There’s been a lot of media around the topic of declining numbers of Catholic sisters and nuns. Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining, a recent article from Catholic News Service, highlights a couple of arguments about why the decline in number.
“Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla, author of Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, said the principal cause for the decline was that many religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity.”
Father Giancarlo Rocca, a scholar of the history of religious orders, disagrees saying “the key is the emancipation of women. Previously, he said, the socially approved options for women were either to marry and have children or join a religious order. He said it was no surprise that the orders hardest hit were those founded to teach or to nurse — two professions previously open only to unmarried women.”
Sister Carol Regan, the superior general of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts and a member of the executive council of the International Union of Superiors General, agrees that “women’s movement and the broader choices it gave women also obviously contributed to changed attitudes about religious life.”
One thing I would like to add is that the huge numbers of women religious in the early to mid 20th century was a unique phenomenon in the history of religious life. When we look at the declining numbers, it is most often only in reference to the recent history of religious life, and not its full history. Most of our communities started with a handful of dedicated women who did not set out to bulk up with numbers of entrants, buildings, institutions, and other “measurables”. They started because they wanted to serve God and serve God’s people. They saw a need and they gave their life to helping meet that need. They fell in love with God and were compelled to follow the Spirit’s urging wherever it took them.
Sister Sister Christine Anderson, a Scottish member of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, says it so well in the CNS article:
She described as “rubbish” the idea that religious do not know who they are today.
“I think those who hung in there in religious life know why they are there,” she said. “The doors are wide open and they can walk out. Either you say they hung in because they are too scared to move — and that could be true in a few cases — but the majority have hung in because they are on this love quest,” a quest to find God and give themselves completely to him by serving the church and the poor.
The sisters may not be wearing a habit, but things have not changed as much as many people think, Sister Anderson said.
“People joined religious life because they were caught by God; they were grasped by God; they were seeking God in their own lives,” she said.
Have a read of the article and let me know what you think.
Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining
by Cindy Wooden for Catholic News Service (January 9, 2009)
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Speaking as a layperson who grew up during the 60’s, when religious sisters still wore their habits, it seems, at least to me and to my childhood girlfriends who had looked to these Sisters to explain to us what this mystical union they had with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus was, well, it seems the religious orders of Sisters today have lost their ability to sufficiently communicate what this relationship/union/marriage with Christ is to the young women of today.
At the time, we understood how the holy habit, which was blessed, represented how they were separated from the world, set apart for Jesus Christ himself. We understood the three knots represented the holy vows they took. We understood they were the brides of Christ and that they stood apart as a visual representation that Jesus himself was still here among us. Their hearts were eternally united to His. And just as an earthly wife is concerned with what concerns her earthly husband, the Sisters explained and represented to us that the concerns of Jesus, their spouse, were their concerns, as well. We saw visually the consecration of their whole lives to Christ, we saw this by their holy habits, and by their vows, which both separated them from us and at the same time allowed them to give themselves to us more fully. We saw their lives as not just a very sacred lifestyle, but also as a tangible representation of Jesus’ love for us – his children here on earth. He gave us, they told us, His very spouses to care for us in hospital, to teach us in school, and to pray for us continuallywith in enclosure.
The sisters represented Jesus Christ‘ tangible and real love for us as fully and completely as the Priest did at Holy Mass.
This seems to be lost today. When I talk to my niece, who is fourteen, she has little understanding of what it means to be a nun. Even though she goes to Catholic school. She doesn’t seem to grasp what the difference is between the Sister who is principal of her school and her Mom who has a job. The special relationship of the Sister with Jesus is lost on her. To her the Sister is just a single woman who rose to a high position within the teaching profession just as her Mom has done within her own. She sees nothing special about it. I find this to be sad.
I think it is not enough to say simply a nun is a woman who is passionately in love with God. I believe you have to show young women what exactly this means. They know what it means to be passionately in love with an earthly man. They know what marriage and motherhood means – the depth of love the sacrifices. But what words explain what happens when Jesus captures your heart? No words can. As St. Therese once said, “some things are so delicate that if you speak of them they will disappear as the mist does before the morning sun.” You have to show them.
I think many young women would like to see a return to a more stricter discipline and more visual way of being set-apart for Christ. We have an order in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is rather strict, they wear their habits and are preparing to become teaching nun and they are overflowing with young women wanting to give all for Christ. I think young women want to give themselves to a life that they see as really meaning something – something very different from a secular life.
