Religious Life Today Storymap site brings study results to life
The NRVC released its Religious Life Today Storymap website on March 25, giving members and the public a highly visual, compelling way to understand contemporary realities and trends among those joining religious orders. The site brings to life the data from the 2020 Study on Recent Vocations to Religious Life. You are invited to scroll through this hope-filled resource, to share it with your members, and to add links to it from your website and social media sites. Thank you to the GHR Foundation for underwriting this project.
Board selects new chair, vice chairs, and members
At its March meeting, the NRVC board appointed a new chair and vice chairs, effective immediately, and selected four new members who will begin serving in the fall. (See all of them here.) The new executive committee now consists of Sister Mindy Welding, I.H.M., chair; and vice chairs Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D. and Sister Belinda Monahan, O.S.B., and Sister Deborah Borneman, SS.C.M. ex officio.
The new board members to begin serving in the fall are Ms. Nancy Costello, a former Region 3 NRVC coordinator who works in communications and vocations for the Cabrini Sisters; Sister Nicole Trahan, F.M.I., who has published vocation related articles in HORIZON and elsewhere; Sister Cheryl Wint, O.S.F., of the Hudson Valley Member Area, and Sister Mary Yun, O.P., former coordinator of the West Coast Member Area. Congratulations to all, and warm thanks to Sister Kristin Matthes, S.N.D.deN., who has completed her service as board chair.
Vocational Awakening in Denver
“In its ministry to young people, and especially in vocations promotion work, church workers must step out of the sacristy and take seriously the questions and concerns of the young.
Young people are searching for meaning, and the best response is to go out to where they are, stop and listen to them and then call them to follow Jesus”.
~ Pope Francis
The Holy Spirit Community in Denver had a beautiful vocational experience in our Mother Cabrini Shrine on Sunday, July 19, 2020. It was a “Come and See” experience in which eleven young women whom have expressed to Sr. Martha Lopez, MSC their desire and their thoughts about the possibility of religious life. They came to dedicate a day to the discernment of their vocation.
After living the Eucharist together, the young women had spaces for personal reflection, silence, and solitude. There were also moments to share their doubts, expectations, and concerns.
MSC Vocation Director Sister Lucy Panettieri, MSC shared her own vocation story in a youthful and open way. The young ladies had many questions and all were discussed and answered. They were happy and excited and asked to make a weekend “Come and See” in the near future. In addition, they were invited to come to our house to speak personally with Sr. Lucy and receive close vocational support from her. Our novice, Tigist Loha, shared her lunch hour with them since she was working in the Shrine that day. She integrated herself spontaneously, which encouraged and motivated our young women.
Let us continue to pray for these young women and for all those who are discerning their religious vocation. Let us remember what was said in the Synod of Bishops on youth and vocations: “It is necessary to accompany young people, walk with them, listen to them, provoke them, move them to go beyond the comforts, favoring freedom so that they respond to the call of the Lord freely and responsibly”.
Best Practices for Encouraging New Membership
From the Province Vocations Promotion Team…
Over the past month we have brought you insights from the National Religious Vocations Conference (NRVC) with regard to the 2020 Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life. As a follow up to that series, this week, we begin a new series written by Carol Schuck Scheiber, the editor of HORIZON, the journal of the NRVC.
Best Practices for Encouraging New Membership
Vocation Directors often relish the chance to discuss the ins and outs of their ministry with people who understand it well. Some members (of the congregation) don’t always “get it”. The public frequently doesn’t. And even among practicing Catholics, myths about vocations can abound. Vocation promotion is everyone’s business – ordained, religious and laity. While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, HORIZON hopes these eight best practices – grounded in data and backed up by experience – provide insights that will help religious communities move forward.
One truism that the 2020 study confirmed is that religious communities in the United States vary substantially: they have unique charisms, distinct financial realities, different ministries, and varied number of active and retired members. Thus, the capacity to act on each of these best practices is different from one religious order to another.
