277

Religious Vocations Today

Richard Rymarz*

The most striking feature of any study on vocations in the Catholic Church
is the steep decline in many aspects of religious life in recent decades. No group
in the world has done more high-quality empirical research on the question of
religious life and vocations than the Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate (CARA), and all who work in this area are in their debt. Based at
Georgetown in Washington, DC, CARA provides the figures detailed in Table 1
for the United States of America.
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014
Clergy, and religious,
leaders; leaders
in formation

Total priests 58,632 59,192 58,909 58,398 57,317 52,124 49,054 45,699 41,399 39,993 38,275
Diocesan priests 35,925 37,272 36,005 35,627 35,052 34,114 32,349 30,607 28,094 27,182 26,265
Religious priests 22,707 21,920 22,904 22,771 22,265 18,010 16,705 15,092 13,305 12,811 12,010

Priestly ordinations 994 805 771 593 533 595 511 442 454 459 494
Graduate-level seminarians 8,325 6,602 5,279 4,197 4,063 3,658 3,172 3,474 3,308 3,483 3,631
Religious sisters 179,954 160,931 135,225 126,517 115,386 102,504 90,809 79,814 68,634 57,544 49,883

Religious brothers 12,271 11,623 8,625 7,941 7,544 6,721 6,535 5,662 5,451 4,690 4,318

Table 1. Religious life in recent decades in the United States of America1

The most notable decline in these figures is the change in the number of
religious priests, sisters and brothers. This trend is confirmed for all other
categories as well. In other countries, such as Canada, France and Germany,
sharp decreases have also been recorded.2 This decline is most acute when we
* Professor Richard Rymarz is Head of Religious Education and Director of Research at the
Broken Bay Institute, Sydney.
1. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 2015, http://cara.georgetown.edu/
CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html.
2. Stark and Finke, for instance noted a 77 per cent decline in Canadian Catholic male religious
between 1965 and 1995. In Germany for the same period the decline was 54 per cent. For
female religious in France the decline was 44 per cent. Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, Acts of
Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000),
170. For a more historical view, see United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, U.S.
Religious Life and the Decline of Vocations, Origins 16, no. 25 (4 December 1986): 46770;
Helen Ebaugh, Women in the Vanishing Cloister: Organizational Decline in Catholic
Religious Orders in the United States (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993).
278 The Australasian Catholic Record

examine data for new members of these communities. In 2014 only one in
fifteen religious institutions in the United States had someone professing
perpetual vows.3 This figure reflects those at the final stage of formation, not a
total figure for all those in formation. For all religious institutes in the United
States in 2009, there were 2,630 men and women in all stages of formation.4 For
women religious there were 146 candidates/postulants, 275 novices and 621 in
temporary vows or commitment.5 The decrease in numbers of those in formation
does have a number of implications. The most pertinent of these is the ageing
profile of members of religious institutes. In 2009, for instance, only one per
cent of female religious in the United States was under forty years of age.6
In Australia similar figures for religious institutes have been gathered by the
Pastoral Research Office (PRO) of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
These figures are not as continuous as the American data as major surveys have
been conducted in only1976 and 2009; the figures are given in Table 2.7

3,622 8,141 11,245 14,622 12,619 5,927

1901 1926 1951 1966 1976 2009

388 837 1,532 2,163 2,089 884

Sisters

195 432 1,087 2,628 2,321 1,611

Brothers

4,205 9,410 13,864 19,413 17,029 8,422

Clerical religious
Total

Table 2. Australian religious personnel, 19012009 8

The decline in religious personnel between 1976 and 2009 is very evident
and this reinforces data from other places and is indicative of a major trend in
Western post-industrial countries. The 2009 Australia survey also provided
information of vocations to religious institutes. In the period 19972008 figures
for new professions are given as follows with the number who remained in
religious life at the time of the survey in brackets: religious women 206 (164),
clerical religious 182 (126), religious brothers 10 (5).9 The 2009 survey also

3. Mary L. Gautier and Thomas Gaunt, New Sisters and Brothers in Perpetual Vows: The

Vocations, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Washington, DC: Center for Applied
Profession Class of 2014; A Report to the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and

Research in the Apostolate, 2015).