I think some of the changes the Church has allowed have contributed to the empty convents because young women don’t see or understand the difference between the Sisters of these orders and laypersons.
Perhaps God’s plan includes a decline in nuns and monks for this time period. The needs may be met in other ways. Perhaps in the past there was a greater need for nuns and monks, and so there were more. Sometimes a reduction to the core, a casting off of success and growth, is what is needed. The tree drops its leaves in fall to prepare for winter. Spring follows, and the leaves return. The tree lives during the winter, quieter, seemingly inactive to the outside, but alive inside, alive in its proper mode for the season.
I get the impression from the one person mentioned that he’d rather we go back to the days when women weren’t emancipated. Not that there’s anything wrong with having children or joining an order, but I’m glad women have other options, too. Both are too important for people to consider as a vocation because it’s the socially acceptable thing to do, rather than out of a sincere love.
I tend to bristle at the notion that only the cloistered orders survive because they wear habits. When I was thinking about such things, I could’ve cared less about what an order wore, and more that their focus and way of life was more towards the contemplative end of things. They could’ve gone naked, as far as I was concerned.
I wonder if part of the problem is rooted in the fact that there’s still a segment of the Church that doesn’t value the gifts and talents of women, unless they conform to a small, rigidly circumscribed, male-defined notion of femininity. A woman who sits on your particular pedestal isn’t a threat. A woman who bears witness to what God is calling her to be may be scary. Lord knows it’s scary to follow that calling, whatever it is.
the “love quest” sister christine speaks of rings so true for me. i mean, every sister i know–and i know quite a few–are so deep into this very quest that i believe that to be the attraction people have to nuns in general. whether it be my former grade school principal (whom i love and stay in touch with though i graduated in 1978) or my fellow activist nun-friend whom i’ve seen off to jail, the nuns in my life have a dignity about them…. whether they are laughing or crying, working or playing, something just says, “i am in love, and this love cannot be taken from me.” i wish i could claim that same relationship with the god who made us. i’m working on it, though, because these friends show me it is possible.
Sister Julie:
Thank you for posting this article, and your comments on it. I was glad to see you respond that this “decline” is really only relative to the great numbers of Catholic nuns in the immediate past–it really has little to do with the great history of the church.
In regard to habits, I think what most people don’t realize is that the oldest of orders (Benedictines and others) did not begin in habits at all, but simply in the clothing of the poor. They wore practical clothing that was not that much different from what others in society wore. Jen’s comment reflects my belief too: the garments don’t matter, but rather what is most important is an individual’s love of God. If a woman gives herself over to God, then it should be obvious by how she lives out that call–the clothing can only make it more obvious, but it does not (and should not) be the deciding factor in determining that she is a religious.
I take some offense when laypeople think they know what is right for women religious in general. Women religious, and religious orders, are as varied as the individuals that make up the Church. Just as in the Church itself, there is room for all, room for women in habits and room for religious women in “street garb.”
Although it’s a fact that the first half of the 20th presented a boom in religious vocations, I’ve never seen any data about the ratio of religious to the Catholic population before that boom in order to compare with the current data. Without it it’s hard to tell whether there’s a marked decline or not.
Nevertheless, other data do point to a general decline, such as the decline in the priesthood, whose data from the 19th century is more readily available.
I’d actually say that all reasons in the report contributed to the current decline, even if the boom is considered as basis. Yes, changes in the opportunities for women contributed, but why then have male religious vocations declined too when their opportunities remained the same? Surely some religious communities lost their North, with some more easily identified with the heresies of New Age than with orthodox Catholicism.
But I’d venture to suggest that the real problem is very old: secularization. Vocations reflect the degree of commitment by the faithful, how intensely and honestly they live their faith is still the best fomenter of young men and women to consider God’s call to the service of the Church. Therefore, I don’t think that any vocation crisis can be solved without solving the faith crisis of the faithful, also a victim of secularization. In the developed West, apparently “affluenza” is the major cause of this crisis.
As someone said, “what centuries of heresies didn’t accomplish weakening the Christian Faith, affluence did in merely a couple of generations.”