HORIZON begins with the belief that the gift of religious life is worth sharing. The 2020 study confirmed that young people have a desire to grow spiritually, live communally and perform ministry. Young adults – and not-so-young – adults seek their path and want guidance.
1. Decide you want new member
This sounds obvious, but, in reality a community will not attract and retain new members if the existing members don’t want them, even if this sentiment is not expressed overtly. There are many inadvertent ways to communicate lack of interest: members are too busy, no one is willing to stay up late with a young visitor, or few people will take a turn helping with a college retreat.
On the other hand, in the 2020 study, new members repeatedly report that they were attracted to communities that showed genuine interest in them, their welfare and their vocational discernment. Community members invited them to events, made them feel welcome, adapted to their youthful energy, and offered them an attractive experience of religious life. These themes arose many times when newer members talked in focus groups about their experiences in joining religious life.
The best-case scenario for communities that desire new members is to decide communally that they want them, have leaders and members that continuously prioritize that goal, and make ongoing efforts consistent with that goal. Most members need to believe in the community and its future in order for it to have a future.
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Be all in: lead, fund, staff, and support
Because vocation ministry is about planting seeds that take time to grow, it can be hard to feel gratified by “results,” and members can sometimes shy away from the ministry. Sometimes members are uncertain how to relate to a younger generation, or they prefer to avoid the possibility of an invitation being rejected by not extending one. Whatever hesitations exist, it is crucial to take the ministry seriously, to be “all in.” For maximum effectiveness vocation ministry needs someone – or some group of committed members – to give it focused, ongoing time and attention. This allows the ministry to be adequately staffed and properly funded to realistically pay for the costs involved. Vocation ministers need training in ethics, communications, assessment, sexuality, etc. – all are topics of professional workshops offered by the NRVC.
These days it often is a sacrifice to dedicate talented members to a ministry that will cost the community the loss of a paycheck or stipend. Still, appointing gifted members to do vocation ministry is a sacrifice that institutes are making for the sake of youth, for the sake of nurturing religious vocations and for the sake of the institute’s future. Vocation directors and leaders need to work closely together to set strategies and goals that make sense for their community and to build the critical internal support for and communication about the ministry.
3. Go out – and invite in
many communities are welcoming middle-aged adults, and those new members are precious parts of their communities. However, the 2018 synod on youth held in Rome clearly showed how much young people want the vocational guidance that is part and parcel of vocation ministry. The NRVC’s 2020 study confirmed that newer members who joined in their 20s and 30s are usually in communities with big age gaps, but they very much want to be in their communities. Newer members report very high satisfaction with their lives as religious.
When newer members met in 13 focus groups around the country, they acknowledged that community life without age peers can be challenging, but the large majority expressed love for their way of life in spite of the difficulties. Thus, there are two strong reasons to go and to young people and invite them in: they want vocational guidance, and communities must keep inviting or they create a limited future for themselves. Going out to the young means learning where they are in one’s corner of the world and building relationships with them.
4. Continuously build relationships
There are no fail-proof techniques for building relationships with your target demographic. The 2009 and 2020 studies both point out that newer members entered communities where they built a relationship with at least one member…and that led them to the next step, and the next step. Vocation ministers and members of their religious communities reached out, stayed connected, kept inviting, and used many means for doing these things: social media, print and online advertising and promotion, special events, email, blogs, campus retreats and others means.
Over its 32 years as an organization, the National Religious Vocations Conference has been key to another type of relationship-building that matters: collaborative relationships among vocation and formation ministers from different communities. Through cooperation, groups of ministers are able to do what they cannot do alone: sponsor intercommunity retreats, nun runs, high school and campus vocation fairs, and many other types of group projects that help people to learn about religious life.
5. Address internal issues
If a religious community is experiencing serious deficits in any major area (e.g. quality of communal life, clear identity) those problems will naturally inhibit people from joining. The 2009 and 2020 vocation studies both point out that new members are attracted to communities where they can grow in their relationship to God, be part of a joyful community with a genuine communal life, and minister to the people of God. Many communities have taken positive steps to enhance the quality of their communal life. New members are attracted to authentic, healthy communities, meaning that institutes that are serious about inviting in the next generation must be attentive to internal concerns.