4. Religious institutes do not include diocesan seminaries.
5. Mary Bendyna and Mary Gautier, Recent Vocations to Religious Life: A Report for the
National Religious Vocation Conference (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate, 2009). For a historical perspective, see Mary Ewens, The Vocation Decline of
Women Religious: Some Historical Perspectives, in The Crisis in Religious Vocations, ed.
Laurie Felknor (New York: Paulist, 1989), 16580.
6. Erick Berrelleza, Mary Gautier and Mark Gray, Population Trends among Religious Institutes
of Women (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate), 2014.
7. In 2015 another major survey of recent vocations to religious life in Australia was being
conducted under the auspices of the Pastoral Research Office, led by Dr Robert Dixon.
8. Stephen Reid, Robert Dixon and Noel Connolly, See, I Am Doing a New Thing: A Report on
the 2009 Survey of Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia (Mulgrave, VIC: John Garratt,
2010), 4.
9. Ibid., 9.
 Religious Vocations Today 279

confirms the ageing profile of religious in Australia, with four per cent of
members being under forty.10

It is clear that the number of vocations to religious life in Australia and in the
Some Characteristics of New Vocations

United States has been in strong and steady decline for some decades. Along with
this, there are generational changes as new aspirants, albeit in reduced numbers,
embrace religious life. This generational change brings with it a consideration of
some of the characteristics of those who seek to join religious congregations
today.11 Hoge and Wenger compared survey results from priests, both religious and
diocesan, over a thirty-year period from 1970 to 2001.12 They found for example
that, over all, priests in 2001 were happier than in 1971. In 1971, twenty-eight per
cent of priests were very happy, whilst in 2001 this figure had risen to forty-five per
cent and this rise was most obvious with younger priests.13 There was a range of
measures that identified some other significant generational issues. For priests aged
between twenty-five and thirty-five in 2001, there was much higher agreement,
than among older priests, to statements such as ordination confers on the priest a
new status or a permanent character which makes him essentially different from the
laity.14 Other results confirmed the authors analysis that younger priests were
likely to adopt what they called a cultic view of priesthood, one that sees priests
as what they call men apart who take a longer perspective on the tradition. This is
one consequence of new vocations having no lived sense of the church before the
Second Vatican Council or of the tumult in the years immediately following the
council. For them religious identity has been established on a personal level, with
little sense of the adjustments made in the postconciliar period. Hoge and Wenger
encapsulate this view in the following terms:

The research is clear: a new type of priest has arrived. A process of

change began in the early 1980s and picked up steam through the
1990s. Not only does our survey indicate this, but everyone we
interviewed said the same: they are different from priests ordained in
the 1960s and 1970s.15
10. Ibid., 10. By way of comparison, a greater proportion, 5.2 per cent, of members were over
ninety years of age.
11. Donald Cozzens, The Changing Face of the Priesthood (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press,
2002); James Davidson and Dean Hoge, Mind the Gap: The Return of the Lay-Clerical
Divide, Commonweal 134, no. 20 (23 November 2007): 18; Dean Hoge, The First Five Years
of Priesthood (Collegeville, MN.: Liturgical Press, 2002); Franz Klein, John Paul II Priests,
Commonweal 132, no. 14 (8 December 2005): 235.
12. Dean Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger, Evolving Visions of the Priesthood: Changes from
Vatican II to the Turn of the New Century (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003).
13. As Hoge and Wenger put it, The rise in the total samples was largely due to a rise in happiness
among younger prieststhe 25-35 year olds and the 35-45 year olds. Older priests also rose in
their reported level of happiness but only slightly. Ibid., 29.
14. Ibid., 54.
15. Ibid., 61.
280 The Australasian Catholic Record

More recent research bears out these differences. Data from the United
States from 2009 shows priests in that survey were getting ordained later and
were more likely to be engaged in parish ministry, almost to the exclusion of
anything else. 16 In addition, a far higher proportion of priests were born outside
the United States than in earlier surveys.17 There were a number of generational
differences between priests. When asked about leaving the priesthood in 2009,
eighty-eight per cent of priests in their thirties responded, Definitely not. In
1985, when asked the same question, only thirty-seven per cent of priests in their
thirties responded Definitely not. There was also an age-related decrease in the
number of priests identified as traditionalist. In the 2009 survey for priests in
their thirties, 37 per cent were identified as traditionalist. The comparative figure
for priests in their fifties was 22 per cent, and for those in their sixties, 14 per
cent. These figures are mirrored in the number of priests identified as
progressive. For priests in their thirties this figure was 9 per cent. For those in
their fifties the figure was 22 per cent, and for those in their sixties, 33 per cent.18
Across all ages there was a link between more traditional views of the priesthood
and satisfaction. Those priests who were identified as traditional had higher rates
of satisfaction. Seventy-seven per cent of these priests described themselves as
very happy whilst forty-four per cent of progressive priests described themselves
in similar terms.19 Greeley in his analysis of the priesthood draws out this point
about the satisfaction of priestly life as being a key factor in attracting new
vocations. This is no substitute for the enthusiasm for priestly life provided by
other priests.20
16. Mary Gautier, Paul Perl and Stephen Fichter, Same Call, Different Men: The Evolution of the
Priesthood since Vatican II (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012). Compared to men and
women religious in the last century, those entering religious life today are far more diverse,
with a wide variety of ethnic, educational and cultural backgrounds, not to mention life
experiences. Bendyna and Gautier, Recent Vocations, 4.
17. Reporting on the US ordination class of 2015, Gautier and Gaunt report that 69 per cent of
ordinands were Caucasian/European/American/white. Mary Gautier and Thomas Gaunt, The

Consecrated Life and Vocations, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Washington,
Class of 2015: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood; A Report to the Secretariat of Clergy,

DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 2015).

