Nashville Nuns Lead Nation In Number Of Newcomers

[laetitia crucis]

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[b][size=4]Nashville nuns lead nation in number of newcomers[/size][/b][size=4]
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[size="2"]BY ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 15, 3:08 pm ET[/size]
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[font="arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif"][size="2"][b]NASHVILLE, Tenn[/b]. – A handful of Roman Catholic convents are contradicting the decades-long slide in the number of women choosing to devote their lives to the sisterhood. And at least two of them are doing it by sticking to tradition, including the wearing of habits.

The number of nuns in the U.S. has dropped dramatically over the last several decades as more women in religious life approach retirement and are not replaced with younger sisters.

But the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville have remained an exception for years. The order has 27 postulants entering the convent this fall, likely the largest group of new nuns in training in the U.S., according to religious scholars.

Sisters at St. Cecilia's and other thriving U.S. orders typically are younger, which makes them closer in age to potential newcomers. These orders also emphasize traditional practices, like wearing long, flowing black-and-white habits, and educating students.

After joining the convent, nuns are limited to a great degree in their contact with the outside world. They can't always use cell phones, are only allowed to visit family certain times of the year and must share the use of items like cars with other sisters in the convent.

"Initially when you enter you think you're giving up so many treats: going out to Starbucks whenever you want in your car or going out to eat," said Sister Scholastica Niemann, 31, who just entered her third year at St. Cecilia's. She'll take her final vows in five years.

"The reality is, through God's generosity and generosity of people, you have more than you could ever want," she said. "You don't have to own things to use them. You realize material possessions sometimes, because of our human nature, they can possess us."

Women entered religious life in large numbers in the 1950s and '60s, but that changed dramatically in the following decades as more career choices became available. In 1965, there were 179,954 religious sisters in the U.S. while today that number is around 57,544, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

More than nine in 10 women religious, who have taken final vows, were 60 or over in 2009. At St. Cecilia's the median age for the 272 sisters in the order is 36; the youngest sister is 18, the oldest 101.

Potential postulants see "young vibrant women, obviously happy with what they're doing" at St. Cecilia's and other growing orders, said Mary Gautier, senior research associate at CARA.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich., has 22 postulants entering this fall, many of them right out of college.

Like St. Cecilia's, sisters at Mary, Mother of the Eucharist wear habits. And the average age of the sisters in the Michigan-based order is close to 28.

"Young people want to help others understand some of the deeper aspects of the life and that's beautifully done in the classroom," said Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, vocation director for the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

She said entering postulants this fall include a highly decorated Harvard graduate and students from Notre Dame, St. Louis University and other esteemed schools.

"We're having a vocation explosion," Bogdanowicz said. "We can't build enough. I expect a lot more than 22 (postulants) next year."

"The world's very confused as to why they've (postulants) entered a convent," she said. "They're doing it because they want to make a difference in the world. We're not just teaching facts but the why behind life itself, ultimately that God has a purpose for all of us."

Sister Catherine Marie, executive director of St. Cecilia's campus in Nashville, said the number of postulants this year is "unheard of for us. It's really high." In 2000, she said they had around 22, a high point for the order.

Asked what attracts postulants to the order when there's hundreds to choose from, she said many postulants seek out St. Cecilia's because of its education emphasis and because the order still wears habits.

The Nashville order operates an all-girls school — with around 257 students — which they founded 150 years ago, the same year the order was founded. The Michigan order also runs two K-8 schools in Ann Arbor.

"It's not so much a fashion statement (sisters' habits) as much as a desire for a radical simplicity or saying 'I am about the work of God. I want to witness to that,'" Marie said.

"In the end, it's who God inspires. They (postulants) hear about us in such divergent ways. It's not recruitment, it's not marketing, it's the Holy Spirit."

Catherine Mooney, a professor at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, who's written about women's religious life, said one possible reason behind the thriving orders' success is many postulants grew up when Pope John Paul II was in the Vatican and may be influenced by his more traditional views.

People sharing their goods, having a communal lifestyle filled with prayer while educating and helping others, is also attractive to some.

"I don't think it's surprising young people who are religious and want to make some generous gesture in life would pursue any of a number of more traditional orders because that's what they've seen going to church," Marie said.

___

Online:

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia: [url="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re/storytext/us_rel_religion_today/37574802/SIG=110elu2bd/*http://nashvilledominican.org/"]http://nashvilledominican.org/[/url]

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist: [url="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re/storytext/us_rel_religion_today/37574802/SIG=10vpsfgcd/*http://www.sistersofmary.org/"]http://www.sistersofmary.org/[/url][/quote]




[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100915/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today"]Source[/url].

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Wow. That article title has a lot of alliteration.

[CatherineM]

Do you suppose we will ever see a time again when men and women are turned away because there is no longer any room in the convent/monastery?

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1284595128' post='2173625']
Do you suppose we will ever see a time again when men and women are turned away because there is no longer any room in the convent/monastery?
[/quote]



I sure hope not! I hope that those monetary donations keep rolling into these flourishing orders so they can add on to their monastery and accomodate new candidates.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1284595128' post='2173625']
Do you suppose we will ever see a time again when men and women are turned away because there is no longer any room in the convent/monastery?
[/quote]


Didn't that already happen with Mother Angelica's nuns until a new foundation was made?

