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PDF versionThe future of religious life and the plight of young adult Catholic women
by Jamie L Manson on Oct. 27, 2011
Lately there has been a lot of talk about the future of religious life in the pages of NCR.
In August, Monica Clark reported from the annual meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Facing the challenges of aging sisters and smaller numbers of vocations, the entire conference was dedicated to contemplating what God was calling forth from these communities.
"We sense that something new is emerging," said St. Joseph Sr. Carol Zinn, a member of LCWR's executive committee, "but we certainly don't yet know what it will look like."
Later that month, Tom Roberts entered the conversation to offer a correction to the idea, widely held by many conservative Catholics, that traditional religious communities are experiencing a robust increase in vocations.
The conservative orders, Roberts demonstrated, account for only 5 percent of women religious in the United States. Last year, the highest number of professions among any community was nine. Neither the conservative orders nor the communities affiliated with LCWR have a retention rate higher than 50 percent prior to the profession of final vows.
"In the end," Roberts concluded, "all of this may be panning for gold on opposite sides of a creek going dry."
NCR blogger Mary Ann McGivern, a Sister of Loretto, responded to Roberts by offering her own experience of living in a Catholic Worker House for three decades.
It's a "vibrant young community," she writes, that devotes itself to "praying together, holding discussions to clarify thought, publishing journals, and doing the corporal works of mercy."
"It's not a matter of which religious style will win out," McGivern states, "but whether we trust in the Spirit of God acting in each of us."
And perhaps no one has contributed more to this topic in the NCR than Sandra Schneiders. In the last two years, she has published numerous essays on religious life as a "prophetic life form." The "distinguishing mark" of the "prophetic witness," she writes in one essay, "involves discerning and responding to ... 'the signs of the times.'"
As Heidi Schlumpf wrote in her coverage of Schneiders' recent address at St. Mary's College, the sister and scholar projected that "women's ministerial life has a future in this time and beyond."
Unlike many women religious in this country, Schneiders isn't as distressed about the dwindling numbers of vocations.
"No Congregation 'needs' more members than are actually called to it by God," she asserted in a 2010 NCR essay. "The purpose of the life is not to perpetuate particular Congregations nor to staff Church institutions; it is to live intensely the witness to the Gospel to which the Congregation is called and for as long as it is called."
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As fruitful as this ongoing NCR conversation has been, what I find lacking from the discussion is the same element that goes missing every time the topic of declining priestly vocations arises, too. What about all of the young adults, many of whom hold degrees in theology and ministry, who are currently doing the traditional work of the church?
Every year, hundreds of young Catholic women graduate from universities, graduate programs in religion, divinity schools and seminaries. Many of them go on to be theologians, chaplains, nonprofit leaders, advocates, activists and social workers doing outreach with the homeless, the incarcerated and victims of domestic violence.
Their work is not only high-risk, it is often emotionally demanding and spiritually draining. If they are very lucky, they work in a supportive environment under a supervisor who is stable, competent and compassionate.
Unlike males who seek the priesthood, the institutional church does not support their education or their profession -- even though they, too, spend their lives studying and serving the church.
Unlike women religious, they do not experience some of the securities that come with religious life. They have to find employment on their own, pay their rent, maintain a household on their own and, in some cases, provide their own medical insurance. If they lose their jobs, there is no safety net to carry them through until they find work again.
Perhaps most challenging of all, these young women do not enjoy the sustenance that comes with a life of prayer, contemplation and community. Young women are as in need of this support as any of the sisters engaged in similar work.
The number of young adult Catholic women who find themselves in this predicament is not small. And, I believe, they are most certainly called by God in a way very similar to women religious.
The difference is that these young women grew up in a culture that, in some significant ways, is radically different from society in which the majority of sisters in the United States were raised.
The bulk of the sisters ministering in the United States today entered their communities during or before the 1960s. They were raised in a social climate that did not discuss sexuality openly and in a church that demanded they bury their sexual feelings. Thankfully, most women religious in the past few decades have moved beyond these repressed beginnings. Nowadays, sisters are among our culture's strongest advocates for sexual and gender justice.
Today's young adult women came of age in a culture that speaks much more freely about sexuality and in a society where gender roles have loosened up significantly. The notion that being in a loving, committed relationship might somehow compromise their capacity to serve God fully is foreign to most of them.
More importantly, they were raised in a post-communal culture. Most did not grow up surrounded by extended family or in a traditional parish or neighborhood. For them, a partner or a spouse provides an important part of their identity and their support network. The need for a partner, therefore, is stronger and more crucial to their emotional stability and spiritual health than it was for previous generations.
Yet, sadly, their desire for marriage cuts off any possibility for consecrated religious life -- even though, like women religious, these young Catholic women long to live out the witness of the Gospel. They share the same hunger for community, charism and contemplation.
Many will argue that young women can easily join the thriving lay associates and companions programs offered by many religious communities. But associates, it seems to me, have a slightly different purpose in religious life. They immerse themselves in the charism of a community and then they bring that spirit into their professional and personal lives.
I suspect that there are many women, and I count myself among them, who desire more. Rather than taking the community's spirit into the world, they wish to dwell fully in the community. They want to live among the suffering or in the retreat house. They want to make a home within their ministries. They want to make a life commitment not simply to a profession, but to a mission.