18. The definition of progressive and traditionalist followed the cultic model index first used by
Hoge and Wenger. A key determinant here was how priests saw their ontological status.
Progressives were seen as strongly identifying with the servant leader model and traditionalists
strongly identified with the cultic model of priesthood. Gautier, Perl and Fichter, Same Call,
302.
19. Gautier and her colleagues summarised this link in the following terms: we would not describe
the differences between younger and older priests as an extreme polarization, the data are
consistent with the conjecture that a relationship exists between traditional views of the
priesthood and a general satisfaction among todays younger priests. Gautier, Perl and Fichter,
Same Call, 32.
20. Greely comments: The real cause of the vocations shortage is the reticence of those who are
happy in the priesthood and not excessively burdened by celibacy. They may complain about
the shortage of priests, but they are not ready yet to do battle with the anticelibacy ideologues
to recruit young men to what is a happy and satisfying life. Nor are they ready to speak,
individually or collectively, about the joys of being a priest. Andrew Greeley, Priests: A
Calling in Crisis (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 122.
 Religious Vocations Today 281

Research on women in religious life also reveals generational differences.21

For millennial women (those born after 1982), one of the most important
attractions of religious life was the prayer life that was offered. This is in contrast
to older generations. Across all ages, however, a sense of a call to religious life
remains a key attraction.22 Using measures such as welcome and support of new
members, quality of life and relationships with one another there are higher
levels of satisfaction when millennial sisters are compared to older generations.23
When asked to rate their own groups, millennial sisters saw commitment to
ministry in their institute as excellent. When asked what influenced their
decision to enter and evaluate religious institutes, generational differences were
evident. Some of these differences are discernible in Table 3.

PreVatican II: Vatican II: PostVatican II: Millennial:

Percentage responding very much or excellent

born before born between born between born after

1943 1943 and 1960 1961 and 1981 1982

54 32 58 90
Attraction of institutes
fidelity to the church

39 40 62 91
Attraction of institutes
practice regarding a habit

55 50 71 96
Evaluation of fidelity to
church and teachings

Table 3. Influences on the decision to enter, and evaluations of ones own religious institute24

Attraction is a measure of the initial attraction to ones institute, and

evaluation is a later judgment, having once entered the institute. If we examine
the figures from table 3 for millennial vocations, we see very high levels of
agreement, over ninety per cent, on the three indices measured. The sharpest
contrast is with those in religious life who were born between 1943 and 1960,
whom the authors call the Vatican II generation.
21. Mary Johnson, Religious Life in the USA: Community as a Key Bridge to Young Adults,
Social Compass 48, no. 2 (2001): 22936; Mary Johnson, Collective Identity and
Distinctiveness: The Case of U.S. Conferences of Apostolic Women and Men Religious, in
Inculturation and the Church in North America, ed. T. Frank Kennedy (New York: Herder and
Herder, Crossroad, 2006), 17997. Mary Johnson and Patricia Wittberg, Reality Check: A
Fact-Based Assessment of Vocations to Religious Life, America 207, no. 10 (October 2012):
15.
22. Mary Johnson, Patricia Wittberg and Mary Gautier, New Generations of Catholic Sisters: The
Challenge of Diversity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 723. For a general
account of generational issues and religion, see Wade Clark Roof, Generations and Religion,
in The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, ed. Peter B. Clarke (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2009). For a more focused examination of diversity in Catholic religious
communities, see Mary Gautier, Jonathon Wiggins and Jonathon Holland, Incorporating

(Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate), 2014.

