Link to video of address (in the box on the right, click on USCCB 11-18-09 Part 1. Starts at time: 55:35)

Presentation to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

by Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC
Executive Director of the National Religious Vocation Conference

November 18, 2009

I WOULD LIKE to extend my sincere thanks to His Eminence, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap., chair of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, for his kind invitation to address this assembly.  I have been asked to share with you the results of the landmark study on Recent Vocations to Religious Life that was commissioned by the National Religious Vocation Conference and conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and to offer some reflections on how this research pertains to your Episcopal ministry.  Please know that I consider this invitation not only a distinct honor for the NRVC, but I also accept it as an affirmation of the priority this conference is giving to religious life and its future in this country.

Prior to this project, no study of religious vocations on this scale had ever been done before. The only evidence we had was purely anecdotal.  Our purpose in undertaking this project was to gather the necessary data that would identify who is entering religious life today and the characteristics of the religious institutes that are receiving and retaining new members. The goal of our research was to highlight the best practices in vocation promotion and religious formation.

You have been provided with a brief summary of our major findings.  I also invite you to read the full executive summary, which is in English and Spanish, or the entire study report, which may be found on our website at www.nrvc.net.

 
Scope of NRVC vocations study
Our entire research project consisted of four major components: 
 

• In the spring of 2008 a survey was sent to all major superiors of both men’s and women’s canonically recognized religious institutes and societies of apostolic life in the United States.  This also included those emerging communities that are aspiring for canonical recognition as a religious institute.  Mailing lists were obtained from the three conferences of major superiors.  This survey focused on the characteristics of the religious institute, the lifestyle of its members, the characteristics of its vocation and formation programs, including the number of candidates/postulants, novices, temporary and finally professed who entered in the last fifteen years.  Our responding institutes account for well over 80 percent of the women and men religious in this country.
• A separate survey was then sent to every new member who entered within the last fifteen years in each religious institute that responded to the previous questionnaire.  This survey focused on the demographic characteristics of the new members, what attracted them to religious life and their particular religious institute, and what sustains and challenges them in the religious life.  Our response rate for this second survey was approximately 40%.
• We then conducted three focus groups of new entrants from selected religious institutes.  These groups were held in Chicago, Washington, DC, and San Antonio.
• Finally, CARA conducted an in-depth study of eight religious institutes that have experienced some success in attracting and retaining new members in recent years. 

It is important that I clarify at the onset of this presentation that this research was conducted independently of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation to women religious in the United States and the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.  In fact, we were well into the second phase of our research when the first Vatican investigation was announced.

Although the results of this study are sobering, at the same time, the responses of our newer entrants engender great hope for the future of religious life.  In many ways, our study has confirmed that part of the richness of religious life lies in its diversity of charisms, lifestyles, and ministries that have always been a hallmark of religious institutes in this country.

 
Summary of major findings
It is no surprise to anyone that men and women religious are a shrinking and aging population.  Compared to the mid-sixties when the number of religious reached its peak at about 23,000 priests, 12,500 brothers and about 180,000 sisters and nuns, the religious population has decreased by approximately 65 percent.  According to the latest statistics, there are less than 13,000 religious priests, 5,000 religious brothers, and 59,000 religious sisters and nuns.[1] About 75 percent of men and more than 90 percent of women religious are age 60 and over.  For those men and women religious who are under 60, the majority are in their 50s, with only 1 percent under 40.

Although the number of religious is considerably lower, we need to look at this phenomenon within the broad spectrum of religious life.  The truth is that throughout history men and women religious have always made up a small percentage of our Catholic population.  The temptation is to compare the high numbers of the fifties and sixties as the norm, when in actuality, they were an anomaly.  It is my hope that this study will serve as a more realistic benchmark for tracking future trends in religious vocations for this century.  

Our study shows that men and women continue to respond to God’s mysterious call to live a life of consecrated chastity, poverty, and obedience.  We identified nearly 4,000 men and women who are either in initial formation or who had professed final vows within the past 15 years.  This number most likely is higher since some religious institutes either did not participate in the survey and/or did not provide complete information on their newer members.  