Last summer, I had the extraordinary opportunity to study several communities of women religious who ran shelters for homeless mothers. The sisters who ran these homes were aging and were small in number. Many of them lived in the shelter with their guests. Most of them had several nonreligious staff members who served as case managers and social workers.
But as dedicated and skilled as the support staff was, I got the distinct sense that most did not quite grasp the deeper mission of the place. Their devotion to their work was not grounded in Catholic social justice tradition or sacramental theology. Watching the differences between sisters and the clinical staff, I felt like I was looking at a charism of the brink of extinction.
But does it have to end this way?
There are hundreds of young adult women who want to answer God's call and who can, both theologically and pastorally, sustain the spirit and mission of these religious communities. And I believe they can do this and be partnered or married. In some cases, my own included, I believe that being in a committed relationship would actually enhance the fruitfulness of some women's vocations to religious life.
For decades, Catholic Worker Houses have found creative ways to accommodate couples. More recently, the multitude of groups that are emerging out of the "new monasticism" movement are also incorporating couples, some of them even same-sex partners, into their communities.
Many of these "new monastics" are actually Protestants who are finding profound meaning and purpose in this ancient Catholic concept. Catholic women have the extraordinary benefit of already being deeply rooted in the tradition. All they need is for a religious community to open its doors to them.
Most of us would agree that something new is emerging, but we are not quite sure what it is. I would invite women religious to expand their contemplation to include the voices of young adult women who share a deep understanding of their calling and charism. Even though they may not be ready or willing to profess vows, these young women may hold significant insight into how this prophetic life form might continue to give life to future generations.
Although we won't find all of the answers to the mysterious future of religious life, by giving young women a voice, the sisters will be actually provide a much-needed ministry to a different kind of marginalized community. The most overlooked group in the Catholic Church may well be young adult Catholic women who, regardless of the depth of their commitment to the Gospel and to the work of justice, are excluded from nearly every form of life-commitment to ministry.
Together we may be able to attune one another's prophetic vision and guide one another in reading the signs of the times.
Baby, I'm a male theologian
Baby, I'm a male theologian and I have never sought the priesthood. Do not generalize or discriminate against males. Remember the Golden Rule.
Baby? Are you sure that's how
Baby? Are you sure that's how you want to address a colleague? I assume you did so to see what rants you could stir up.
How can we take you seriously when you are taking a road that's low? Why don't you try again.
Since all posts are reviewed
Since all posts are reviewed before posting, such snotty posts should be sent to the dump. They make the experience of coming to this site unpleasant. Their constant publishing only encourages the harpies.
Just plain rude, crude, and
Just plain rude, crude, and socially unacceptable...baby, indeed.
In some communities of color
In some communities of color and other minority, 'baby' is a term of endearment, of identification, of resonance, of welcome. That's what I heard in the comment. Keep the faith baby.
That's perhaps what you
That's perhaps what you wrote, anonymous Baby.
eceasez l'infame!
"That's what I heard in the
"That's what I heard in the comment."
Get your hearing checked.
Naah. I'm an old guy from
Naah. I'm an old guy from the old school and calling your colleague "baby" jarred me to my toes.
Anonymous: I'm curious
Anonymous:
I'm curious "male theologian" how you are using the theology you learned. Are you ministering in a parish, college campus, prison, hospital, etc.? Please let us know more details of your theological background - college / university obtained, classes, etc. Are you married or single? Have you worked a short time or long time as a theologian?
I believe Jamie has made some good observations about ministry and lifestyle possibilities within the Catholic Church. During the 25 years I was in paid ministry in the Midwest, I was a hospital chaplain and college campus minister for a Catholic Diocese. I was a single woman who wanted to make a difference in people's lives through ministry. I had meaningful experiences in many ways as I listened to people's stories and provided the compassionate presence of Christ at patients' bedsides or in college hallways and student centers.
I am no longer in official ministry within the Catholic Church. I wonder often about my present and future contributions as a woman of faith and compassion. I believe Jamie is listening to the Spirit within. I applaud her efforts to put into words this inner journey.
It "doesn't have to end this
It "doesn't have to end this way"
================================
The Paradox of Cosmic Acentricity: there is a similar word “eccentricity” (usually applied to a person mentally unbalanced) which might be used also as it pertains to the cosmos. We do say, “it’s a crazy world”, don’t we.
Acentric means "without a center." Applied to the cosmos it means that there is no single center of gravity, no center to the universe. Paradoxically, it can be said with equal correctness that the center of the universe is "nowhere and everywhere". Recent science has discovered that the cosmos is expanding in all directions at an accelerating rate, which suggests the craziness that from any point inside the cosmos, expansion is outward in every direction; which means to say that “the center" is everywhere. So, we can say from our personal vantage point that the center of the universe is "nowhere and NOW HERE". I am at the center of the universe, you are at the center of the universe, and everyone is at the center of the universe. Expansion is from the center, what is to say “eccentric” (excentric).
I’m certainly not qualified to foresee future implications of cosmic acentricity/ eccentricity, only to say, that personal self-centeredness seems so utterly insane and meaningless in a universe that is omni-directionally expanding with total disregard to our small-minded eccentricity. So, the human paradox is that everyone is at the center of the universe in the same way, “nowhere and now here”.
