God Calls Us Everywhere: A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women
by Patricia Wittenberg, SC, Mary L. Gautier, Gemma Simmonds, CJ, Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ
For anyone concerned with the lives and work of religious women, this is “must-read,” “must-have” volume. It is a singular resource, a collection of research findings on women religious in recent years. It is, as well, an anthology of discerning, important commentary and reflection on religious life in the world and church of the 21st century. Full disclosure requires me to say that as a young person I was a Carmelite minor seminarian, novice and student friar for over a decade, then a priest in both the Eastern and Western churches alongside being a sociologist of religion and professor at The City University of New York for 40 years.
I have remained close to religious communities, in particular the monks and nuns of New Skete, as well as the Order of the Holy Cross and the Trappists. I also remain in contact with the Carmelite province of which I earlier was a member. I mention this simply to explain my own concern for the decrease in vocations to religious life over the decades and the accompanying decrease in members of religious communities. The communities remain not only signs to the church and the world of the Gospel but continue as they have over the centuries to minister in a range of ways to God’s children.
The authors here look with open eyes at the reduced state of religious life but are not at all discouraged or made pessimistic by it. Rather, they signal the encouraging witness of newer members who have joined religious communities. As the title makes clear, this study focuses on women religious. The overall conclusion is that there is hope and light in what can be seen of newer religious, particularly outside of North America and Europe, namely in the global South. Mexico, India and Kenya are foci of studies included here. There are also studies of religious communities, their members as those entering in the US, Canada, Australia, England and Ireland.
All the studies reveal a powerful call to life in community, a life of prayer and service to others in the long tradition of women and men who offer themselves totally to God. It is not just the decline in numbers due to age and decreasing new members that spurred these studies on. Several factors were also of great interest. Probably chief among them are the effects of the culture, of social class, ethnicity on religious communities, their aging members and the attraction and retention of new members. Everything that we lump together in secularization has impact on vocations. Younger generations X, Y and Z, often have little experience of churchgoing, of Christian teachings, of life according to the Gospel. The very reality of God is often absent. Many of the studies point to the overall decline of faith and faith communities as obstacles to religious institutes gaining new members. Some data suggests that there is greater interest in religious life, more entering in the global South, but there are also social factors like poverty, lack of education, class differences which do not favor vocations for sisters and brothers. Many of the studies indicate the inability of younger members to mesh with older ones, a clash of experiences and expectations. There are also real defects in formation, in the education of new members. In some cases traditional forms continue to be used and no longer are effective with younger aspirants. While in North America and Western Europe those entering have had not only undergraduate and often advanced education, they also have had years of work and life experience, quite unlike the entering candidates of several generations ago, My own history was exactly this, novitiate right after high school and university afterwards. Sister Joan Chittester’s biography, Joan Chittester: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith, by Tom Roberts, (Orbis , 2015) is a particularly gripping account of religious life and formation before Vatican II, as is Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain. The later life and writings of both attest to the enormous changes in religious life and its challenges.
The negative media images of abusive priests and nuns has not helped religious communities either. And the persistent denial and avoidance of accountability too. Add to all this, poor or even nonexistent religious education and it can become a bleak picture indeed, the future of religious life for women and men as well. However, the comments of respondents to interview questions brings to these studies much hope and promise. The sense of call is powerfully present, no matter where the respondents—members or aspirants—come from. The motivations also are reassuring: the attraction of a life of prayer and service with a community of sisters. In many cases the striking age differences matter not at all. Younger joiners treasure the wisdom and dedication of their elders. I was moved by the words of many of those interviewed.
That said, there remain issues that cannot be avoided. There needs to be better communication of the possibility of religious life, and for that matter, of vocations to ordained ministry. There is, as suggested, lots of bad press even if for solid reasons. Yet there is also a place for more information and more importantly, more contact with those living and loving the consecrated (and ordained) life.
A brief review cannot do justice to the data, to the discerning commentary and interpretation the co-authors listed provide us. Brava to the authors. This is a “must-have” volume if one is at all concerned with and cares for the vowed sisters and brothers in the People of God.
Patricia Wittenberg SC, Mary L. Gautier, Gemma Simmonds CJ, Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ. God’s Call Is Everywhere: A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women. Liturgical Press, 2023. 222. ISBN 9780814669136
REVIEWER: Michael Plekon
Michael Plekon is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Religion, The City University of New York, Baruch College, and has been a priest in the Eastern and Western churches. Community as church, church as community andMinistry Matters (Cascade Books, 2021, 2024)