…406 pages, actually.
It makes for very interesting reading. As expected, the institutes which are members of LCWR (the ‘liberals’) have older members on average, and older candidates. The members of the CMSWR, the ‘conservatives’ have younger people joining. The average age is very high, but there is a huge spread, making the average, the median and the mode all very different. There is more diversity. There are a few large orders and many small ones.
What makes for the most interesting reading is the long recitation of what people value most about religious life and the challenges. The responses are broken up by women’s and men’s and each by active orders and contemplative (ie., women’s active, women’s contemplative…).Anyone contemplating religious life should read these–it’s very interesting, and outlines both the rewards and the challenges of religious life.
Also included is the fact that 75% of American priests are age 60 or older, with many in their 50’s. The study includes people in religious life, not just thinking about it, and numbers slightly under 4000 respondents.
You can download the study at;
www.nrvc.net.