Cultural Diversity in Religious Life: A Report for the National Religious Vocation Conference

23. Johnson, Wittberg and Gautier, New Generations, 75.

24. Ibid., 125.
282 The Australasian Catholic Record

In any analysis of vocations to religious life the challenge comes in moving

Vocations: Some Theoretical Perspectives

beyond the figures to providing an analysis. In this paper three perspectives are
offered as ways of better understanding the decline and also the ongoing
attraction of vocations in contemporary culture. This is not an exhaustive
account but the perspectives offered here provide a way of opening the dialogue.
Gill has described the demise of the cultural paradigm of religion as one
way of better understanding the place of religion in Western post-industrial
societies.25 This model has applicability to a number of situations that look at
institutional decline, such as the decrease in religious vocations. In cultural
models religion persists in two ways. The first is through the general support that
religious communities get from the wider culture. This is often in the form of
endorsement for moral and social precepts.26 At least in recent centuries in many
countries, religious vocations were seen as a calling that brought with it a range
of perceived advantages. These were in general a reflection of the esteem in
which religious life was held.27 This attitude to religious life was, however, a
reflection of a much wider acceptance by the wider community of religious
ideals and aspirations. Religious communities were, by and large, supported by
the wider community. This sympathy for the beliefs and practices of religious
groups was also further enshrined in law. The same cannot be said about general
cultural support for religion today. In fact, it could be argued that there is a
growing disparity between long-held religious principles and commonly and
widely held community mores. This disparity, although it has been emerging for
many decades, has now taken hold and in all likelihood will become more
pronounced rather than abate in the foreseeable future.28 One of the implications
of this change in community mores is that religious communities must work
much harder to justify their position, in the first instance, to their own
congregations. The process involved in a person considering religious life is not
natural and spontaneous and requires a good deal of effort from the religious
community if they are to be advanced. Recent study, for example, shows that
there is a sizeable number of younger Catholics who have at some stage
considered a religious vocation.29 For the clear majority of these individuals,

25. Robin Gill, Theology in a Social Context: Sociological Theology, vol. 1 (London: Ashgate,
2012).
26. Callum Brown, Religion and the Demographic Revolution. Studies in Modern British History
(Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2012).
27. William DAntonio, Michele Dillon and Mary Gautier, American Catholics in Transition
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
28. Allen argues that in the global South the common purpose between the state and religious
communities is much deeper and more abiding. John Allen, The Future Church: How Ten
Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 2009).
29. Mark Gray and Mary Gautier, Consideration of Priesthood and Religious Life Among Never-
Married U.S. Catholics (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate,
2012); Brian Conway, The Lure of an Irish Diocesan Seminary, Review of Religious
Research 56 (2014): 4878.
 Religious Vocations Today 283

however, there has been no development of this interest. One of the main reasons
for this is that after the initial thought of religious life has been entertained it is
not then consolidated by other processes that make this countercultural option
realisable. This is in contrast to earlier decades, when many entered religious life
at a very young age, often without a clear sense of the distinctiveness of this
calling. They were following a path that was well defined within the internal
culture of the church.
The second aspect of mediated religious transmission is through the internal
culture of religious groups. This internal culture can range from weak to intense.
Internal culture does not directly depend on wider societal support and is
controlled by the group. Internal culture is best illustrated by how well religious
groups are able to build and sustain meaning by the myriad of activities, events
and human connections that they foster.30 This may be in contrast to the overall
religious sensibility in a society. In these cases the internal religious culture of a
group may provide for an even greater attraction to that particular tradition.
Vocations to the religious life within the Catholic Church in places like Australia
give a good indication of this phenomenon. Until recent decades Catholics
suffered from a range of sectarian practices that imposed restrictions on the
opportunities available to them. This took place in a culture where the place of
religion as described by Gill was still assured. In light of this, the internal culture
of the church was able to flourish, and religious vocations were seen as an
attractive option as they were, amongst other things, a way for young people to
live out a life that was strongly supported by a powerful subculture. This
subculture was not pervasive but it did strengthen and confirm those who were
a part of it. In the immediate postconciliar period, however, this subculture
rapidly and unexpectedly disappeared.31 One very significant consequence of
this transformation was that changes in the wider culture began to have a much
stronger impact on the religious community. As the salience of religious belief
and practice declines in society, this is reflected in the religious community,
especially when it no longer has a strong internal culture to pass on its distinctive
beliefs and practices; and for Catholics a critical aspect of this is the nurturing
of vocations to the religious life. In the postconciliar era the decline of religion
in the general culture and the demise of the churchs internal culture have left all
strong forms of identification with a religious tradition problematic. This has
clear implications for the attractiveness of religious life.
30. John Thomas, The American Catholic Family (New York: Prentice Hall, 1956); Timothy Kelly,

Council, 19501972 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009).
The Transformation of American Catholicism: The Pittsburgh Laity and the Second Vatican

31. Andrew Greeley, The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins and the Second Vatican
Council (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004). Finke and Stark have described
processes such as these as a transition from a high tension model, where a group has many
beliefs and practices that set them apart from its environment, to a low tension model, where
such differences are relatively slight. Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of
America, 17762005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 2006).
284 The Australasian Catholic Record