6. Focus on other-centered ministry
Ideally vocation ministry should be outward-looking and other-centered. A sense of healthy focus and balance in the way that vocation ministry is conducted is a theme that comes through in particular in the focus group reports of the 202 NRVC study. In relating their own vocation journeys, newer members expressed gratitude to those who walked with them, sharing wisdom, allowing them time, understanding that life experience and perspective at age 25 is different from age 45 or 65.
The NRVC study participants – members who joined and stayed – by and large feel they have found their genuine vocation, a process that required time and freedom. The challenge for institutes is to maintain a vision that is both outward (What do young people need to help them uncover God’s call for their lives?” and inward (How can we encourage a healthy community? How can we promote our community so that as young people determine their life path, they can consider life with us?)
There is a mystery to the process of vocation discernment, and each person’s journey is unique. Maintaining a focus on the pastoral needs of those making life decisions keeps institutes grounded.
7. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Both the 2009 and 2020 study clearly show that an essential part of vocation ministry is communication. Religious communities need to communicate to multiple audiences. The general public should know that the community exists and is open to new membership. Young people need to brush shoulders with religious; many have never met a Catholic sister, nun, or brother. Others have never spoken directly to a priest. Vocation ministers (sometimes in tandem with communications directors) must get the word out about who the community is, what it is doing, and what opportunities there are for interacting with the community, such as joining it as a volunteer, associate or lifelong member.
Every community that is welcoming new members needs an attractive, updated website that clearly communicates how to get in touch about becoming a member. Religious institutes need to have visibility in their local community and beyond.
Because social media is a crucial form of contemporary communication, communities that want to invite targeted populations ideally have a presence on social media platforms as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Such communication should steer people toward live contact with the community so that a relationship can be built – advertising community events such as open houses, service opportunities, on-line discussions, and webinars. Such events bring people together and a relationship begins and grows.
8. Build a culture of vocations
This final best practice encompasses the seven previous practices and then goes a step or two beyond. To build a culture of vocations means to maintain a broad vision while working in one’s own corner of the world. The 2020 Study on Recent Vocations confirms that people continue to enter religious orders despite predictions to the contrary. To build a culture of vocations brings to mind the adage “think globally, act locally.”
In the big picture, the church must always undergo renewal, becoming ever more closely aligned with Christ’s vision. From that reenergized church will come forth disciples who want to lay down their lives for the sake of others. A portion of those disciples will be called to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience in consecrated life, but, most will lay down their lives in other forms of life – all of which are seen as “vocation”.
A culture of vocations sees each baptized person as having a calling to a particular state in life. Young people involved in the 2018 synod on youth asked the church to shift toward an understanding that “vocation” is for everyone. When a culture of vocation exists, all members of the church – parents, grandparents, religious, pastors, teachers, campus ministers, – encourage and support the process of discernment that affords each person the time to pray, listen, seek counsel, and choose a path that will give them the most joy and sense of fulfillment.
Religious institutes can help build a “culture of vocations” in the larger church and within their own ranks. In such a culture every member of the community feels responsible for inviting new members, and every member is in ongoing discernment about how best to live his or her calling. When a culture of vocations exists within religious institutes, the is a community-wide prioritization of vocation, and each member gives what he or she can to enrich the community and bring new life.
This larger vision at the local, communal, and global levels spurs us on and also lets us rest – in the knowledge that discipleship and calling is always and ultimately in the hands of God. Religious communities and those they appoint as vocation ministers plant seeds, water, and give praise to the God of the harvest as each generation bears new fruit.
This concludes our series on Encouraging New Membership.
Best Practices for Encouraging New Membership
Vocation Promotion Best Practices for Encouraging New Membership.
Vocation Directors often relish the chance to discuss the ins and outs of their ministry with people who understand it well. Some members (of the congregation) don’t always “get it”. The public frequently doesn’t. And even among practicing Catholics, myths about vocations can abound. Vocation promotion is everyone’s business – ordained, religious and laity. While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, HORIZON hopes these eight best practices – grounded in data and backed up by experience – provide insights that will help religious communities move forward.