It’s an oversimplification to think that habits make nuns popular. A pretty habit, a popular work–teaching–and lots of money and PR-Blackberries,email, sexy website, videos on YouTube, savvy superiors–all of this offered by only a very few communities– are what make for a lot of postulants. There are a lot of orders that wear habits, including a number of cloistered monasteries, that either aren’t growing or are on the verge of closing. Conversely there are a number of non-habited orders that are attracting candidates, though not at the same rates as they did in the past, which was an aberration.
More than anything, I simply hope that readers recognize the great gift of religious life, the gift of one’s whole self to Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine anything more beautiful than this.
Even in today’s complicated world, with its secularist values, this gift remains a beautiful expression of an individual’s love of God, and God’s love for the world. I firmly believe that declining numbers do not matter–it is a way of life that will continue to enlighten our world, to show us how much God loves us.
In response to PatrickM, I think we will have to agree to disagree. I do not think that your historical data is correct, but it is not worth the argument in this forum. If you wish to email me, we can continue it from there (my email address is available on my own blog, which you can access through this comment).
Thank you, Sister Julie for posting my comments.
I’m not sure those who posted here, Jen and Sophie’s Daughter, understand what is really being said, with regard to the wearing of the habit and a stricter discipline within the orders, by layperson, who “are” the church – the very body of Christ, which each of us layperson or religious is called to serve.
The comments by Sophie’s Daughter and Jen shows that the abandonment of the habit and stricter disciplines of obedience is only the symptom of something much greater and more harmful that is brewing beneath the surface in the new orders.
The lack of understanding that their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are really there to lead them only to a much deeper place within their souls. The place where Self is diminished until it is nothing. The place where what I want means nothing. This is the only place where they or any person can truly unite with Jesus’ heart; and that place is humility. A complete empting of yourself for God. That is your only gift to yourself and to the Body of Christ that matters. That is what makes your vows and the sacrifice of your habit and vows a gift to you and to your brothers and sisters. You are called to be the visible example of Humility to us daily by your very lives. To remind us to do the same.
Their spouse, and my Lord and my God, is meek and humble of heart. His humility led Him to wear the Roman robe soaked with His blood and the crown of thorns for our sake. And whether you are a layperson or religious – He calls you to do the same.
When you say, “I take some offense when laypeople think they know what is right for women religious in general. . . .”
What are you saying about the body of Christ? Regardless of which order you are invited to, by Jesus; once you get there you will hear the same words Peter did when Jesus said to him, “Do you love me?” Our Lord will say the same thing to you as a religious and to me as a layperson. “Feed my Sheep.” He will turn you around away from yourself and your needs and your wants to meet the needs of His suffering, hurting people.
I am not twenty. I have lived awhile. I can tell you from a lifetime of seeking Christ that Humility is the greatest grace you can acquire for without it you cannot be truly united with your Meek and Humble Savior. You cannot be lost in Him. And if He does not Love through you, your gift is without value. You find humility in doing what is not what you want to do; but in what is good for another.
All your vows whether they are religious or marriage vows all will lead you only to this one place. The place of true humility. Mothers and Fathers give up their own desires for their children needs. Wives for their husbands, husbands for their wives. What will those who vowed to serve the children of God, the sheep of the Shepard’s flock give up for them? Give up for Love of Our Lord Jesus Himself. He will always only point you back toward his people and their needs and ask you to sacrifice for them.
I hear so many Militant women’s voices within the church demanding this or that. To be priests, to throw off the constraints of the habit or other disciplines. And I wonder what their meek and humble Spouse thinks of all this “I want” and “I need” and “I demand” and “what about my individual needs.” What of Christ’s needs? What of the needs of the Church, which is the body of Christ made up of laypersons and religious.
Dear Sophie’s Daughter, I have clicked over to your blog and I join my heart with yours in prayer for discernment of your vocation. I would like to offer you two things from my heart to yours. If you have not already read the book, “The Way of Divine Love” by Sister Josefa Melendez, please read it. She was a sister in the order you are considering the words given to her by Our Dear Lord Jesus Himself carrying with them great spiritual grace. The second offering I have for you is this prayer to the Most Blessed Mother. It is very powerful.
Behold Me at thy feet, O Virgin most kind, seeking to obtain through thee, the most important grace of knowing what I ought to do. I desire nothing but to comply perfectly with the Will of thy Divine Son at every moment of my life. Mother of Good Counsel, let me hear thy voice. It will dispel every doubt that troubles my mind.