Our research seems to confirm what the National Religious Vocation Conference has tracked for the past three years through our Vision VocationMatch statistics, which is that younger people are beginning to look at religious life again as a viable option.[2]  Interestingly, of the newer religious surveyed, 43 percent are under the age of 30.  This is important, because even though they may be a small percentage of religious, they will be the ones who will carry the torch of religious life into the future.

 
Characteristics of newer members to religious life
What do these newer members look like?  Our research shows that they are more diverse in ethnic and racial background, age, and life experience.  Compared to their finally professed counterparts who are 94 percent white/Caucasian, 21 percent of the newer entrants surveyed were of Hispanic/Latino/a background, 14 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 6 percent were African or African American. Candidates are older, with 30 the average of age of men at entrance and 32 for women.  Seventy percent of new members held at least a bachelor’s degree upon entrance while more than 90 percent were employed in full-time positions.  Seventy three percent attended Catholic schools for at least some part of their education and seventy percent were engaged in some form of ministry either on a full-time or volunteer basis.

Newer members say they are drawn to religious life primarily by a sense of call, a desire for prayer, spiritual growth, and clearly for younger members, a deeper commitment to the Church.  More than three fourths of institutes of men (78 percent) and two-thirds of institutes of women (66 percent) have at least one person currently in initial formation.  As a testimony to the strength of diversity in religious life, these institutes represent a wide variety of lifestyles, ministries, charisms, and spiritualities.  The institutes though that are most successful in attracting and retaining members at this time, would be characterized as following a more traditional style of religious life in which members live together in community and participate in daily Eucharist, pray the Divine Office, and engage in devotion­al practices together. They also wear a religious habit, work together in common apostolates, and are explicit about their fidelity to the Church and its teachings. All of these characteristics and practices are especially attractive to the young people who are enter­ing religious life today, the members of the millennial generation.

It is important to remember that this study is presenting us with a snapshot of who is entering religious life today.  It is not necessarily a predictor of the future generations who will be coming to religious life.  Generations will continue to change as they are meant to do, which poses a perennial challenge in the areas of recruitment and formation.


Hope for the future of religious life
Despite the challenges presented by the changing demographics of religious institutes identified by our research, our study affirms that the Holy Spirit continues to inspire and guide the Church as evidenced by the founding of new religious institutes, the multitude of charitable works established by religious, and most encouraging, the zeal and passion for the gospel and hope for the future embraced by our newer members.

Faithful to their founding missions and charisms, religious sisters, brothers, and priests have contributed to a remarkable legacy in the building of our nation. Their rich array of selfless responses to the needs of the poor and the powerless, eventually led to the creation of the expansive Catholic education, health care, and social service systems we celebrate today.  As important as these ministries were and are, even more important to the life of the Church is the professed witness of vowed women and men who give of themselves freely and totally to the Church and to all humanity, simply out of their profound love for an unconditionally loving God.  It is impossible to imagine a Church without that particular form of witness which has inspired countless others to live faith-filled lives in service to God and the Church.

Pope John Paul II affirmed this sentiment in his Introduction to Vita Consecrata.  The Holy Father wrote, “In effect, the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission…the consecrated life is also a precious and necessary gift for the present and future of the People of God, since it is an intimate part of her life, her holiness and her mission.”[3]

Our research, however, does raise some concerns.  When asked to rate the encouragement they received when they first considered entering their religious institutes, newer entrants ranked family members (parents, brothers, and sisters), people in the parish, and diocesan priests as giving the least encouragement when they first considered entering their religious institute.  (30% said they were very much encouraged by parents, 22% were very much encouraged by siblings, 31% were very much encouraged by people in the parish, and most surprisingly, only 17% were very much encouraged by diocesan priests.)  Interestingly, these percentages substantially increase (62% for parents; 48% for siblings; 52% for people in the parish; and 36% for diocesan priests)currently receive in their life and ministry as a member of their religious institute. when asked about how much encouragement they

The NRVC’s hope is that this study serves as an impetus to increase our joint efforts with religious institutes, dioceses, Catholic educators, and families in creating a culture of vocation within our Church, which, was identified in our study as one of the best practices for vocation promotion.  This was also one of the pastoral goals stipulated in the pastoral plan of the 2002 North American Continental Congress on Vocations.  Although I gratefully acknowledge your vigorous efforts at building this vocation culture in your own dioceses, this research reminds us that there still is more to be done.