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1284596363' post='2173633']
Didn't that already happen with Mother Angelica's nuns until a new foundation was made?
[/quote]

Forgive me if I have this wrong, but I thought I read that this also happened at the Valparaiso Carmel--not that qualified postulants were turned away completely, but that they had to wait.

Edited September 16, 2010 by IgnatiusofLoyola

[vee]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' timestamp='1284589522' post='2173592']



[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100915/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today"]Source[/url].


Wow. That article title has a lot of alliteration.
[/quote]

:DOMINICATION!!!!:

I like alliterations too

[vee]

[quote name='IgnatiusofLoyola' timestamp='1284596695' post='2173636']
Forgive me if I have this wrong, but I thought I read that this also happened at the Valparaiso Carmel--not that qualified postulants were turned away completely, but that they had to wait.
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[size="5"]:CARMELIZATION!!!:[/size]

[AccountDeleted]

Oh vee - you are too funny for words...

vee's very vociferous and volumatic verbiage

[MissScripture]

1) YAY!

2) Where it says that women stopped joining in the '70s and after because there were more career options --is there anything to actually back this up, or is that just speculation? I mean, yes, it happened at the same time, but I'd be far more inclined to think it was a change in the way that people viewed religion than "career choices."

[quote name='laetitia crucis' timestamp='1284589522' post='2173592']


Wow. That article title has a lot of alliteration.
[/quote]
If only there were 99! Then it would say, "Nashville Nuns Lead Nation in Numbers of Newcomers with Ninety-nine!"

On a side note, does it kind of annoy anyone else when people refer to all sisters as nuns? I mean, I do it when I'm going for a pun, and it actually it doesn't bother me when people are talking and say it, but for some reason, when it's in a news article, it annoys me...

[quote name='vee8' timestamp='1284597030' post='2173638']
[size="5"]:CARMELIZATION!!!:[/size]

[/quote]
That sounds like you're cooking!

[AccountDeleted]

I think through common usage, nuns has come to mean any religious sisters, and that's probably just because it's part of the shorthand that we use these days... like all the abbreviations. Just saying 'sister' could be confusing without the word 'religious' in front of it, so I kinda understand why 'nun' is used instead. And besides, most people don't know there is even a difference.

As for the reasons why there were few vocations in the 70s, speaking for myself, as a person who was trying to discern then, it was a crazy time for most communities, changing customs and habits and trying to figure out what should be changed and what shouldn't. That's why I gave up discernment at the time - it was too confusing for me to find a community when most of them didn't even know what they were doing... a very strange time for religious.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1284598633' post='2173645']
I think through common usage, nuns has come to mean any religious sisters, and that's probably just because it's part of the shorthand that we use these days... like all the abbreviations. Just saying 'sister' could be confusing without the word 'religious' in front of it, so I kinda understand why 'nun' is used instead. And besides, most people don't know there is even a difference.

As for the reasons why there were few vocations in the 70s, speaking for myself, as a person who was trying to discern then, it was a crazy time for most communities, changing customs and habits and trying to figure out what should be changed and what shouldn't. That's why I gave up discernment at the time - it was too confusing for me to find a community when most of them didn't even know what they were doing... a very strange time for religious.
[/quote]
Haha, wow, I totally forgot that there were plenty of changes going on in the church at that point as well. So, yeah, I definitely don't think it was due to "career choices!"

[morostheos]

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1284598998' post='2173649']
Haha, wow, I totally forgot that there were plenty of changes going on in the church at that point as well. So, yeah, I definitely don't think it was due to "career choices!"
[/quote]

Yeah, I was going to say, uh, Vatican II anyone? Not exactly just more career choices! It seems like communities are just now starting to really find their stride again after all of those changes!

[vee]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1284598129' post='2173643']
Oh vee - you are too funny for words...

vee's very vociferous and volumatic verbiage
[/quote]


You'd be fun to play scrabble with.

[quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1284598301' post='2173644']

If only there were 99! Then it would say, "Nashville Nuns Lead Nation in Numbers of Newcomers with Ninety-nine!" [/quote]
YOU WISH!!!!

[quote]On a side note, does it kind of annoy anyone else when people refer to all sisters as nuns? I mean, I do it when I'm going for a pun, and it actually it doesn't bother me when people are talking and say it, but for some reason, when it's in a news article, it annoys me...[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/ninja.gif[/img] [/quote]

It bothers me but I still use both interchangeably so basically I just annoy myself

[quote]
[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/lol4.gif[/img] That sounds like you're cooking! [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/.gif[/img][/quote]

Sounds good huh? The sweetness lures people in then[b] BAM[/b] theyre stuck

[LaPetiteSoeur]

Yay Dominicans!!


I hope that convents like the Nashville Dominicans and the Ann Arbor Sisters 'think to the future' and start expanding now, that way they don't have to turn women away.