Decline in religious vocations?
BBC NEWS…
An article from L’Osservatore Romano reports a further dramatic decline in monastic and religious vocations worldwide. In fact, during the pontificate of JPII, the number of nuns fell by a quarter. The report says the decline is continuing, the numbers fell by 10% between 2005 and 2006, and new vocations are not replacing the nuns who die or abandon consecrated life. BBCNEWS has the story.
Just some thoughts…
So where are all the vocations John Paul II inspired? I thought there was supposed to be a huge increase in vocations. I know of a couple of congregations in the U.S. that are flourishing, evidently that doesn’t count or make a difference in the statistics.
Discounting our narcissist culture, along with the luxuries and pleasures modern life affords, as well as the potential for personal wealth and fame, what else could be the reason few men and women show an interest in religious life? Especially those who are active in their church, who practice their faith, and want to participate in the new evangelization? Well, they can do all of that without sacrificing anything or bothering to enter a religious community. Today we treasure our independence, which allows us to have our cake and eat it too.
Living a religious life in the world.
The young person with a degree in music, liturgy, theology, religious education, and so on, is ready and qualified for a pretty good job working in a parish, teaching at a Catholic school or college. The active participation of the laity in evangelization may have provided enough of a sense of vocation to preclude any need or attraction to the religious life for young people. Especially as it is represented by older religious from established congregations. Young people know they too can lead a prayerful life of service to the Church, keep their own apartment or home, with a car, and anything else they want. Or, they can get married and continue to work for the Church, and maybe even get on the religious lecture circuit, write numerous books, become a tele-evangelist, or conduct tours to Medjugorje.
[The other reason for the decline is because of all the gays! I'M KIDDING! That was just for you Arthur! LOL! Okay, I'm done now.]
(Photo credit: I think these are CFR nuns. I stole the photo from Crescat.)
February 5th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
My parents told enough stories from their school days of the Nasty Nuns with Rulers to convince me that not every woman who entered a religious order back in the day actually had a genuine vocation, especially to the teaching orders. Ditto for the priests and brothers who spent more time terrorizing (and worse) the altar boys than being another Christ to their flocks.
So perhaps the “decline” in religious vocations is not necessarily a bad thing. These days, women who aren’t called to marriage have other options. Men from working-class families need not enter a seminary in order to get an education. Men with homosexual tendencies can move to San Francisco instead of enrolling in a seminary. And very few men or women will enter religious life to please their mothers….
February 5th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I think that vow of obedience would be the toughest thing about being a nun.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
If I think about long enough, the statistics do saddened me. It makes me wonder what the Church will look like in the future.
Terry, mark my words: The celibatic stipulation will be lifted from the future Church, with the erroneous rationale that it will fix the declining vocation numbers. I’m okay with the few exceptions that have been made in ordaining married men. Perhaps, someday the ban will be lifted altogether. Having said that, I DON’T appreciate the Ecclesiastical equivalent of civil disobedience, (like Archbishop Milingo) who think that by rebelling against Church teaching, they somehow advance a worthy cause.
When I was in discernment, I made myself perfectly aware that rules were rules.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
It is said that all of the mainline Protestant denominations have difficulty with vocations also. What makes everybody so certain Catholic married men will want to become priests.
One of the most talented men in our Archdiocese, in his 40s, with a huge amount of responsibility, makes about $28,000 a year.
How much more would we have to pay a similarly qualified married priest? Don’t forget, the medical insurance will go up too.
Are you still throwing a buck in the basket each week? How much more will you throw into it when your pastor is married? What if his kids are hell-raisers?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
As a convert to the Roman Catholic church, and in the unique position having grown up the daughter of a ELCA Lutheran Pastor I will thow in my two cents and say that I think married clergy are a dis-service to both the Pastor’s family, and to the faith community at large. As we all know the demands placed on the Pastor are great. The demands of marriage and parenting are quite similar to those of a Pastor in that both vocations can be all consuming and never ending, always more ways to give of one’s self (emotionally, physically,) more opportunities to love more fully. As well both vocations have similar rewards- growth, satisfaction, contentment, joy, fellowship, community, and love. There are society wide ramifications to the lifetime commitments required of each of the positions. The point is, if a man is a shepherd of two flocks, with each flock roaming about different pastures, it is difficult to divide one’s attention in such a way to properly care for each flock. Likely one flock ends up lacking. I would contend, through my own experience, and those insights, revelations, and experiences shared with me from conversations I’ve had with numerous other Pastor’s spouses and kids, that often it is the flock at home that suffers at the expense of the needs of the members of the parish flock. Likewise spouses are in the unique situation where a Pastor’s vow of love, fidelity, and devotion is given twice- once in matrimony to a human bride (spouse,) again as a vow of ordination to the Bride of Christ, the Church. So the question becomes how does a person satisfy the demands of both the vocation of Father (capital F)in the Ecclesia and that of a father (lowercase f) in the Ecclesia Domestica? Is the bridegroom “in persona Christi” compatable with the bridegroom in matrimony?
February 6th, 2008 at 8:31 am
If the priest were married we’d have to support his wife. We wouldn’t want the poor woman to wear rags and she’ll need a psychiatrist to deal with all the gossip and the stress of the female parishioners constantly flirting with her husband (one thing Protestant ministers knwo is that if he can have one woman he can certainly have more than one in sequence or on the side) and we owe it to his kids that they get a nice education in exchange for seeing so little of their father and for being on display every darn day…. married priests would cost us big time.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I love JPII but you do ask a reasonable question. Where are all those vocations he was supposed to be responsible for?
February 6th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
http://monialesop.blogspot.com/2008/01/feast-of-st-thomas-br ings-another.html
These gals keep increasing thier numbers…
February 10th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Hey Terry,
Nice post. Thx for the shout out.
Speaking of, what happened to the amazing technicolor dreamchasuble?
Are you self censoring, Terry?
Cause, Dood, if you are, well that’s just so, well, gay!
Hope I didn’t rattle your queer cage too much, buddy.
Keep the faith and let me know how it’s going with all that crucifying the lusts of the flesh. I need me some of that, bro. Set me up.
Arthur
February 10th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Oh yeah, about the new wave of vocations. Dont worry it’s coming. vocations coming out of h.s. in recent years are starting to boom, but they wont be ordained for another 6-8 years. Patience.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Arthur - No, you were not the reason for my deletion of a few posts - I had offended a couple of men with some of the priest posts - so I took them down. I can’t get stuck in that maze right now.
I think vocations are coming back as well.