Stark and Finke in their influential 2000 book Acts of Faith devote a chapter
Rational Choice Theory and Vocations

to Catholic religious vocations.32 Here they spell out the applicability of their
Rational Choice Theory (RCT) to vocations. They begin their analysis with an
overview of the severe decline in vocations in a number of Western post-
industrial countries. These figures are well known and provide a sense of the
scope of the phenomenon. At the heart of RCT is an assumption that religious
affiliation and commitment, far from being a neurotic or haphazard decision,
reflects a considered analysis of a number of competing options.33 For many
young adults today, having a number of options available to them is a
characteristic of their worldview.34 In terms of religion, what governs what
choices are made is a calculus that weighs religious benefits against religious
costs.35 The assumption is that most decisions are indicative of a general
tendency to maximise benefit whilst minimising cost. In the case of vocations, a
key question is how has this calculus changed in recent decades, and can this be
used to give an accurate account for the massive decline in recent decades? Stark
and Finke argue that after the Second Vatican Council, in particular, many of the
compelling motivations for religious life were heavily discounted. At the same
time the costly aspects were retained or even heightened. In this scenario it
follows that the number of vocations decreases. This is a dynamic view of
religious vitality and careful consideration needs to be given to the changing
social context. A better understanding of this gives a sense of the ebb and flow
of religious costs and benefits.
Stark and Finke place great store on the idea that religious life can be seen
as a life apart, one that is not available to everyone. This does come at
considerable cost, but this only adds to the allure. In earlier comments they note
that one of the reasons for the growth of Methodism in the United States in the
nineteenth century was the vigour of missionaries. Like St Paul they had
conventional employment as well as the taxing task of spreading the faith to
those on the frontier. A large part of this involved riding across vast distances to
preach and give witness to the Christian message. Most people could not
undertake this schedule and as such the so-called boundary riders were part of
an elite group to whom special deference was given. When Methodist clergy

32. Stark and Finke, Acts of Faith.

33. Proposition 1, Within the limits of their information and understanding, restricted by available
options, guided by their preferences and tastes, humans attempt to make rational choices.
Ibid., 85.
34. Christian Smith and Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of
Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009); Dean Hoge, William Dinges,
Mary Johnson and Juan Gonzales Jr, Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice
(Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001); Lisa Pearce and Melinda Denton, A
Faith of Their Own: Stability and Change in the Religiosity of Americas Adolescents (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
35. Proposition 17, People will seek to minimize their religious costs. Stark and Finke, Acts of
Faith, 100.
 Religious Vocations Today 285

became more professional, that is, they forsake other employment and worked
full-time for the church, the attraction of this calling diminished. No longer were
they a group set apart but one option amongst many for those within the religious
community.36
When religious life loses this sense of otherness, or what Stark and Finke
call a special holiness, it becomes far less attractive. This can be seen in the
Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. The general empowerment
of the laity under the councils call for a universal call to holiness had the
unintended consequence of making religious life far less distinctive. Wittberg
gives some analysis of the impact that the universal call to holiness had on
religious life.37 She argues that if everyone is being called to holiness, then this
makes religious life far less attractive as it loses its distinctiveness. She
comments, in one stroke Lumen Gentium nullified the basic ideological
foundation for eighteen centuries of Roman Catholic religious life.38 This
foundation, according to Wittberg, was that only vowed religious could achieve
spiritual perfection.
In the postconciliar church some of the roles typically reserved for clerics
and religious became open to lay people.39 Equally important was the movement
of many religious into roles that had not been their traditional province.40 In a
similar vein, many of the markers of religious life, such as clerical dress or
religious habits, being referred to by honorific titles such as Father or Sister,
also became much less common. Becker in his analysis of the Jesuits in the
immediate postconciliar period makes the point that importance of the loss of
these markers of identity was underestimated in evaluating the decline of the
attractiveness of religious life.41 Any one of these features if taken in isolation is
not significant, but when taken in totality the uniqueness of religious life was
greatly compromised. To illustrate the totality and comprehensiveness of these
changes, Stark and Finke comment on religious life for women after the council:

36. Finke and Stark use the example of the Methodist Church (in contrast to the Baptists) in the
United States of America to illustrate the point that religious groups can emerge, flourish and
decline in relatively rapid succession. Finke and Stark, Churching of America, 15697.
37. Patricia Wittberg, The Rise and Fall of Catholic Religious Orders: A Social Movement
Perspective (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994).
38. Ibid., 214. In her discussion Wittberg does not seem to distinguish clearly enough between
apostolic religious, which became common after the seventeenth century, and other, older
forms of religious life.
39. William DAntonio, James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge and Mary L. Gautier, American
Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church (Lanham, MD: Rowman and
Littlefield, 2007).
40. Paul VI, apostolic exhortation Evangelica Testificatio (On the Renewal of Religious Life
according to the Teaching of the Second Vatican Council), 1971, http://w2.vatican.va/
content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_ exh_ 19710629_ evangelica-
testificatio.html.
41. Joseph Becker, Re-Formed Jesuits: A History of Changes in Jesuit Formation during the
Decade 19651975 (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992).
286 The Australasian Catholic Record

