Yaatee Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 This from The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/nuns-treble-five-years Typical that they don't make a distinction between entering and taking vows. But anyway.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthfinder Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Very good news to hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luigi Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I ain't got nothin' to say except ALLELUIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catlick Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 (edited) Why become a Roman Catholic nun? Edit: Because the Truth matters! Edited April 24, 2015 by Credo in Deum I edited your question because I do not feel the original one was appropriate for VS. Feel free to ask your original question in Debate Table. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sister Leticia Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Yes, this has been very encouraging news for us here in the UK, and it's lovely that you folk in the US can be glad with us, especially because 45 entrants might seem very small to you. We are a minority church in a small country, so the number of young women wiling and able to discern will always be in the lower hundreds rather than the thousands. When I entered more than 20 years ago the average number per year was 35-45, and this was a drop on previous years. But then numbers started decreasing, to less than 35, less than 30, less than 25... and then, less then 20, less than 10 (only 7 in 2004), and, as you can imagine, this was a very hard time to keep hopeful, especially for anyone doing vocations ministry. Numbers slowly started rising about 5 years ago, and, thanks be to God, have been rising every year since then! But of course we still need to pray hard and work hard, because many more labourers are needed in God's harvest. I'm confident that God continues to call, but it's a question of helping people hear and respond. So please remember Britain when you pray for vocations, especially this Sunday! This was the story on the Catholic Church's website (without mention of postulants taking vows!) http://www.catholicnews.org.uk/Home/News/More-Nuns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catlick Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Why become a Roman Catholic nun? Edit: Because the Truth matters! Dude, I was obviously poking fun at the Anglican female 'bishops'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Credo in Deum Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Dude, I was obviously poking fun at the Anglican female 'bishops'... I do not feel your comment was appropriate for VS. Please note this is not in defense of female 'bishops', it is just my opinion that your joke is better suited for a place like the debate table. Thank you for your understanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orapronobis Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Deo Gratias! As a UK discerner this fills me with so much joy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheresaThoma Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 This really is wonderful! Me being a numbers person looked up the relative population sizes. 45 sisters in the UK is like 225 sisters in the US. Really puts it in perspective. I couldn't find any good stats on the number of sisters making first vows in the US though. Does anyone know where that could be found? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthfinder Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 The USCCB publishes stats on the priests that are ordained every year - maybe they have the statistic on the nuns. If you want to be very enterprising, you could always look up the Annuario (or something like that). It has all the stats, listing the number of novices and professed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sister Leticia Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 This really is wonderful! Me being a numbers person looked up the relative population sizes. 45 sisters in the UK is like 225 sisters in the US. Really puts it in perspective. I couldn't find any good stats on the number of sisters making first vows in the US though. Does anyone know where that could be found? Was the 45/225 according to population or number of Catholics? You see, in England and Wales we're only about 5 million Catholics out of a total population of 57 million - so just under 10%. I find statistics interesting, but I'm absolutely no good at working them out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponsa-Christi Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Was the 45/225 according to population or number of Catholics? You see, in England and Wales we're only about 5 million Catholics out of a total population of 57 million - so just under 10%. I find statistics interesting, but I'm absolutely no good at working them out! Wow, I didn't know this! Here in the USA, my archdiocese alone has 2.5 million Catholics. In any case, great news to hear that the numbers are growing larger! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaatee Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 If you can sign in to The Guardian in the UK (I am having difficulty, as I keep missing the confirmatory email) you can follow this story with stories about religious, ?exclusively nuns, I am not certain---in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaatee Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 In addition, somewhere I read that in the US, there were one hundred final professions of women last year. I don't know anything more--if this includes cloistered congregations or not, for example, and if this includes all communities, pontifical rite, diocesan, and "start-ups". Someone with some statistical knowledge could work out what the final steady state number of sisters and nuns is going to be in the future, once all of the vowed members from the sixties (the last great surge) have finally died out. We know that sisters and nuns are extraordinarily long-lived. The number will probably be far lower than the current 58,000 estimate. It's a pity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheresaThoma Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Was the 45/225 according to population or number of Catholics? You see, in England and Wales we're only about 5 million Catholics out of a total population of 57 million - so just under 10%. I find statistics interesting, but I'm absolutely no good at working them out! that 45/225 was for the general population I guess better representation would be for the Catholic population. So the US has about 79.7 million Catholics and going with the 5 million Catholics in the UK (I was seeing numbers anywhere from 4-5 million mostly around the 5 million mark).That means 45 women making first vows in the UK is like 717 sisters making first vows in the US. WOW! 225 didn't sound too far off but 717. That would be amazing. Obviously to get a full picture you would have to factor in other things such as women who enter in a different country but are originally from the US or UK. Another way to think of it is one or two dioceses in the US having 45 women from their diocese(s) making first vows.... (How I got there is basically using proportions so #of Catholics in US/# of Catholics in UK = # of Women making vows US/ # of Women making vows in UK so to solve it you divide the two Catholic populations and multiply by the number of women making vows in the UK (quick algebra exercise...) and that gives you the number 717. Which is CRAZY) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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