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Nuns Today​—What About Tomorrow?

THE troubles of the Catholic Church are perhaps nowhere more apparent than among its nuns. These are leaving their religious orders in startling numbers. And discontent among those that remain is increasing.

Newspaper article-headings reflect the crisis, such as the following: “9,000 NUNS QUIT IN U.S. LAST YEAR.”a¹ “NUNNERY WITHOUT NUNS.”b² “NUNS IN MIDST OF FEMALE REBELLION.”c³ “VANISHING NUNS: CRISIS AT SCHOOLS.”d⁴ “SHORTAGE OF NUNS FORCES CATHOLIC HOSPITAL TO CLOSE.”e⁵

Recently Franciscan nun Mary Modde worked on a major study that included about 70 percent of the nuns in the United States. She wrote that the study was made to “prove or disprove” the public belief that the question, “Where have all the sisters gone?” had changed to the declaration, “ALL the sisters HAVE gone.”

Is the situation as serious as indicated? Is the survival of the Church’s religious orders really in danger?

Some Catholic authorities seem to think so. Anita Caspary, a former mother general, said that unless changes are made in the religious orders the Church “stands to lose the whole [nun] community.”

Also, Gabriel Moran, as president of the Christian Brothers, Long Island​—New England district, wrote: “One of the tragedies of recent Roman Catholic history has been the dissolution of religious orders. . . . there are tens of thousands of people who are treading water in collapsed organizations.” Moran concluded: “The overall picture is a depressing one and this is the reason why the picture is almost never candidly drawn.”

How Great the Exodus?

Reliable departure statistics are hard to come by. And yet Catholic sources give an idea of the extent of the decline. For example, they show that there were 1,201,159 nuns world wide in 1965, but only 879,939 in 1971​—a loss of 321,220 nuns in just six years! In some areas the decline has been particularly great. South America, for instance, experienced a 40-percent decrease in one recent year, from 87,593 nuns to 52,163!

The decline in other places has also been great. Canada dropped from over 59,000 nuns in 1960 to fewer than 45,000 in 1972. And in the United States the decrease was from more than 180,000 in the mid-1960’s to fewer than 140,000 last year. But more significant than the number of departures is the type of women who are leaving.

An editor of a Catholic newspaper wrote: “There have been in recent years an unprecedented number of good Sisters leaving religious life.” Franciscan nun Mary Modde was more specific. She said that the ones leaving are “both young and middle-aged women who, to a large degree, are very well educated and who helped to form the core group of the apostolic community.”

What does that mean? Catholic leader Gabriel Moran put it bluntly: “Most of the young and imaginative people have left these groups.”

Are they being replaced?

Prospects for the Future

The 32-page report “Study of Entrances and Departures in Religious Communities of Women in the United States 1965-1972” provides the answer. Citing the study’s results, Mary Modde noted that, in 1965, 4,110 women entered the religious communities represented in the study, yet only 553 entered in 1972. Thus, while thousands of nuns are withdrawing, fewer and fewer women are replacing them. With what consequences?

For one thing, Roman Catholic schools have fewer nuns as teachers, and since hiring lay teachers as replacements is expensive, Catholic schools have been closing at a rate of about one a day. Catholic elementary- and secondary-school enrollments declined by 1,700,000 students between 1967 and 1971, a 30-percent drop! And the situation worsens. The Catholic Commonweal of February 2, 1973, under the heading “The Disappearing Nun,” reported:

“This is the season when Sisters are sending their ‘Dear John’ letters to pastors to whose parish schools they will not be returning in the fall. And this year the letters are especially numerous.”

The article then mentions dozens of schools from which nuns would be withdrawing in the states of New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota. It concludes:

“How bad is the situation? Perhaps not everywhere as bad as with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, but their vocations problem gives some idea of what religious orders generally are up against these days in keeping their ranks replenished. Between 1966 and 1971, twenty new members entered the order; during the same period, the order lost 563 Sisters through death, retirement or departure from religious life. That’s a loss ratio of 28 to 1.”

Who are the nuns left in the convents? This can be a distressing question to Catholic officials. For one of every three nuns in the United States is sixty years old or older. In the Boston Archdiocese’s largest teaching order, the average age of the nuns is nearly sixty. But, as James Eblen, Seattle Archdiocesan director of communications, noted: “Even as recently as 20 years ago the vast majority of nuns were in their 20s and 30s.”

Is it any wonder, then, that some would suggest that religious orders may soon disappear entirely? It seems that even now many nuns are just waiting for the opportunity to leave, and others would depart if they could. Gabriel Moran indicated as much when he wrote in the National Catholic Reporter:

“Some people are there [in religious orders] because they are old, sick or helpless and they cannot do anything except hold on desperately to whatever remnants are left. There are other people who have enough freedom to go but are doubtful that they have a better alternative.”

What has brought about this deterioration of religious orders? Why are nuns, as Catholics express it, “losing their vocation”?

[Footnotes]

[Charts on page 8]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Total number of nuns world wide

1,201,159

11

10

 9

879,939

 8

 7

 6

 5

1965 1971

hundreds of thousands

[Chart]

Number of new nuns in survey area

4,110

4

3

2

1

553

0

1965 1972