This realization should be humbling and mind-expanding, for in ways unbeknownst to us, we, female and male, all play some role in the enlargement of the universe. Our destiny is in cosmic projection and transformation. We are intimately associated in the perpetual rebirthing and dying of cosmic-Earth-conscious substance. The personal challenge is how can we individually facilitate the projection and bring transformation in our personal lives to some cosmic purpose?
The optimizing of wellbeing-in-common would seem to be both the humbling and the out-reaching of purposeful living. The Godly example of this truth is Jesus, the Christ, who best witnessed and exemplified ultimate self-effacement to the uplift of universal purpose, and the wellbeing of other. Cosmic acentricity/eccentricity is a paradoxical gain in the intentional embrace of Eucharistic Altruism, the liberation of self in interest of the wellbeing of other.
http://www.secondenlightenment.org/Adult%20Faith%20Study.pdf
Now then even the
Now then even the progressives are noticing what we conservatives have seen for years - nuns are abandoning their mission because they can't attract new members. I think Jamie's idea is perfect. Let the progressives take over these missions, and then the conservatives can be responsible for the catechesis and evangelization. At least this way we won't have an entire generation of Catholics claiming that Jesus did not resurrect from the dead or that He is not present in the Eucharist or that abortion is a choice or that God wills that marriage be between anyone or any person without any respect to teaching authority of the church.
I like that idea a lot because once all of these new ministers replace the old progressive communities the less likely the all male pro Vatican hierarchy will accept their identity as Catholics. They will become like Catholics for a Free Choice - never a part of Catholic mainstream.
Thanks Jamie for a thoughtful
Thanks Jamie for a thoughtful article. I think the need for a community where each member brings their gift in the service of all is so important. How this plays out can be different in different communities but searching for this gift can be exciting and rewarding and a strong witness in the population you serve.
WOMEN ROCK !! Thanks,
WOMEN ROCK !! Thanks, Jamie, for so gracefully and graciously calling our attention to the many contributions of women to the Church, notwithstanding so many discriminatory obstacles. Of course, it always goes back to the coercive turn our Church was forced to make by Constantine in the fourth century which continues to harm our Church.
The current world political setting is an opportune time for our Church to begin to turn back to the consensual structure Jesus and his first disciples left behind. This consensual structure greatly benefitted most early Christians, including women, during the Church's first three centuries. This "turn back", which Good Pope John XXIII initiated during the first session of Vatican II in 1962, will lead to women having an authentic opportunity to attain once again their rightful positions in the Church and the full respect they have been denied for over 1,600 years. Jesus greatly valued women, but, of course, Jesus was never elected pope by any curial clique. Thank God for that.
For more information on this coercive turn and some hopeful developments indicating consensual changes are coming, please see the NCR comment under the comment heading, "THE RCC: MIGHT OR RIGHT ?", accessible by clicking on at
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/who-made-decisions-church-through-y... .
For a description of a major effort by the Roman clique to suppress women by condemning them to be virtual 24/7 "baby makers", please see the NCR article accessible by clicking on at
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/new-birth-control-papers-reveal-vatica... .
Please note that when Pius XI in 1932 "infallibly" denounced as gravely sinful all forms of contraception, his worry was the disproportinately larger bithrate among atheistic Soviet Communism. The year before Pius XI's unnecessary and misguided statement was made, his Anglican competitor, reading the same biblical texts, declared that some contraceptive methods were permissible for Christian women. Of course the Anglican bishop had not been declared "infallible" just 60 years before, as the pope had been at the papally dominated and politically influenced Vatican I council.
Today, the Roman clique worries about the disproportionately larger birth rate among worldwide Muslims. The Roman clique will not let this Muslim challenge stand. The facts have changed, but the Roman clique's severe mandate for women remains the same--Catholic women must "under pain of sin" continue to produce the maximum number of Catholic babies--whether they want to or not and whether women are even able to feed the additional babies or not. Is this really what Jesus would have wanted?
WOMAN AS BABY MACHINES
WOMAN AS BABY MACHINES ....Oops. For the correct link to the article descibing the Roman clique's hidden machinations that undercut the pope's own Birth Control Commission's endorsement of some methods of contraception, please click on at
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/new-birth-control-commission-papers-re... .
What? Isn't the article about
What? Isn't the article about vocations to religious life... in celibate chastity? Are you suggesting that the Church regards women religious as baby machines? If women religious fornicate there's something very, very seriously the matter.
Abstaining from sexual relations is the way to not become pregnant. This is why natural family planning is licit, married women monitor their body to accurately identify fertile times when they and their spouse may choose to abstain if it's not the right time to have another child. Contraception enables fornication and cohabitation while entirely falsely promising freedom from consequences, porn-ifies marriage since sex is seen as an end in itself, abets men in using women as objects to gratify their urges, and inculates a mentality of rejecting children so that all too often they are willing to kill an unintended child by abortion. I feel I was incredibly much deceived about contraception when I was young, and the consequences in my life and the effects for others were extremely serious. I've learned the hard way, the Church's teaching protects life, protects human dignity and protects the sanctity of marriage.