One truism that the 2020 study confirmed is that religious communities in the United States vary substantially: they have unique charisms, distinct financial realities, different ministries, and varied number of active and retired members. Thus, the capacity to act on each of these best practices is different from one religious order to another.
HORIZON begins with the belief that the gift of religious life is worth sharing. The 2020 study confirmed that young people have a desire to grow spiritually, live communally and perform ministry. Young adults – and not-so-young – adults seek their path and want guidance.
1. Decide you want new members
This sounds obvious, but, in reality a community will not attract and retain new members if the existing members don’t want them, even if this sentiment is not expressed overtly. There are many inadvertent ways to communicate lack of interest: members are too busy, no one is willing to stay up late with a young visitor, or few people will take a turn helping with a college retreat.
On the other hand, in the 2020 study, new members repeatedly report that they were attracted to communities that showed genuine interest in them, their welfare and their vocational discernment. Community members invited them to events, made them feel welcome, adapted to their youthful energy, and offered them an attractive experience of religious life. These themes arose many times when newer members talked in focus groups about their experiences in joining religious life.
The best-case scenario for communities that desire new members is to decide communally that they want them, have leaders and members that continuously prioritize that goal, and make ongoing efforts consistent with that goal. Most members need to believe in the community and its future in order for it to have a future.
U.S. Sisters Meet To Reimagine the Future with COVID-19 Reality
Today’s world, struggling with the urgent needs emerging from the Coronavirus, can learn from the witness of sisters, said the presidential team for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
“Women religious have a history and a genius for looking outward beyond ourselves, for responding to need, for taking a situation that we did not choose but for which we find ourselves dealing,” said Holy Cross Sr. Sharlet Wagner, past-president of the LCWR, whose members are leaders of communities constituting nearly 80% of women religious in the U.S.
“That is where the world is now.”
Wagner shared her reflections in a May webinar, speaking alongside the rest of LCWR’s leadership.
A world in crisis can learn much from the experiences of women religious – a global community that historically found their stride in times of chaos, as Sr. Carol Zinn, SSJ, LCWR Executive Director, explained. The pandemic leaves no lifestyle untouched, including that of sisters.
“Whatever we could say about COVID-19 in our country and around the world right now, we could say about religious life in our country and perhaps, around the world,” Zinn said.
The LCWR leaders shared the practical and spiritual implications of this pandemic on US religious life: the economic challenges facing their sponsored ministries, fears for their elderly sisters, the poverty and societal injustices that demand collective response and the need for a transformative sisterhood – one that goes beyond collaboration and instead prioritizes true partnership.
Recalling how the Spanish flu (1918-1919) was an impetus for more sisters getting involved in healthcare, Sr. Jayne Helmlinger, current president of the LCWR, said the response to today’s pandemic should not be merely “with ourselves, our congregations,” but with collective action.
Pope Francis said that the coronavirus had put everyone “in the same boat”. Sr. Helmlinger said
she’s reminded that from Earth to the cosmos, “we are one. So how do we respond as one, not simply with our congregations, but [to] the needs of the world?”
As women religious, they need to pay attention to the newly marginalized and to emerging needs as they consider their role in responding to the crisis.
“ of us have long struggled with what it means to live simply, and we may be forced by realities into deeper examining of simple living and the choices we will need to make,” Sr. Wagner said.
To best serve those disproportionally affected by the virus, religious leadership will have to consider how their direct service, advocacy and spiritual leadership can be pooled across borders in a coordinated response.
“What new ministry and new ways of ministering will emerge as we move through this crisis and beyond?” Wagner said.
Now that COVID-19 is likely to influence emerging expressions of religious life, Sr. Zinn cited four characteristics particular to U.S. culture that LCWR membership must now confront as they reimagine the future:
First is the illusion of autonomy shattered by the pandemic.