 
Appeal to the bishops
On behalf of all religious, I humbly come before you asking not only for your prayerful support for vocations to the consecrated life, but I come asking for your cooperation in promoting consecrated life as a viable, joyful, and grace-filled option for the men and women in your dioceses.

If I may, I would like to share with you some simple and practical ways in which this can easily be done.

• First, I would encourage you to meet with the major superiors and religious in your diocese to discuss the results of this research.  I am deeply appreciative to many of you who, as part of your ongoing communication with religious, have taken this initiative already.  Please know that we have posted on our website questions pertaining to each of the study’s major findings that may be of assistance to you in your planning of such occasions. 
• Second, I would ask you to make vocation promotion a priority during your tenure as ordinaries within your dioceses.  Speaking publicly about vocations to both priesthood and consecrated life as often as you are able, in your homilies, instructions, and talks, especially to the young people in your diocese, gives prominence to this priority.  Young people desperately need someone in Church leadership who can call forth their gifts and talents and who will lovingly challenge them to share generously in the service of the larger community of believers.  
• Finally, I would invite you to consider providing a structure in your diocesan vocation offices and a component in your vocation programs for the promotion of consecrated life.  Vita Consecrata states that “Bishops are asked to welcome and esteem the charisms of the consecrated life and to give them a place in the pastoral plans of the Diocese.”[4]  If religious life, like priesthood, is a gift to the local church, clergy, religious, and laity all need to share in the responsibility for its promotion.      

In his homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2008, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, eloquently used the image of a gothic cathedral and its stained-glass windows to reflect on our particular vocations within the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ.  He noted that from the outside the windows appear dark, but on the inside, they come alive with the light passing through them and are resplendent with beauty.  The Holy Father then said, “It follows that we who live the life of grace within the church’s communion are called to draw all people into this mystery of light.”[5]

The Pope then prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would “grant the church in America a renewed sense of unity and purpose, as all—bishops, clergy, religious, and laity—move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another.” [6]    

In the spirit of the Holy Father’s words, if we are to move forward in our promotion of religious vocations, we must move forward together.  To do this effectively requires collaboration, not competition.  It requires corporate, not individualistic efforts.  It requires appreciation, support, and respect for the important, yet distinct role, each of us plays in building up the Mystical Body of Christ.

This is no easy task, as Pope Benedict gently acknowledged when he asked the clergy and religious present in St. Patrick’s to “forgive the wrongs we have suffered and put aside all anger and contention.”  He went on to say that “If we are to be true forces of unity, let us be the first to seek inner reconciliation through penance.” [7]


Need for collaboration and communion
All of us are well aware of the tensions and divisions that sometimes come between the hierarchy and religious in this country, yet much of this dissipates when our conversations focus not on our differences, but on our common love for Jesus Christ, the Church, and our own respective vocations.  I cannot help but think of the many young people who love Jesus Christ and are seeking to discover their path in life, who look at the Church from the outside and only see the darkness of the windows unaware of the glorious light within. Let us be a beacon for them.  Let us lead them inside the Church together, through the witness of our unity, love, and joy and so that they may share in the gift of God’s precious invitation.

All of us in the Church share a communion of vocation.  My life as a Holy Cross Brother is complemented by the ordained priests, other religious, as well as the single and married men and women who make up the fabric of my life.  Their faithful witness of following God’s invitation to live a life of holiness only nourishes me and confirms me in my commitment to religious life.  As St. Paul says, each member of the body is given to us as “manifestations of the Spirit given for the good of all” (I Cor. 12:7).

So, for the good of all of God’s people, let us invite together a new generation of priests, sisters, and brothers, not just for the sake of the Church, but for the sake of the communion of vocation we all share as men and women, consecrated, lay, and ordained, united in faith by our baptism and by our love for Jesus Christ and the Church.  May our mutual efforts be truly blest.

 
[1] Statistics highlighted are from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).  http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm.

[2] For more information, please consult http://www.vocation-network.org/articles/show/186.

[3] Vita Consecrata, 3.

[4] Vita Consecrata, 48.

[5] Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, April 20, 2008, ORIGINS, May 1, 2008, vol. 37, n. 36, p. 754.

[6] Ibid. p. 755.

[7] Ibid.

Summary of major findings prepared for the bishops
Nov. 18, 2009 press release