OPPRESSED WOMEN .......
OPPRESSED WOMEN ....... Please, Elizabeth, don't try to recast and misrepresent my comments. The article was about various effects of sexist policies that impact negatively both lay and consecrated women. I am happy that natural family planning has worked so well for you, as it has for thousands of other women. For those that can implement it, great. For the hundreds of millions of other women worldwide who cannot, they should not be compelled to have children they did not intend to have and often are barely able to feed.
There are licit forms of contraception that millions of women are denied access to mainly due to Vatican political pressure on their governments. And this Vatican coercion serves mainly to support the specious papal claim to infallibility.
Thank you for your comment and for those women who follow your lead, good luck.
RELIGION’S POWER OUTAGE:
RELIGION’S POWER OUTAGE: There is a dead-short in the power grid of consciousness; the problem is that the energy of reason is short-circuited from grounding in faith.
===================================
Arguably, the unrest of global youth is an electrical problem, namely, that the negative energy of reason is shunted away from positive grounding in faith. The frustration of faith is due to the short-circuited dump of patriarchal fideism that alienates female generative energy from natural grounding of reason in religious culture. Patriarchal absolutism at war in Abrahamic religions is the dead-short now frustrating global civility.
As a result, the lights are going out in church and chaos is frustrating everyone. The electron charge of reason is insulated by male dominion culture from grounding in faith. The tension of excess and ungrounded charge is unsettling not only for religion but for the whole of civil culture.
Nature abhors fixation. The frustration of fixation is a dead-short. Like a viral infection in a computer, fideism frustrates the working logic of cosmic nature. When pools of positive and negative energy fail in grounding, unreleased potential increases the risks of damage when the lightning discharge eventually occurs. The fixity of faith-energy in patriarchal fideism gives reason no choice but to accumulate energy until the day of discharge. These days, discharge is happening, albeit unwillingly, as far as institutional religions are concerned.
The fixity of dead faith in absolutism is a lights-out frustration of wisdom’s dynamic of faith and reason — the process of communication, consciousness and conscience. The energy of conscience can be restored only when faith’s information is currently restored by reason’s ongoing dynamic.
http://www.secondenlightenment.org/Ecumenical%20Catholicism%20THE%20PEOP...
Interesting read. I think
Interesting read. I think the analogy to couples with Catholic Worker needs to be explored and fleshed out a bit for clarity. Thanks for providing many points to ponder. God is in our future and guiding us toward it. We need prophets to show us where God might be leading us.
It seems to me that Jamie
It seems to me that Jamie clearly identified the groups she was discussing (young women seeking more of a community in which to live and practice their ideals of social justice, and the older nature of the existing communities of women religious), and was neither generalizing nor discriminating against men.
Jamie, young women are most
Jamie, young women are most certainly not "excluded from nearly every form of life-commitment to ministry." They can get married...just like men who have a deep commitment to the Gospel but do not want to be a priest or religious.
Your reverse discrimination boggles the mind.
I am not sure exactly what you are advocating here. Do you want young women to be able to take non-binding vows (an oxymoron) to particular form of life for a little while? Be financially, materially, emotionally, etc. supported while they receive an education, look for a job, do some work, pray...and then be able to move on after a community has invested so much in them? I honestly don't know what you are asking for.
If you don't want to be a religious, but you do want to live in a loving community there is marriage. Find yourself a good, Gospel-oriented, like-minded man and marry'em.
"If you don't want to be a
"If you don't want to be a religious, but you do want to live in a loving community there is marriage. Find yourself a good, Gospel-oriented, like-minded man and marry'em."
I am one of those young adult Catholic women that is being talked about in this article. For you to tell me my only choice if I want to live in a good community (and not become a religious sister) is I should get married is insulting. First of all, I don't want to get married, and a few of my friends are the same way. To suggest that because we don't want to join religious orders or get married we won't be able to live in a loving community is preposterous. Loving communities and families come in all shapes and sizes. In addition, your last sentence is very exclusionary to people who are not heterosexual, and yes, there are many Catholics who are not.
Neither Christianity nor the
Neither Christianity nor the world in general conforms to your every desire. Grow up and make a choice based upon actual options and stop complaining that the world has not provided you the life you want.
I intended to exclude people who are not heterosexual as they should not be either religious or married. The cross they bear is immense and my prayers, support, and love go with them.
Hmmm...why shouldn't women
Hmmm...why shouldn't women who identify as lesbian be vowed religious? Under the current forms of RC religious life, celibacy is an expectation. And I would hope, that as for me, the celibacy is a gift, not simply an obligation...
Having said that, I agree with Jamie that we religious are missing the boat worrying about why young women who are passionate about living the gospel are not joining our communities. We should instead be using our resources to invest in the next generation of women's leadership in the Church, whether or not we are drawn to the way they feel called to live it out. For starters, why don't we take the money we invest in vocation ministry to build an endowment to fund ministries that do not provide a living wage to the women called to partipate in them?
Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan,
Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan........you are so immersed in the very sort of "male" thinking that gives rise to the marginalization of women, you must also not be aware of your own disrespect of women. Your thinking as expressed here is lacking in logic as well as in simple good judgement. For example, you challenge Jamie by stating that as proof that women are not discriminated against (in church ministry) they can get married "...just like men." Well, how nice of you! But you omit the fact that married men can become Permanent Deacons, so what is the "matching" role for women? That, and the rest of your response, is devoid of a depth of understanding of the article and many of the responses to it. If you indeed do not agree with it, perhaps you can find a more useful and thoughtful response than what you have written here.
Being an adult means having
Being an adult means having to make choices, not waiting for others to conform to our expectations.
Agreed. People like Jamie
Agreed. People like Jamie here think that everyone else should provide them with something just because they want it. 5000 years of Judeo-Christian experience and a few billion Christians need to get busy and make Jamie's dream come true.
Give me a break...
la lucha sigue
la lucha sigue
Good point. At some point
Good point. At some point you have to grow up. Discernment is not a vocation. Get married or take vows, those are the options. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You are either committed to a community or to a spouse and a spouse is not same sex cohabitating partner.
Wow. This is a lot of judging
Wow. This is a lot of judging from "Christians." Can't say I'm surprised. Open your hearts people. Sometimes change is good.
That's a judgement.
That's a judgement.
You lay out your feelings and
You lay out your feelings and open yourself up in a manner that says, "I want you to understand about me."
In a relationship amongst Christ's poorest, will you not be neglecting your spouse, whom you have also given vows to, if you dedicate yourself completely to the neglected? Both have needs and this is natural. When children do come along, will that not divide your time further so that you feel guilty? A dedicated life of solitary commitment seems to be the obvious, but most sacrificial choice. The most Christ-like.
Very seldom do such choices garner a lot of encouragement. They are lives lived unseen except by those who are directly touched by them. But such choices must be answered personally, as is any vocation. And in 2011, in such a noisy society, the calling is hard to hear. But as long as humans have hearts, there will always be someone who will respond.
The author cites the Catholic
The author cites the Catholic Workers communities as a worthy aspiration for the democraphicaly collapsed LCWR orders. Though some charism will be lost, this loss cannot be avoided.
If / when the LCWR orders transition into Catholic Worker type communities, they will have to face the irony that the Catholic Workers have remained very true to the visions and teachings of their founders. The LCWRs have wandered all over the map.
I am glad that there are two versions of women's life available now. They do give young Catholic women interested in religous life valuable options.
Jamie, thank you so much for
Jamie, thank you so much for your creative and thoughtful ideas. It is your kind of observation that will lead us to better and more useful ways of service, ministry and solidarity. The Catholic worker paradigm seems to me to work beautifully for a start. There are interns, college people, people who come for a time and then move on, others who marry and come to the group with their families. The catholic Worker privileges direct service to the poor--that orientation may have to be broadened to include a variety of ministries.
How can we get from here to there? Religious within communities must open up with invitations, Women who intuit that a time with the community would benefit them must take the chance. Openness on both sides will lead to an enlivening for all.
Thank you, Jamie.
I agree with other comments.
I agree with other comments. The gender discrimination isn't necessary. There are plenty of men who aspire to the life of a lay brother.
And the vision of religious life in community was key to both men and women... and has to a great extent vanished. For both men and women.
Don't discount the priesthood, either. There are plenty of men who feel called to priesthood, but to priesthood in the context of a religious community, as opposed to the rather singular diocesan life.
The sad thing is that those who feel this way don't find homes among progressive congregations where there seems to be a sustainable future.
In light of recent events, they can't even find it in the Legionaries.
As I look back on my on vocational discernment, I'm glad I didn't enter the order of lay brothers to which I was an aspirent. Because what attracted me to that life, what would have sustained me in a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is no longer there.
I really enjoy reading
I really enjoy reading Manson's articles, increasingly thoughtful, authoritative, balanced and informative. Just saying.
"Just saying" what, exactly?
"Just saying" what, exactly?
Make Jamie Editor in Chief
Make Jamie Editor in Chief
Like some of the comments
Like some of the comments before, I am a little unclear as to the purpose of this article. If the main idea is the statement inviting "women religious to expand their contemplation to include the voices of young adult women who share a deep understanding of their calling and charism," I agree.
As a thirty-year-old consecrated religious, there are, however, pieces to which I must speak. "Unlike women religious, they (young, Catholic, non-vowed religious) do not experience some of the securities that come with religious life. They have to find employment on their own, pay their rent, maintain a household on their own and, in some cases, provide their own medical insurance. If they lose their jobs, there is no safety net to carry them through until they find work again." I find my own employment. It is my salary that pays our rent. I have toilets that need fixing, a yard for which to care, grocery shopping to do, and an automobile to maintain. My medical insurance comes through my employment. I do have a small window of safety net in terms of unemployment, but to say that the rest is not present in my life, and in those with whom I share community, would be untrue.
With our congregation in the exact space of contemplative prayer of which you speak, I will definitely invite non-vowed religious into the conversation as well.
It is devastating to see how
It is devastating to see how much meanness
comes out in some of these comments.
Mr. Anonymous, you who addres Ms. Manson as
"Baby"; is that how you think a gentleman, much less
a Christian, should deport himself? Disgusting!
"You shall know these Catholics by their bile and their gall . . ."
"Unlike males who seek the
"Unlike males who seek the priesthood"
Men do not seek the priesthood they are called to it by the Holy Spirit and the Church.