I trust in thee, being confident that, since thou are the Mother of my Redeemer, thou wilt also be the Mother of my salvation. If thou, O Mary, wilt not send me a ray of the Divine Sun, what light will enlighten me? Who will direct me if thou refusest, who art the Mother of the uncreated Wisdom?
Listen, then, to my humble prayer. Let me not be lost in my uncertainty and instability; lead me along the straight road that ends in life everlasting, thou who art my only hope, and whose hands are full of the riches of virtue and of life, and who dispensest the fruits of honor and holiness.
Sophie’s Daughter, I pray God May grant you the light you seek.
To everyone else, I would like to leave you with the words spoken to me by a very old priest many many years ago. He said simply, “If you do not humble yourself, my child, God will humble you.” This is very true. And I praise and thank God for every humbling I have received through the years, for through them, I have been brought closer into the Heart of my Savior.
Perhaps our vocations are down within our Church because since we no longer humbled ourselves, God is humbling us.
Dear Marie: Thank you for your beautiful prayers, and lovely words.
The habit is not bad. In fact, it is a sacramental which can help sisters pray and live life. On the other hand, it causes attention. Maybe some people are called to that–to be a symbol to others of faith and their vows of charity. But to those who are not called to this, it can be bad. They want to blend in and serve amongst the people, so they can relate to them. Both are good. Neither is bad. People need to realize this with discernment. For the habit does not really matter. It is more about the sister who dwells under it.
Last week our pastor quoted some statistics that there are half as many women religious today as there were in the 60’s and the average age is about 70. Nowadays, church attendance at Sunday Mass is said to be just by 30% of Catholics, and it used to be around 60 to 70% in the 60’s. And anyone who goes to Mass daily can attest that the average age then is about 70 also. So, this anecdotal evidence points to religious life mirroring the practice of the faith by Catholics at large. Which makes sense, since religious don’t grow on trees but in the bosom of Catholic families.
Let’s just pray that Jesus convert our hearts.
I have read a number of comments on this site and have been wondering why there is a decline of nuns today. I grew up in a Catholic home and I have done some research on nuns and found out where the nuns and monks started. I found that monasteries that housed monks and nuns started during the years of the Middle Ages or some may know it as the Medevil Period at which time there was a low point to which religious life in the Chruch had fallen and this gave men and women added reasons to seek spiritual satisfaction. During this time there seemed to be a revival of religion. Unfortunately it was not a healthy revival. People did not return to the pure teachings of Scripture. Instead they turned to asceticism which means extreme self-denial. In practicing asceticism the Christians denied themselves the comforts and pleasures of life and turned to religious meditations and the performance of riligious forms and rituals. During this time nuns practiced asceticism. All monks and nuns abstained from marriage and the monks and nuns devoted their time to praying, reading religious books, and meditating on what they had read. During this time if one wished to be a Christian in a higher sense one would become a monk or nun. Monks and nuns were called “the religious.” However, the differentiation between a higher and lower morality is a false distinction. Even today Roman Catholic priests who serve in regular churches, that is in the world, are called secular priests and those who enter a monastery are called religious preists.
Maybe people in the world today are learning that there is an error in this method which is called ,”monasticism.” The monks and nuns of the past tried to attain holiness by thinking that their sinful heart was cleansed by fleeing from this world.
Women of today can dedicate their life to Christ and live solely for him without wearing the garb as someone had said. Dedicating one’s life to Christ and His Church comes from a willingness to surrender your life to Jesus. Anyone can do this whether they are married, single or working in the world. Read your Bible, it’s all there, the truth and Scripture says the Truth will set you free.
I have read the Book of Galatians, it talks about “Liberty and Legalism”. If we are children of God then we are “liberated by the Gospel, we don’t need legalistic traditions and rituals. I encourage you to read and study scripture. It’s all there. Take care and God Bless.
Some of these comments are absolutely unbelievable.
Hi, I am one of those agnostic secular feminist people that some of you are complaining about. *waves*
For the life of me, I can’t understand why you can’t just focus on being a good person and helping others, as opposed to judging and spending copious amounts of time arguing about the habit.
But what would I know, I’m just a victim of secularization. I would be offended by your comments, but they’re too funny to take seriously.
Have a good one!