Religious life in the U.S. will be shifting from feeling competitive (within charisms, for example) to becoming partners. “What does it mean to be partners, be sisters together?”
Going from a sense of ownership to a sense of mutuality. Cross-charisms and cross-congregations ought to become trans-charisms, trans-missions, trans-cultures – a sense of mutuality that younger sisters already understand.
A shift to a great appreciation for vulnerability as she reflects on the essential workers who the pandemic has thrown to the forefront.
“The DNA of religious life is that we are born in and out of chaos.”
To read the entire article click here
NRVC Releases 2020 Study
At the end of a decade of steady entrances to religious communities, the NRVC has released its 2020 Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life. This study comes 11 years after the first study completed in 2009. This latest research provides information on those men and women who entered religious life from 2013 – 2018. The NRVC states that “they are mindful no study can point to just one reason why a person responds to God’s call to enter a community.” There is a mystery in the call and an unpredictability in the response. The grace of perseverance is the essence of religious life with both our oldest and newest members serving as influential role models of courage, compassion and competence. In this week’s edition and in the upcoming weeks we will share some of the findings of the study.
Religious life in the U.S. todayOver 700 diverse religious institutes exist in the United States. They vary in spirituality, charism, and mission as well as size, composition, and presence of new members. The diversity of sisters, brothers, and priests is one of the hallmarks of religious life today.
On average, roughly 200 people a year take final vows, and around 400 to 500 begin the process of formation.
Community life
Many newer members see community life as what is distinctive and most attractive about religious life. What incoming members seek in community life is praying together, celebrating holidays and feasts together, living with other members and sharing meals together.
Additionally, living at or near a ministry site and living simply, in solidarity with the poor and marginalized is ranked “somewhat” to “very” important. The younger a respondent is, the more likely he or she is to prefer to live in a larger community, especially one with at least eight members. This is consistent with findings from the 2009 study of newer members.
Intercultural living
Newer members prefer living with members of different cultures (four in five) and newer members themselves reflect the racial and ethnic changes in the United States toward more people who claim an identity outside of European white culture. Catholics, along with the rest of the country, are increasingly Hispanic.
Intergenerational Living
While age presents challenges for communities when inviting young people to join, it has not deterred those who entered from doing so. Thirteen percent of perpetually professed are younger than 60, and the identical proportion are aged 90 or older.
In ranking their attitudes about various aspects of communal life, new members give their religious institutes the highest ratings on their care and support of the elderly members. Most newer members prefer to live in communities with members of different ages (93 percent).
It was the 80 year-old [sisters], the wisdom figures of the community
[who] were always the first in the chapel and the last at the dining room table.
They were always there, you could always count [on their presence].Prayer and Spirituality
Personal private prayer characterizes the regular prayer life of the majority of sisters, brothers and priests in almost all responding institutes. Daily Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours are almost as common, reported by nearly nine in ten responding institutes.
As I was growing in my prayer life, I realized that I really wanted my whole life
to be that intimate communion with God. And the more that desire grew,
the more I saw the way it’s lived out in religious life.
Education
The majority (95 percent) of perpetually professed religious have a college degree. The majority of newer members come with considerable education as well as ministry and work experience. Seventy-one percent of new members had at least a bachelor’s degree before they entered. Eight in ten were employed, usually in a full-time position, and slightly more than half were in engaged in ministry, a quarter on a full-time basis and about three fifths on a volunteer basisCharacteristics of Younger Members
Characteristics of Younger Members
The study revealed many facts about newer members:
One-third of newer entrants (34 percent) have a relative who is a priest, deacon or religious sister or brother.
One in ten report that they entered another religious institute before the congregation to which they currently belong.
Seven in ten considered religious life by the time they were 21, with half doing so by the time they were 17. Female respondents are more likely than male respondents to have thought about a religious vocation at a young age, that is, before the age of 14 (30 percent compared to 16 percent.). Men were a little more likely to first consider religious life when they were college-age. (30 percent of men compared to 23 percent of women.)
Most newer members (74 percent) participated in a “Come and See” experience(s) before they entered their religious institute.