And so some would be so
And so some would be so arrogant as to think that women are not called to the priesthood by the Holy Spirit?
I would not call Holy Mother
I would not call Holy Mother Church arrogant.
So I must infer from your
So I must infer from your response that you are wisely backpedaling on your previous assertion that the Holy Spirit calls only MEN to the priesthood.
Which leaves only the arrogant ideas of arrogant men, who still have nothing upon which to base their cruel misogyny, except man-made dogma that seeks only to perpetuate flawed "tradition", and an all-male "authority" that seeks only to perpetuate itself for the sake of its own survival.
I do not confuse Holy Mother Church with mortal MEN.
As are women. And then they
As are women. And then they seek entrance and are told no, so they seek another way and are told they have just excommunicated themselves. I say hardly.
Anonymous on Oct. 28, 2011.
Anonymous on Oct. 28, 2011.
You stated:
("Unlike males who seek the priesthood"
Men do not seek the priesthood they are called to it by the Holy Spirit and the Church.)
----------------------------------------
Sorry, but men seeking to apply to seminaries, have to fill out registration forms, too. They have to be interviewed, submit to psycyhological profiles, have references submitted as well.
If the men don't step forward and initiate this process----the Holy Spirit isn't going to carry the man up to the bishop and state, "Take him as a priest."
How do you explain that the
How do you explain that the Dominican sisters of Mary in ten years have more tha 100 members and are opening new houses in CA and TX? Could it be their habit, community prayer and obedience to the magisterium?
Add the Dominican Sisters of
Add the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia in Nashville to this list. Their community is larger than it has ever been in its 150+ year history, and they have recently had to expand their novitiate because they more candidates than they could accommodate. While they may have had only 9 candidates for first profession in 2010, that's 9 more than the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, the Dominican Sisters of St Catharine, Kentucky (now the Dominican Sisters of Peace), and the Sisters of Loretto have had combined in 25 years.
A young women from my parish
A young women from my parish in downtown Madison Wisconsin recently went to join the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia. We have also sent women to other orthodox, traditional Orders including the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal and Sisters of Life. No young women here seem interested whatsoever in the LCWR type communities of mostly elderly liberal women in lay clothes.
For some of the novices you
For some of the novices you mention it may very well be that they are attracted to the outer trappings (habits) or other factors. However, lack of orthodoxy or adherence to certain practices is not necessarily why communities (of any kind) die out.
Past a certain point, the members simply cannot take in new people. I say it this way because this could apply to Catholic religious communities or even the (now gone) Shakers. Communities reach a certain point where the average age is so high the members cannot physically (or in some cases mentally) handle the stress of the training of new members. It is a syndrome that feeds upon itself - with no new members the average age goes up and so on down the line. Furthermore, if the culture of the organization was NOT to solicit actively the joining of new members (in the past, a large supply of females who had few opportunities in the secular world ensured that religious orders need not advertise for novices or actively search), you can easily see how they got there in the first place. If the community is large, the aged members of the one branch might be able to join another branch and be cared for, but that is not always possible.
A male friend of ours felt a calling to join a religious community. He searched for a very long time, and found that there were MANY communities that were not even accepting new members. The current members were simply aging out and the local communities were fading. He ended up joining a well-known order which still takes in novices, but it took a great deal of time. Additionally, he had some money put by from his former career, and there was much negotiation concerning what would happen with these funds. He is very happy now. There are many members of his community. Some are priests and some are not (he is not -- he is a brother). The order has both conservative and liberal members and is doing just fine. And yet, the average age is still on the high side.
To make generalizations such as the writer has made (and many have echoed) belies a lack of understanding of how human organizations, and humans IN organizations, function. This is a HUMAN problem -- not a political/dogmatic problem.
--Andy Jo--
But how can an article like
But how can an article like this not make use of some generalities? You and I have the advantage of responding with our own specifics, but since the author isn't writing this as a doctoral dissertation or a research article, it is not - nor should it - go into many specifics. She is however addressing some overall themes of what is happening in religious life today, which no matter how many novices enter any specific traditional orders (which is not the case for all traditional orders, by the way), it is not the point of the essay.
Forgive the confusion, but my
Forgive the confusion, but my reply was not to the main article but to the commenter above.
--Andy Jo--
Anonymous on Oct. 28,
Anonymous on Oct. 28, 2011.
You stated:
"How do you explain that the Dominican sisters of Mary in ten years have more tha 100 members and are opening new houses in CA and TX? Could it be their habit, community prayer and obedience to the magisterium?"
------------------------------------------
The Dominicans had more members than that entering. But they did not all pronounce vows---nor stay to pronounce final vows. At the most---nine out of ten become novices. Seven pronounce First Vows. Four pronounce Final Vows. And maybe two make it to Silver Jubilee.
Wearing a habit is interesting in the beginning---but after awhile---the first enthusiasm wear off.
After awhile the religious realizes that this habit is a symbol of her religious faith---something from the quaint past, that has very little to say to the people of the 21st Century.