Hello Annie,
I believe you are right in that point. A habit is just an object and without the spiritual person under it–is nothing. The point of this post is to determine why there is a decrease of religous life. And although there are many new religous that are heading towards the habitted orders, I don’t think that the habits are the reason for the decrease in un-habbited orders. Personally, I think that it is the stereotype that caused this. Many people who were raised with a stereotype about nuns will not oversome it unlesss they hear otherwise. Perhaps more can be done in Parishes and schools about this. Also many people believe that they will be losing something when they enter an order, but really they are gaining the many blessings of religous life.
Just my opinion, but the decline in numbers in religious congregations has nothing to do with whether or not a habit is worn. For sure, the habit is a visual reminder to us all of God’s love, as it recalls to us that the person wearing it has committed him/herself exclusively to offering that love to the world. Does our world today need visual reminders?? Perhaps. That’s another conversation.
As to the decline in numbers, the answer is complicated. We must look at the changes in both Church and society over the past fifty years, and be gentle with ourselves in remembering that it is very hard to predict the consequences of actions taken or not taken until usually long after the fact. Perhaps what we should focus on at this point is celebrating the diversity of options for consecrated religious life, and get busy about promoting them. So many people don’t even know the life exists! We need to not be shy about talking about religious life, about inviting men and women of all ages to explore religious life. The lived reality of consecrated religious life is changing, diversifying…let’s challenge our religious congregations to make this work of God known — clearly, understandably, joyfully — in whatever form our individual congregations embrace it.
I just wanted to throw in that, though I am in discernment with an order no longer wearing a habit, I am deeply moved when I see young or middle-aged Sisters wearing habits. That visible symbol of their commitment and the focus of their lives is always arresting to me. The unexpected sight of a habited nun in the grocery store or driving down the street is, for me, almost like a mini-meditation, a sudden gift. It is challenging to me consider why I am comfortable with the idea of not eventually wearing the habit when I am so moved by it, and I thank everyone here for the breadth of opinions offered. And, as a yankee liberal feminist, I am sorry, Annie, to see your feelings so hurt by the discussions. I don’t believe the issue here – in the argument for or against habits – is feminism; perhaps secularization (and a general move away from orthodoxy) in just every sphere of life and culture but that doesn’t belong to feminists, even though secularization facilitated feminist progress. (And I don’t think PatrickM in his advocacy for the habit is speaking as a man; I think he is speaking as a spiritual companion who just happens to be our brother rather than our sister).
Just a thought to consider, which someone pointed out to me recently:
People often point to the few Congregations that wear a habit and are receiving large numbers of postulants/novices.
But what if you were to add up all one or two candidates/novices entering the more numerous American Congregations that don’t wear a habit. For example, my own community had two sisters make first profession this year (including me) and two novices. And we are a small Congregation.
The person who posed this question guessed that most likely, there would be many more vocations in the communities that don’t wear a habit than the ones who do. Who knows if this is true, but it is an interesting thought that was new to me.
I’ m just offering this thought to the discussion.
I’m not arguing for or against the habit. I the end, God is calling and people are answering. That’s what really matters. Some feel called to wear a habit – and I think that there is a ministerial need for that as pointed out by some above. Others are called not to wear a habit – and I also think there is a ministerial need for that as well.
testing
Sorry for the above posting. For some reason, I have not been able to post here for the last week or so. It happens occassionally. Didn’t want to write a post if it would just disappear.
I remember one of the posters above mentioned that orders that have a lot of money, good publicity, top-notch websites, YouTubes, videos, etc. get the vocations. I don’t know exactly how that works but I will mention something I find significant…
EWTN will only broadcast highly traditional orders of sisters who wear the habit – preferably and most often the full habit. I assume in their very narrow estimation, nuns without habits aren’t worth their weight in salt. It’s kind of scary that they get away with it. Perhaps sisters that don’t wear the habit should televize some sort of program so they too have a media presence – but that is another issue. Many of those sisters on EWTN come from those congregations that we hear get lots of young vocations. Does anyone see a correlation here? TONS OF FREE, WORLDWIDE TELEVIZED PUBLICITY!!! Now I’m not saying that is the only or main reason they get vocations. But I imagine it is a significant factor. dee
An Indian article addresses the same issues brought up here: Dipping numbers of nuns, priests prompts debate in community (Thaindian News, January 21, 2009).
