worshiping using the TLM and Traditional sacraments, etc.). As to priests, it was very recently noted that over 1/2 of future ordinations will be to Traditional orders in France; other countries are following suit. Oh sure, Francis will try to suppress this reformation, but he will fail. Mr. RICO may be just around the corner, and the Pope will be fully busy with that.
“The rapidly-growing orders were significantly more likely to wear a religious habit, to require communal living of all their members, to engage in evangelization practices, to work with young people, and to profess
fidelity to the Pope and his teachings. Among their spiritual foci or prayer practices, they were
more likely to emphasize Eucharistic Adoration, prayer for priests, charismatic prayer styles, and
popular devotions such as praying the rosary” Patricia Wittburg
My son attends a Newman List College and I am amazed how many of the young ladies are joining religious orders.
This story uses a picture from the Catholic Herald which is from Sicily but if you go to the original story by clicking “website of the Philadelphia Archdiocese” (in the first sentence) you can see the picture of the meeting that the article is about.
maybe less polyester going forward
The vanishing orders chose community organizing instead of “living in community”.
The disappearing nuns were swallowed whole by the feminist movement.
The nuns lost their sense of dedication to God’s will and replaced it with their own worldly inclinations.
The largest exodus of Sisters took place in 1964. The culture was undergoing a rapid and radical change all the way around. Dress, music, discipline, corporate and religious life to include Priests and Religious especially Sisters. The famous study and exercise conducted by Carl Rogers the Psychologist, re-directed the normal religious life of the Sisters into a mess. Sisters were instructed to rid themselves of their habit, breviary, rule, and living within the convent walls. Two “Sisters” were assigned to apartment living among the lay people to “better relate. Lesbian affairs were strongly encouraged. The IHM Sisters dropped from 800 plus Sisters to enough to barely occupy one convent. With the now ever present aging of the religious…