The fact still remains that
The fact still remains that in ten yeras the Sisters of Mary went from four sisters to one hundred. Their Michigan house is full, and now sisters are opening houses in Texas ans Californis. As far as the 25th jubilee, they have only been in existance for eleven years. The question is why are bright young women choosing a traditional community rather than choosing a "modern community?"
As I mentioned, many orders
As I mentioned, many orders are no longer taking applicants. This is a human problem, as I noted above. Frankly, whether the order is traditional or not, if a person has a calling they will go to where they can answer it. If the traditionalist orders are answering it, fine. If the new novices stay or not, time and their vocations will tell.
With regard to habits... I personally don't care, and I have known many nuns who don't care either. It is not an issue for them. Some choose to wear a habit, and some do not. Some feel more comfortable after a lifetime (or because they simply "feel" it and love it), and some do not. We in the secular world imbue the habit with far more significance than it actually has. Most habits reflect regular dress of when the order was founded. It was designed to be a "uniform" and never changed. It looks special now, but it wasn't special when some of the orders were formed.
Frankly, I have always been able to tell a nun (in or out of habit) at several paces. For those who have found their calling, their "habit" is their composure, their demeanor, and their appearance of inner peace. Said another way, they wear their habit on their soul whether or not they wear it on their body.
To go on about such externalia is really to devalue their work and their commitment. Whether we as secular individuals 'like' or 'dislike' nuns in or out of habits has to do with US - not them.
--Andy Jo--
The problem with youthful
The problem with youthful vocations is the same for women as for men. I was a 13-year old boy when I entered the seminary for the priesthood. I was very pliable because of the deep and early indoctrination of guilt-and-fear theology. By age 25 I was beginning to see through the guilt-and-fear trauma that made me so receptive to vocational appeals.
The exaggeration of faith at the expense of reason became a much larger problem for me over time. Dominion faith/culture still hypes faith and diminishes the role of reason. Faith built on guilt-and-fear indoctrination, and dismissive of reason, is not solid ground for an enduring religious vocation, whether to the priesthood or sisterhood.
http://www.secondenlightenment.org/Adult%20Faith%20Study.pdf
The Sisters of Charity of
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth are on the brink of extinction for many reasons. In their media center, they have several books by Matthew Fox, a former Dominican who was expelled from his community because of his heretical views, and the sisters were encouraged tgo attend his lecture when he was in Louisville. There are also numerous books by Joan Chittister,but one will not find Raymond Arroyo's biography of Mother Angelica, a consecrated woman who founded a Caholic media empire and two religious orders.
When D'Souza was president of the community, Pope Benedict invited her and other leaders of reigious communities to join him in prayer in Rome, and D'Soiza refused the invitation eventhough she had traveled all over the world spewing her radical theology. How do you refuse an invitaion from the successor of Sy. Peter.
It is so saad to see a once vibrant community whose members were CEO's at hospitals and presidents of colleges to now have a community where the average age is near 80, all because of the faulty implementation of the direactives of Vatican LL
Thank you Jamie. The
Thank you Jamie.
The progressive religious welcome your profound insights of inclusivity as we discern our new paradigm of an evolving regenerative polity. Even though we are in our 80's a vibrant persistence gives awankening assurance we will establish a post capitalist degenderized charism.
While you are online, you may
While you are online, you may want to view the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist where you will see young women religious as compared to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth where the average age is approaching eighty, You may then want to aske yourself how is it possible that ten years ago, there were four sisters and now there are more than one hundred. Could the Holy Spirit be at work?
I'm immediately going to the
I'm immediately going to the website of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. They sound fantastic!
Sounds to me like they have a brilliant implementation of the directives of Vatican II!
Matthew Fox is absolutely tough and authentic, and is a devout follower of Christ. I've loved all of his work that I have seen.
Hooray for the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth!
And God bless all of us Catholics, of whatever persuasion. Come Holy Spirit, guide and inspire. And keep me outspoken.
I went to their website
I went to their website (Sisters of Charity of Nazareth) and looked around. Here is what I see:
* Obituaries of older sisters (some in habits, some not, all within 10 years' age of each other, with impressive life accomplishments) where they are honored by the community.
* Information about the order's worthy initiatives
* Information about how I can donate, with a list of projects or "to the greatest need"
* Information about how I could join if I were a young woman interested in the religious life. They feature profiles of young women who have joined the community, and a blog by another young woman who became part of the community.
* Information on other programs (such as retreats)
* History of the order
Vibrant, interesting, engaged, and committed sisters of different ethnic backgrounds but all a part of a community... Nothing shocking. Nothing anyshere near unorthodox...
I'll probably make a donation.
--Andy Jo--
You weren't able to access
You weren't able to access the internal (members only) portion of their website. Had you been able to do so, you'd have heard a much different tune!
OK... So I guess I will have
OK... So I guess I will have to take your word for it.
Nope. I won't.
First you say if I visit them I will see the horror of their ways, and that they are on their way out ("on the brink of extinction")-- no young women will join them. Then I see women who join them discussing their choice on the order's website, members dressed in habits or in modest secular clothes. We all put our best foot forward on websites, so I'm taking this into account.
Now you say there is a "members only" area to access where I could see the evil they espouse if I could access it. Can you? Somehow, this evil is always 10 paces away and I can't see it because I am not one of the cognoscenti, but you can see it clearly.
