Study finds tradition garners higher vocations

[Sancto_Spiritu]

Until now, I thought it was just my personal experience that the most anti-tradition and liberal Catholics were baby boomers and older, and that tradition breeds higher vocations. Now I know it’s fact.

This article from the New York Times discusses a study that proves it.

A new study of Roman Catholic nuns and priests in the United States shows that an aging, predominantly white generation is being succeeded by a smaller group of more racially and ethnically diverse recruits who are attracted to the religious orders that practice traditional prayer rituals and wear habits.

The study found that the graying of American nuns and priests was even more pronounced than many Catholics had realized. Ninety-one percent of nuns and 75 percent of priests are 60 or older, and most of the rest are at least 50.

They are the generation defined by the Second Vatican Council, of the 1960s, which modernized the church and many of its religious orders. Many nuns gave up their habits, moved out of convents, earned higher educational degrees and went to work in the professions and in community service. The study confirms what has long been suspected: that these more modern religious orders are attracting the fewest new members.

The study was already well under way when the Vatican announced this year that it was conducting two investigations of American nuns. One, taking up many of the same questions as the new report, is an “apostolic visitation” of all women’s religious orders in the United States. The other is a doctrinal investigation of the umbrella group that represents a majority of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The new study, being released on Tuesday, was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, for the National Religious Vocation Conference, which is looking for ways for the church to attract and retain new nuns and priests. It was financed by an anonymous donor.

“We’ve heard anecdotally that the youngest people coming to religious life are distinctive, and they really are,” said Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. “They’re more attracted to a traditional style of religious life, where there is community living, common prayer, having Mass together, praying the Liturgy of the Hours together. They are much more likely to say fidelity to the church is important to them. And they really are looking for communities where members wear habits.”

**Of the new priests and nuns who recently joined religious orders, two-thirds chose orders that wear a habit all the time or regularly during prayer or ministry, the study found.
**
The study also showed that whites account for 94 percent of current nuns and priests but only 58 percent of those in the process of joining orders.

Asians and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately represented among the newcomers, accounting for 14 percent, far above their 3 percent share of the Catholic population in the United States, Sister Bendyna said.

Hispanics are 21 percent of the newcomers, compared with only 3 percent of the current priests and nuns.

Of women who recently entered religious orders, the average age is 32; for men, it is 30. But retaining new recruits is a challenge. About half of those who have entered religious orders since 1990 have not stayed, and almost all who left did so before making their final vows.

“People come to religious life because they feel they’re being called,” said Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference, adding that the purpose of the church’s training process “is to discern that call before a commitment is made.” So “it’s not surprising,” he said, “that you would have people that would leave.”

 

[bkovacs]

Good to hear!.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I wish those who write these articles would take the time to learn what they are writting about. I can’t but help question what they are writing when they get the basics wrong.

Priests, for the most part, do not join religious communities/orders. A lay man joins a community/order and is ordained after, for some, many years within the community/order.

But this is good news.

Now I want to see a study of how many actually stay though novitiate, though their temporay vows, how many make it to final vows, (for men’s groups) how many get ordained (for those on the ordination track), and then how many are still around 5 years after final vows, (again for men’s groups) how many are around 5 years after priestly ordination.

I see that they did not mention any thing about brothers. It seems that the vocation of religious brother is still very misunderstood.

 

[SetallAfire620]

It’s the truth! As a “young person” (out of college a couple of years) I have seen numerous friends enter either the seminary or religious orders that could be considered more “traditional.” Three friends of mine have entered the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist–an incredibly vibrant order in Michigan.

Within our parish, the Mass that is celebrated more traditionally (with a choir singing polyphony, etc.) is literally PACKED with 20/30-somethings.

The stereotype that modern, snazzy, progressive Catholicism is attractive to young adults is ridiculous. We do not like things watered down–we like a challenge, and we like authenticity.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

I wish those who write these articles would take the time to learn what they are writting about. I can’t but help question what they are writing when they get the basics wrong.

Priests, for the most part, do not join religious communities/orders. A lay man joins a community/order and is ordained after, for some, many years within the community/order.

But this is good news.

Now I want to see a study of how many actually stay though novitiate, though their temporay vows, how many make it to final vows, (for men’s groups) how many get ordained (for those on the ordination track), and then how many are still around 5 years after final vows, (again for men’s groups) how many are around 5 years after priestly ordination.

I see that they did not mention any thing about brothers. It seems that the vocation of religious brother is still very misunderstood.

It would appear that the study did not included religious brothers. It states that it was to study how the church could attract new priests and nuns. I assumed the statement about habits had to do with the nuns.

The article is certainly confusing.

Certainly, the time to leave is before final vows or ordination and it should not be considered a failure. The person has cared enough to test whether he or she has a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. Now they know and won’t have regrets later on in life for not looking into it.

And who would want to enter a religious order that is withering and not faithful to the magisterium? (and why am I not surprised that the two things are related?) I am really sorry for the innocent older members of orders that were ‘hijacked’ by liberal members. I know a monastery that has several very worthy ministries that are mostly staffed by lay workers and volunteers. They have almost no young sisters. The old sisters who wear habits are quite elderly. The ‘young’ ones in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s are well intentioned but quite liberal (wanting women to be ordained, accepting of the homosexual lifestyle, wanting inclusive language in their prayers and at their masses, rejecting wearing a habit). I think they don’t have a clue why they don’t have vocations.