Crossroads Podcast: Why Are There So Few Nuns These Days?
About 25 years ago, I wrote two “On Religion” columns examining the Church of Rome’s priest shortage — through the eyes of faithful mothers, with the help of a priest who had led a seminary. The headline: “Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons.”
I was reminded of themes from those columns during this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, which discussed this New York Times feature, “The Nuns Who Took Over an Assisted Living Center.” The second part of the double-decker headline hinted at the issue that reminded me of the earlier columns: “As convents are closing all over, the sisters are facing the end of their lives together — and they have brought the party to an assisted living center in the suburbs.”
The Times piece included this byte of life-and-death information: “In the mid-1960s, America was home to more than 180,000 Roman Catholic nuns; now there are only about 35,000, with an average age of over 80. Congregations have had to sell or close their convents, forcing these older sisters to find new places to live.”
Yes, there used to be three sisters or nuns for every Catholic priest in this country. What caused this stunning shortage of nuns and sisters? That’s an important question that the Times piece failed to address. One potential answer: With the feminist and sexual revolutions, it is now easier for young women to pursue careers in education, medicine, sacred music, etc., without taking sacred vows.
However, read between the lines in two short passages from one of my 2002 columns on the shortage of priests.
Few Catholic boys grow up to be men of the cloth without drawing inspiration from their parish priests and receiving the blessing of their mothers.
Both halves of that equation have to work or the church suffers.
Something basic has changed. Truth is, many Catholic parents no longer celebrate the news that one of their children wants to take vows. Why is this?
This attitude shift is especially significant when combined with a major statistical change in Catholic life. In the past, when large families were the norm, it was a matter of pride to have a son enter religious life. But what if most Catholic families contain only one son?
Now, read that final sentence with this edit: What if most Catholic families only contain one daughter?
I would imagine that the nuns and sisters included in this lovely feature would know plenty of hard facts about these trends, after decades of post Vatican II life in which they encouraged — with little success — young women to enter their fading orders.
This led me to another obvious question that I wish had been answered in this lengthy Times report: Are all Catholic religious orders for women headed into the same demographic black hole?
Let’s consider that question in this context, which is the feature’s explanation of how these amazing nuns came together at a Lutheran care center called Wartburg, located on 34 acres of land in in Mount Vernon, New York. Note this important background:
Since the first wave of about 30 nuns from the Dominican Sisters of Hope, a congregation in Newburgh, N.Y., arrived in 2009, the number of sisters in the center has swelled to about 80, more than one-third of the residents.
“When the cardinal was here last year,” said David Gentner, the president of Wartburg, “he said there’s more consecrated women religious on this campus than anywhere in the archdiocese.” …
Now, as they navigate their own final chapters, they are also contemplating the end of their congregations, a process known as coming to completion. And they may be witnessing the end of sisterhood itself.
“In 10 years, children will not know what a nun is — was,” Sister Stephen said, correcting herself. “They’ll be gone.”
Let me stress that no one doubts the reality that most Catholic religious orders for women have seen their numbers decline sharply.
Still, the final statement in that quotation is inaccurate.
I wondered if the Times team considered adding a few paragraphs noting that there are some orders that are growing — rapidly — while attracting waves of young novice nuns. Did the editors know about this small, but highly symbolic, trend that stands in contrast with the bleak, but important, numbers at the heart of this feature?
Also, what about the earlier comment about sisters and nuns in New York?
Well, it would have been interesting if the Times team had talked to the Sisters of Life, an order founded in 1991 by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. This circle of sisters started with 10 or so members and has grown to more than 120. The history page of the group’s website notes:
Cardinal John O’Connor, a navy chaplain-become-archbishop of New York, paid a [1975] visit to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where thousands of people had been tortured and killed during the Second World War. As he placed his hands into the semicircular red brick ovens, he said he had a profound spiritual experience in which he felt the intermingled ashes of Christian and Jew, rabbi and priest. Pierced to the heart, he cried out: “My God! How can human beings do this to other human beings?” In that moment, he made a promise: to do everything in his power to protect human life.
Thus, the women in this order take an additional vow, promising that their ministries will strive to protect human life, from conception to natural death. They engage in pro-life work, retreats and support for women who need help.
I already knew about another famous order that, quite frankly, is struggling to handle the high number of young women who want to join. I am referring to the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (Nashville Dominicans).
This order was founded in 1860 but has experienced rapid growth in recent decades — about 60% since 2000, reaching roughly 300+ members in recent reports. The median age is in the mid-30s, or thereabout. The sisters stress classical Catholic education, worship, catechesis and traditional communal life. If you want to know more, read this 2010 National Public Radio report: “For These Young Nuns, Habits Are The New Radical.”
There are others that are easy to find online. I asked the Grok AI platform to describe the traits that link the growing orders, as opposed to those that are dying. Here is part of that summary, and readers may want to glance at the photos on the websites of the two national networks mentioned:
Uniting traits often include fidelity to traditional Catholic teachings and the Magisterium (many affiliate with the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious rather than the more progressive Leadership Conference of Women Religious); wearing of a distinctive religious habit; strong emphasis on communal life, regular prayer (including the Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours), and Eucharistic devotion; clear, attractive charisms with visible identity and purpose; and appeal to younger women seeking radical, authentic commitment in contrast to more modernized or declining communities. …
These groups tend to retain pre- or carefully adapted post-Vatican II practices (habits, structured community, orthodox formation) rather than extensive experimentation, which correlates with higher vocational interest among younger generations seeking structure, meaning, and countercultural witness.
I will end with one more question. The Times feature tells us many things about the nuns and sisters now living at the Wartburg center, from their love of dancing to their preferred color of wine, from their commitment to helping others to their feelings about their choices to take vows.
I kept looking for one or two important words that are missing in the Times feature — “Jesus” and “Christ.” I think this gap tells us more about newsroom culture than the faith of these elderly women.
Come to think of it, the story also failed to mention, or quote, the Catholic priest or priests who provide Sacraments for the sisters and nuns — such as celebrating Mass, hearing Confessions and performing Last Rites.
Readers will learn a lot about the “Happy Hour” traditions at Wartburg, but nothing about their traditions in worship. Is there a choir? Daily veneration of the Blessed Sacrament?
As I said, it is a beautiful piece. Here is one final quote: “Yet to spend time among the sisters at Wartburg is to see a promising vision of old age: collective, purposeful, grounded in service to others — and above all, accepting of change.”