Almost half of those in initial formation (48 percent) were born in 1990 or later.
The average age of entrance is 28 for men and 29 for women. This is a little younger than the average age of entrance in 2009, which was 30 for men and 32 for women.
The majority of newer members experienced support in their consideration of religious life: 80 percent found support from priests and religious. Around 7 in 10 reported that friends and parishioners were a significant source of support. The large majority of parents and siblings (95 percent) expressed support ranging from “somewhat” to “very much.”
The majority (60 percent) of religious institutes have at least one person in initial formation. About 20 percent currently have more than five people in religious formation.
Attraction to Religious Life
Newer members are likely to say they were attracted to religious life by a desire for prayer and spiritual growth and by a desire for a deeper relationship with God. To only a slightly lesser degree, most new members also say they were attracted to religious life by a sense of call to consecrated life, a desire to be of service, and a desire to be part of a community.
They were attracted to their particular religious institute by its prayer life and mission, followed by community life and the example of its members. Although the ministries of the institute are also important to most new members, they are less important that those previously-listed factors.
Newer members in religious life first became acquainted with their religious institutes in different ways. As in NRVC’s 2009 Study on Recent Vocations, the most common way to meet a religious community was in an institution such as a school, where the members served. Besides institutional settings, other relatively common ways of becoming acquainted with the Institute were through their own Internet search of websites, through a relative or friend in the Institute, through working with a member of the Institute, or through print materials.
“I started thinking about religious life because
living on my own, it just felt like something was
missing. I was attracted to living in community
with other people with the same charism, with the
same spirit, with the same hopes for the world with
our differences. I wanted to be in community.
That was really important to me.”
National Catholic Sisters Week – March 8 – 14, 2020
National Catholic Sisters Week (NCSW) invites everyone to celebrate women religious from March 8-14.
NCSW is an annual celebration that began in 2014 to honor women religious with a series of events that instruct, enlighten, and bring greater focus on the lives of these incredible women. It’s a chance to recognize all that they do, with the hope that as more young women learn about women religious, more will choose to follow their example
In celebration of NCSW, on Saturday, March 7th, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC – Cabrini) will be joining the Delaware Valley Member Area of the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) in a day of service in Phoenixville, PA. They will be pairing with The Joy of Sox, a 501c3 non-profit organization, that provides new socks for those experiencing homelessness. Sisters from eight religious congregations will be sorting and packaging socks for later distribution to shelters in the greater Philadelphia, PA and Trenton, NJ region, and shipment to shelters throughout the United States.
Visit the NCSW website, nationalcatholicsistersweek.org, to learn about the organization, find an event near you and join in honoring women religious, or plan an event of your own and spread the word.
Please keep the Missionary Sisters in your thoughts and prayers during this special week. Perhaps, send a note or an email expressing your thanks for their service to the Church and
all those on the margins of society.
The Gift of Mission Vocation Program – Workshop II
A second offering of the Gift of Mission vocation awareness program was presented this winter to a group of high school junior girls by an intercongregational team of sister religious. This time, the workshop was held at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Chestnut Hill, PA. The day offers a means of learning more about vocational calling and religious life. Interactive sessions and opportunities for prayer and meditation highlight the day. The Missionary Sisters play an active part in the planning and presentation of the day.
The Gift of Mission
Each year, the Missionary Sisters participate in the Gift of Mission interactive vocation program for high school juniors. Yesterday, over 60 students hailing from Bishop Shanahan H.S., Pope John Paul II H.S., York Catholic H.S., and McDevitt H.S. in PA and Gloucester Catholic H.S. in NJ joined an inter-congregational team of vocation directors for the workshop.
The Gift of Mission
The Gift of Mission
Each year, the Missionary Sisters participate in the Gift of Mission interactive vocation program for high school juniors. Yesterday, over 60 students hailing from Bishop Shanahan H.S., Pope John Paul II H.S., York Catholic H.S., and McDevitt H.S. in PA and Gloucester Catholic H.S. in NJ joined an intercongregational team of vocation directors for the workshop.