Sorry. I don't have personal experience of this order, but I simply cannot take your statements at face value.
--Andy Jo--
No religious order will put
No religious order will put anyrthing unorthodox on their website. It is called CYA.
This is exactly how I feel,
This is exactly how I feel, thank you for this article.
More traditional orders are an attractive option for many, but are not the vocation most women are called to.
I would guess that the group Ms. Manson is referring to is a much larger demographic than those who are called to traditionalist orders. This is especially since many young Catholics today urgently seek to realize both practical and spiritual ideals.
Please understand, I am not disparaging traditional religious life.
I used to think of this mass exodus from religious life was concerning. Now I see that we women have been watering of seeds of a new and truly abundant harvest of vocations.
Same sex couples? Does this
Same sex couples? Does this columnist not see vocation as a path in friendship with Christ, of growth in holiness and hope of heaven? People living unrepentantly in manifest grave sin are not going to get to heaven by simply doing charity service work. If you (or I) die in mortal sin, things are not going to be happy for you (or me) in the hereafter.
We are all called to holiness. We're all called to chastity. Fellow young adult Catholic women, avail yourselves of the confessional on a regular basis. Daily Mass. Eucharistic Adoration. Daily mental prayer. Rosary. Yes, certainly service to the poor. If you have no interest in these things, simply cannot succeed at making them a regular part of your life, then you do not have a vocation to consecrated life in the Catholic Church.
"Do we really choose our
"Do we really choose our faith or is it largely chosen for us by our parents and the culture in which we happen to be born?"
With The Four Pillars of the Kingdom, author Joe Brooks challenges us to assess whether our relationship with Christ is a chosen faith or an inherited dogma. Is it a growing passion or a stagnant obligation? The Four Pillars of the Kingdom seeks to start the conservation that leads to an understanding of what we believe and why we believe it.
I challenge you to read this book and really think about your relationship with Christ. Is it even a relationship, at all? Or is it just an obligation? A responsibility? He has chosen you, but have you actually chosen to follow Him?
We live in a self-perpetuating cycle wherein we are handed a faith that is nothing more than a cultural or family institution. We then take this set of beliefs for granted and are content to go through the motions, never aspiring to a real relationship with Christ or with our fellow believers. We are sleepwalking towards eternity, being lulled by a complacent institutional Christianity rather than seeking an active, vibrant one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ One has to wonder, how many people, self-proclaimed Christians, many of whom we see in church with us every week, never really even made a conscious choice to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. How many people inherited their faith, have maintained it, and adhere to it publicly, but have never actually asked Jesus to be lord of their lives? How many of us are unwittingly destined to hear Christ tell us, 'I never knew you; depart from Me.'"
Kindle version available now. Print version available soon
http://amzn.to/FourPillarsKindle
Read excerpts here:
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I am wondering if the many
I am wondering if the many Catholic Women who are desirous of serving the Church and looking for a religious community connection and relationship have made an inquiry to any religious community to which they are attracted. Many congregations have associates programs or third orders which include lay people in many, if not all of the activities meetings, retreats and works of the religious congregation. I am sure many of the congregations would welcome a chance to talk anyone who has an interested in a deeper spiritual connection and a participation in community.
"Perhaps most challenging of
"Perhaps most challenging of all, these young women do not enjoy the sustenance that comes with a life of prayer, contemplation and community. Young women are as in need of this support as any of the sisters engaged in similar work."
In my late 30s, I'm not sure I still qualify as young, but I completely agree with this sentiment and it sums up my 10-plus year quest for community. In my early 20s, I was a Jesuit Volunteer and lived in community with other volunteers for a year while engaged in social service/social justice work where we also shared dinners together, prayed together, and shared weekly spirituality and community activities. Never was there a time in my life that I felt more balanced and supported. At the same time, it was also a time when I felt most challenged and experienced the most growth and development in terms of my spirituality, in spite of 16 years of Catholic education and a degree in world religions. Ever since then, I have sought some type of community experience, but have been unable to find anything that fulfills my as-yet undefined call. I have joined two lay associations over the past 10 years, and, while enriching, have found that they do not go much beyond the surface in terms of relationships, not to mention I am usually the youngest by two decades or more. Unlike my Jesuit Volunteer days, I am now married and have a four-year-old child, which presents its own set of challenges and a need to strike a careful balance; but I believe that in order to support and sustain my commitment to my family, my work, and my church and community involvement, I need the support of a community. Living in community does not seem viable to me at present, as my husband would have no such interest, but there has to be something between that and attending a meeting once a month for an hour and a half (as in the lay associations). I know that I need more. And the charism of the many congregations of both women and men need to find new life and ways of expression, so that the beauty of those charisms can endure for generations to come.
Come Holy Spirit, come!
One option for these women is
One option for these women is to live in a co-op. Co-op living offeran affordable community life style.
http://www.coophousing.org/
The Quakers and others are
The Quakers and others are experimenting with what is called "intentional communities". Some of these young women might find such an initiative interesting.
I have Quaker friends who seek to live their values by living with others of like values (we are talking things like Peace here). They will advocate for their values by how they live as well as what they say.
This is kind of how religious communities formed a centuries ago, and how the early Christians sought to live.
--Andy Jo--
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