Entire orders abandoned their convents for a new life as scattered apartment
dwellers, often without roommates, and dressed like everyone else.42
The costs of religious life, however, remained much more stable. Those in
religious life were still prohibited from marrying and had to live under vows of
obedience, which took away freedom of choice about where to live or study.43
These are significant costs and can only be mitigated by perceived benefits. The
costs or sacrifices seem even more unreasonable if the life the professed
religious are living is in so many other aspects more conventional and difficult
to distinguish from that of a well-disposed lay person who has specialist training.
Two of the best examples of areas where this blurring of roles has occurred are
education and healthcare.44 In Catholic ministry both of these fields were
traditional domains of religious, but in more recent times they have become
areas that are overwhelmingly staffed by lay people in Western post-industrial
societies.45
An analysis of costs and benefits can be used to explain the cases of
religious orders that are defying the general trend and growing in
membership. Stark and Finke argue that the successes of these orders can be
seen by their insistence on maintaining the distinctiveness of religious life as
a corollary to maintaining the traditional disciplines of the life. This is a
theme taken up by Bendyna and her colleagues.46 They found that amongst
consecrated communities in the United States, those that embrace a radical
poverty as well as a strong contemplative aspect were those that were most
likely to attract vocations.47 One key aspect of religious life is its communal
dimension, a characteristic that cannot be easily replicated in the wider

42. Stark and Finke, Acts of Faith, 178.

43. Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canon Law, Latin-English ed. (Washington, DC:
Canon Law Society of America, 1983), http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_
INDEX.HTM; John Paul II, postsynodal apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata, 25 March
1996, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_
exh_25031996_vita-consecrata.html.
44. Mary Bendyna, Partners in Mission: A Profile of Associates and Religious in the United States
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: North American Conference of Associates and Religious, 2000);
Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, The Foundations of Religious Life:
Revisiting the Vision (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria, 2009).
45. To illustrate this ministerial change, consider that in 2009 there were only 144 religious
working in Australias 1537 Catholic schools. Robert Dixon, Stephen Reid and Noel Connolly,
See I Am Doing a New Thing: The 2009 Survey of Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia,
Australasian Catholic Record 88, no. 3 (July 2011): 27183, at 280.
46. Mary Bendyna, ed., Emerging Communities of Consecrated Life in the United States
(Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 2006). See also Center for
Applied Research in the Apostolate, Emerging Religious Communities in the United States
(Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 1999). In light of the comments in Emerging
Communities of Consecrated Life, it is worth noting that, according to canon law, very few
womens religious orders are allowed to have solemn vows of poverty.
47. For a discussion of contemporary contemplative life amongst religious sisters, see Ann
Denham and Gert Wilkinson, Cloister of the Heart: Association of Contemplative Sisters
(Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2009).
 Religious Vocations Today 287

community.48 For those with a successful experience of religious life, this

communal aspect is an important part of how they live their lives.49 In terms
of RCT, those aspects of religious life would be seen as reemphasising its
special or distinctive nature and this is especially appropriate to those who do
not have family ties or the need to develop professional lives. The key link
that needs to be visibly established is that living this special or distinctive
way of life can then lead to joy and fulfilment. If it is evident from the lives
of those already involved, then religious life becomes far more attractive to
those on the periphery who are thinking about embracing this vocation. In
terms of RCT, the advocacy and witness of those already in religious life is a
strong determinant of its attractiveness. In simple terms, we can ask: who
would be interested in joining a group if its own members do not seem to be
promoting it? This is a point that Gautier and her colleagues make in their
recent study of the priesthood, where they support the comments quoted
earlier by Greeley. They conclude by noting that there are signs of renewal
in vocational recruiting by priests, especially among the post Vatican II
generation who are actively and happily promoting the priesthood. Perhaps
their happiness will attract more men to consider the priesthood.50