Re Marie: ‘I think it is not enough to say simply a nun is a woman who is passionately in love with God. I believe you have to show young women what exactly this means.’
Simply wearing a habit will not convey that sentiment. As a matter of fact, I attended 2 catholic schools in the 60’s ( Hawaii and Virginia) and I have very few fond memories of the nuns in habits. (And I was a very compliant child!). I left the church for about 5 years but God would not give up on me. I think back on the people that he put in my path to lead me back to him. None of them were in religious garb. But their love for Christ and their relationship with Him were very real. All that to say, whether God is using you as a conduit to bring someone closer to Him or you are on the receiving end of His message, He will burden both of you until you make a decision to obey Him or not, regardless of what either one of you are wearing.
thank you for your post julie – as a sister – i do not consider my values, my vows, my commitment, nor the values of my congregation any less enduring of religious life values than those who are habitted.
it is amazing to me that while Vatican ll occurred over 40 years ago, some are still trying to go back, as if it (Vaticanll) was a mistake…
PatrickM, I pulled your comments because I’d like to continue this discussion with you in a private forum, especially as it pertains to your view of and relationship with my congregation. I spoke with my IHM Sisters in Leadership and we’d welcome an opportunity to talk about your concerns. Please email me with a workable email and a name and number so that we can continue this discussion. You can find my email on the About page.
Sister Julie,
I find the fact that PatrickM’s comments were pulled from the discussion extremely disappointing! In fact, it is an insult to the rest of us who participated in this discussion. I thought this was an open exchange of ideas for everyone within the body of Christ; but this is outright censorship. No one else can read PatrickM’s opinions? Why because you and the IHM Sisters don’t agree with them?
If you and PatrickM want to continue your discussion privately – fine – but pulling his posts – posts that others have responded to – is an insult to the rest of us.
Life experience, as well as the scandals that have griped the Catholic Church, tell me that if you and the IHM Leadership feel the rest of us cannot even *read* PatrickM’s comments then there is something you are either ashamed of or trying to hide.
Pulling posts that you do not agree with will do more harm than any good you can possibly hope to do. If this is the way you intend to run this discussion board, censoring out anyone who doesn’t agree with you, perhaps you should close it.
Marie
Dear Marie, This is an open conversation and I welcome a variety of opinions, including ones that I don’t agree with. Spend time on the blog and you’ll see that it is rare that I pull comments. However, this is not a forum for people to judge or malign others. I gave PatrickM plenty of room to publicly voice his opinion, which he did at length. He made his point. His last comment, though he intended it to be charitable, was anything but. Had this not happened, I would have left all of PatrickM’s posts regardless of whether I agree with him or not.
My aunt was a nun, who entered in the mid-1930’s. Her order gave up the habit after Vatican II. When I went to her funeral a few years ago I saw on top of her casket her profession cross and the vows which she had written in her own hand, pledging poverty, obedience and celibacy for life. Of course I knew a lot about nuns, but seeing those vows gave me the realization of what being a religous really means. It’s not what you wear but where your heart is.
I also think that since Vatican II there have been many more options for lay people to give their hearts in the same way vowed religious do.
These people, both men and women, can be as radical and counter-cultural as any vowed religious. They are the true seekers, and only One Person can satisfy them. As long as we have people like this in the Church, whether they are vowed or not, we will have the Spirit in our midst.
Is it wrong that a girl wants to wear a habit to encourage her spiritual growth? Personally, I don’t think so. But if we notice, the Pope is taking time to make the Church more conservative than it was directly after Vatican II. What’s wrong with this? The Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and his teachings are infallible. We know that this is God’s plan. We have to accept it. And there are always going to be habited nuns and there are always going to be nuns without habits. We just have to give our faith to God and hope that He will call his laborers to both. May the peace of Christ be with you,
Discerninglife25
DL25 … I don’t think it’s wrong either. I completely agree that there will be women called to different ways of religious life — and this is a GOOD thing for the Church and the world.
Pete … When I entered, we no longer received profession crosses. But two of my very, very dear nuns, Sister Helen Glaser and Sister Annunciata Grix gave me one when I became a novice. It is one of my dearest belongings. Both of them have gone home to God, but they both remain alive in my heart and I trust they are watching out for me.
i think that people make the diffrence between religion and faith !! i hope that institutionlized religion will vanish.