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February 5, 2008Nuns, Friars, Student Loans…American Papist is unhappy with the tone of this BBC report on the dwindling numbers of monks and nuns. I’m not that bothered by it. It is the BBC after all. I’m more interested in the breathless pronouncement that:
Well, yes. Common sense says the numbers will continue to very swiftly drop for the next 5-10 years, as the vowed religious from the pre-Vatican II heyday of vocations (more priests, nuns and monks from 1930-1960 than ever before or since in the history of the world) begin to reach their culminations and die. Articles like this stay focused on that huge mid-twentieth century aberration and neglect the truth that religious vocations are a radical and counter-cultural way of living that have - by necessity and design - always been “minority” lifestyles, lives lived in service to the church and the rest of the world. So, really, things are simply returning back to “normal” in a manner of speaking. And just in time for the great die-off of consecrated religious we are seeing a new flourishing of vocations - every year the numbers get a little bigger - in both the US and Europe. We will never see a return to the outsized, huge numbers that came (and went) with the baby boomers, but vowed religious lives spent in service to the sick, the young, the poor, the tired and the old will always have their takers, and the monastic life will always have its appeal. Note that here in the United States one great modern monastery has already been built and I know of at least three or four more “big” communities in the works, one of which is meant to house 80 nuns. Smaller houses are also flourishing. Asia and Africa are hotbeds of vocations and even post-Christian Europe is seeing renewed interest - small scale, but remarkable - in vowed religious lives. Worldwide, there are actually more seminarians studying for the priesthood than at any time since 1960. Interestingly, even Evangelicals are feeling a tug toward monastic prayer and practice. Enormous student loans are a big impediment to many young people looking at religious life. Entering an order means divesting oneself of all goods and debts. Thankfully a few organizations are springing up to help in that area. Meanwhile, Deacon Greg has a moving piece up about the death of a young priest. http://theanchoressonline.com/2008/02/05/nuns-friars-student-loans/trackback/ 5 Responses to “Nuns, Friars, Student Loans…” |
February 5th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I read the following at Catholic World News:
“After L’Osservatore Romano reported a dramatic drop in the membership of the world’s religious orders, the Vatican has issued a correction pointing to a much gentler decline.
Between 2005 and 2006, L’Osservatore Romano reported, the number of male and female religious in the world dropped by nearly 95,000. The entire religious population now stands at just over 945,000.
However, on the day after those figures were published in the Vatican newspaper, the Vatican press office corrected the record. Father Ciro Benedettini, the deputy director of the press office, said that the accurate figures showed a decline of just 7,230 over that one-year period.”
[edited to admit link- admin]
February 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Thanks, GCM…that’s a PRETTY BIG mistake!
February 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Let us also not forget as Pope Benedict often reminds us; Quality over quantity; it’s holiness not “numbers” that count. It was only during these past few weeks though Father Apostali talking about Bishop Fulton Sheen, did I become aware of the “Bella Dodd” communist conversion and story (she personally brought into the priesthoold almost 1000 “unfaithful” communists in an attempt to take down the Church). Well, THAT explained a lot! The good news is, that generation is almost gone by attrition. The new vocations are of the John Paul II generation; passionatly Catholic! I have great hope!
February 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Dear Miss A,
First, I thought it was more of your brilliant prose. But I do have 2 comments. An evangelical is someone who witnesses they were saved by God’s love and it is available to all. By using the term to define one specific group of conservative Protestants, Catholics are excluding themselves. Many, if not most, Catholics are entitled to call themselves evangelical and should do so. You, for instance, are definitely an evangelical. I believe you have also been born again in Christ.
By using the terms correctly, it is much easier for Christians to see just how much more alike we are than how different. You are much closer to the people you call evangelicals than you are to the secular humanists.
Maybe, if all evangelicals pointed out to our non-Christian friends that when they use the term “evangelicals” or refer to the “religious right” in a derogative manner, they are talking about us, our friends would not be able to demonize other Christians quite so easily. Maybe they would begin to see all Christians in a better light.
I have had the idea of joining a smei-contemplative order of nuns for several years. It hasn’t been possible due to my age. I was even willing to convery from Lutheranism. Maybe, I can have my cake and eat it, too. Thank you for telling me about it.
Regards,
Sarah Kuvasz
February 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Sarah, have I told you lately that I love you?