Wittberg analyses religious life today through the Weberian prism of

Vocations and Transformations in Religious Virtuosity

virtuosity.51 Virtuosity refers to individuals who, by living out the full demands
of their religion, seek to attain perfection, as defined by their tradition.52 In
Weberian terms the religious virtuoso then is not outside institutional forces but
lives within a religious tradition.53 At the same time, the religious virtuoso is
consciously living a life that is countercultural. The individual sees his or her life
as being different, and so does their religious community and the wider culture
recognise this. The virtuoso in many ways is the exemplar of the tradition and
how she or he lives is not an accurate reflection of the lives of most other
members of the general community. As such, professed religious within
Catholicism are good examples of virtuosity.
48. Sandra Schneiders, Finding the Treasure: Locating Catholic Religious Life in a New Ecclesial
and Cultural Context (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2000); Sandra Schneiders, Selling All:
Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life (Mahwah, NJ:
Paulist, 2001).
49. Bendyna and Gautier, Recent Vocations, 9, stress the importance of the communal aspect of
religious life in the following terms: When we asked what they find most rewarding or
satisfying about religious life, new members offered a range of comments about various
aspects of religious life. The most frequent responses were about the communal dimension of
religious life.
50. Gautier, Perl and Fichter, Same Call, 203.
51. Patricia Wittberg, From Piety to ProfessionalismAnd Back? Transformations of Organized
Religious Virtuosity (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006).
52. William Swatos, Virtuoso, in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Society (Hartford, CT: Hartford
Institute for Religious Research), http://www.hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Virtuoso.htm.
53. Max Weber, Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
288 The Australasian Catholic Record

For centuries Catholic female religious typically had combined an interior

spiritual life with one of active service. The gradual shift from the contemplative
as the major activity of religious congregations has occurred over several
centuries. In 1800 contemplative orders of women were still in the majority but
by the early twentieth century only eleven per cent of orders were contemplative.
Between 1800 and 1900, six hundred new orders were founded and almost of
them were devoted to outreach in some form. These new orders also tended to
attract large numbers of vocations, and many of them soon became quite large.
In these congregations the discipline of religious observance was matched by a
vigorous apostolate. This was often conducted in what we would now call the
service sector. Along with this there was a close alignment between religious
congregations and what Wittberg calls sponsoring organisations. For Catholics
this meant the hierarchical structures of the church. A critical example of the
interplay of these factors is in congregations that were founded with a clear
educational charism. In these groups, sisters lived a communal life as evidenced
by regular prayer and time for contemplation. They also established school
systems that in many parts of the world received no, or meagre, government
support.54 In addition, this work was closely aligned with the aspirations and
plans of church leadership. Bishops were very much dependent on sisters to
carry out their educational goals and as such very much supported this
traditional form of religious life. When all factors are in harmony there is great
capacity for those in religious community to develop virtuosity. This Weberian
idea overlaps with other notions discussed earlier. The religious sister is doing
something of great value, is highly esteemed in her community, and is fulfilling
a role that others simply could not fill. The history of Catholic schools in
countries like Australia, for example, tells the story of a system that was possible
only because of the involvement of large numbers of teaching religious, and
most of these were sisters in a variety of orders dedicated to education.55 Such
achievement can bring with it a heightened sense of attraction to religious life
for those considering entering a religious congregation.
In many ways the apostolates of these religious women were very
successful. In particular, the schools and hospitals that they created provided a
range of services that were sought out by increasingly diverse sections of the
community.56 As these institutions grew, however, a subtle shift occurred, which
to Wittberg is a telling argument about the attraction of religious life today. This

54. Wittberg, Piety to Professionalism, 9, notes, e.g., that by 1900 Catholic sisters in the United
States ran 3,811 parochial schools and 633 girls academies.
55. Frank Rogan, A Short History of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Melbourne 1839
1980 (Melbourne: Catholic Education Office, 2000); Berenice Kerr, The Congregational
School: Its History and Significance in Catholic Education in NSW and Australia (Sydney:
Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes in NSW, 2009).
56. Antoinette Baldwin, The Congregational Hospital: Its History and Significance in Catholic
Health Care in New South Wales (Sydney: Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutions in
NSW, 2011).
 Religious Vocations Today 289

shift is in the title of her book: from piety to professionalism. The work of
women religious began to be identified with what in earlier times had been
called the active apostolate and not the communal or reflective aspects. Over
time this change made those in religious life appear to be less like virtuosi and
more like highly trained and dedicated lay professionals. This was especially
acute as many orders do not have an articulated theology of an activity-centred
sense of virtuosity. In this shift the attraction of religious life diminished because
those elements that were peculiar to it did not have a prominent role in the
identity of either congregations or individual sisters. Consider the example of a
religious who is in charge of a large heath care system. This is a demanding and
challenging job but one that many lay people undertake. Due to constraints on
their time just as many lay people find it impossible to take part in ritual and
communal prayer, so does the religious sister who is occupying a similar role.
This analogy can be extended to markers of religious virtuosity. An important
driver of this from a Weberian perspective is the symbols that remind others of
the special charism of the virtuoso. Does the professional religious go to work
in a distinctive habit that marks her as being part of a religious community, or in
the simple attire of one who has chosen a life of poverty or austerity? It is far
more likely that a religious in such a position will dress in a style that is
commensurate with her position. The loss of these markers is important
inasmuch as it signals the demise of the religious virtuoso and the ascent of the
professional. In this process the attraction of religious life is lessened and the
radical countercultural aspect, which has always been present, is increasingly
diminished and devalued. This is often not a conscious deliberate process but
unless it is identified then it is increasingly difficult to justify a decision to join
a religious congregation. The balance here is important. Dedicated and exclusive
contemplative life is difficult and for most people there is more attraction in a
vocation that combines, to use Carmelite terms, active and interior components.
It is telling that in the surveys of religious congregations of women that have
been discussed, one of the major attractions for women who have joined is the
communal and reflective aspects of their communities. These are important for
those who strive to be religious virtuosi. In Webers view there will always be
those who seek out this type of life within religious communities, but it is
important that this life reflect a balance of outreach, community life and a
distinctive lifestyle.57

