religious sightings bright days ahead for catholic religious communities
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eversing a decades-long decline, Catholic religious communities have enjoyed a 19 percent jump in the number of candidates preparing for religious life in the past three years, according to the VocationMatch.com Report on Trends in Religious Life, sponsored by Vision Vocation Guide. That upward trend promises to continue, with fully 71 percent of communities polled reporting an increase in the number of people inquiring about entering religious life. In addition, Vision Vocation Guide reports through VocationMatch.com a 125 percent increase in the past year in the number of readers creating online profiles and requesting information from specific religious communities. This increased interest in vowed religious life is found primarily among younger Catholics, with more than 50 percent of those considering a religious vocation under 30, though a growing number of Catholics over 50—nearly 18 percent of VocationMatch.com’s respondents—are seeking a formal relationship with a religious community.
What attracts people to religious life? Sixty-six percent of all respondents say they are most drawn to religious life by a “desire to live a life of faithfulness to the church and its teachings.” A preference for wearing distinctively religious clothing has also found favor among current discerners. Fifty percent of respondents feel that dressing in a habit is “very important” or “essential” to their vocation. At the same time, 85 percent of those potential habit-wearing priests, brothers, and sisters want to be involved in active ministry in such fields as education, social service, campus ministry, parish work,
preaching, healthcare, and prison ministry. Vocation discerners also report “devotional prayer” and “praying with members of a community” as two of the qualities that most draw them to religious life. Forty-two percent believe living in community to be “essential” to their vocation. Fiftythree percent of discerners say they do not consider it important that they live with people their own age. Those considering religious life are very aware of the challenges any life commitment poses. Fortyfive percent rate restrictions on personal freedom and the discipline of prayer as challenging or the most challenging aspects of religious life. A slightly fewer 43 percent rate simple living among the most significant challenges they face, and 41 percent rate celibacy as a significant struggle. As for their impression of those in religious life, vocation discerners express surprise at “how normal” and “how happy” those in religious life are and express admiration for the “profound sense of joy” and “heroic generosity” of sisters, priests, and brothers.
Response to climate change means care for creation
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fter leading a team of 20 Catholic men and women religious to a United Nations conference on climate change last November in Nairobi, Kenya, U.S. Maryknoll Father John Brinkman said that “global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures . . . but protecting both the human environment and
the natural environment” and following God’s command to “take care of other created beings with love and compassion.” Quoting the late Pope John Paul II, Brinkman, a member of Maryknoll’s commission on ecology and religion, said, “God has endowed humanity with reason and ingenuity that distinguish us from other creatures. It is very unfortunate that we have not always used these endowments wisely.” VISION 2008
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