57. Pope Paul VI gives a sense of this balance when he writes: Let us admit, sons and daughters
in Jesus Christ, that at the present moment it is difficult to find a life style in harmony with this
exigency. Too many contrary attractions lead one to seek first of all for a humanly effective
activity. But is it not for you to give an example of joyful, well-balanced austerity, by accepting
the difficulties inherent in work and in social relationships and by bearing patiently the trials
of life ? Evangelica Testificatio, 30.
290 The Australasian Catholic Record

The following is a comment by Fr Noel Connolly, on the 2009 report on

Conclusion

religious life in Australia: It is easy to be hopeful when bolstered by the success

of our works and the optimism of everyone around us but it requires faith and
courage to trust that all will be well when we are not so successful, when our
future is uncertain and when God seems absent.58
This paper began by noting the severe decline in the number of vocations to
the religious life in Australia in recent decades. It can easily be overlooked that
this decline was unanticipated. The excitement and presumption of the conciliar
period was not seen as a precursor of a decline in religious vocations. This is
strikingly borne out by a careful examination of the landscape of many
Australian cities. It is not difficult to find examples of buildings that were
constructed in the postwar period to accommodate a growing numbers of
aspirants to the religious life. These buildings were never filled and in most
cases have been sold off, and only the discerning eye can glean their original
purpose.59 A dramatic, unexpected change makes planning for the future
difficult. There can be a sense of being overwhelmed and as a result of this the
vison for the future can become too narrow and lack proper contextualisation. 60
Connollys remarks could be used to describe not just the conditions for
religious life but also for the wider church. In concentrating on vocations to
religious life it is easy to lose sight of the fact that this discussion takes place in
a much wider context. There is no question that vocations to religious life have
become scarcer in recent times. At the same time, however, the Christian life in
general has also become much more challenging. In keeping with Gills analysis,
the cultural model of religious affiliation has made it much more difficult for
Christians in general to live as active members of religious communities. There
is now no special kudos associated with identifying with a church and there is a
transition in what Rahner called the movement from a national to an intentional
church.61 Part of this movement is to see the Christian life as one of being
genuinely countercultural.
If we see religious life in this context, a way of seeing the future of
vocations at least in the medium term becomes clearer. What does a
countercultural life look like at its extremes? If Christianity is seen increasingly
as an alternative way of living, then can religious life be accounted for? A
number of seminal points suggest themselves. Religious life will be seen as

58. Reid, Dixon and Connolly, See, I Am Doing, 39.

59. Normanby House, adjacent to Monash University, is one such example. Completed in the early
1960s to provide accommodation for student Christian Brother novices, it was soon sold off to
the university as the anticipated vocations never entered.
60. Greeley powerfully made the point about the scope and impact of change in the postconciliar
church when he commented: When you change something that was unchangeable for 1,500
years, you are going to create a religious crisis. Andrew Greeley, The Failures of Vatican II
after Twenty Years, America, 6 February 1982, 869.
61. Karl Rahner, The Shape of the Church to Come (London: SPCK, 1974), 50.
 Religious Vocations Today 291

something that is attractive to a relatively small number of people. This is in

keeping with Wittbergs analysis of religious life as a manifestation of the
Weberian template for religious virtuosity. At the same time, however, those who
choose this way of life will do so because it offers a different path from that of
the layperson. This is a reflection of RCT. In this paradigm the question that is
always asked is: Why should someone chose to be religious when there are
costs associated with this choice? An elaboration on this in the case of those in
religious life is: Why would someone chose to life in this particular fashion
when there are other less demanding modes available? The answer to this latter
question must be found in the distinctiveness of religious life. The communal
aspect, along with a call to prayer and reflection seem to be especially important.
To distill the research on new vocations, those congregations that offer a clear
alternative but who do so in an integrated and joyful countenance are those that
are most likely to flourish in what is a difficult cultural context.
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