(RNS) — In an America where institutional religious practice itself is on the wane, a good Catholic sister — or priest, or brother — is sometimes hard to find. But not, as it turns out, impossible.
Though the number of men and women drawn to religious orders has dropped dramatically over the past 50 years, a small but steady stream of millennial and Generation Z men and women still choose this strikingly countercultural life, often finding religious life in surprising ways.
Sister Jenny Wilson, who until recently taught theology to high schoolers in Buffalo, New York, said some of her students initially learned about nuns by viewing horror movies.
“I never even knew that was a thing,” said Wilson, 46, who is now a vocation director for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, a 200-year-old order of about 6,000 nuns worldwide who are engaged in varied ministries, including health care, education and spiritual direction.
In 1965, there were almost 179,000 Catholic sisters in the U.S. and about 35,000 religious priests and brothers, according to statistics compiled by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 2021, there were approximately 33,000 women and 14,000 men.
Juniorate members of the Marianites of the Holy Cross turn to bicycling and roller-skating for recreation during a break from spiritual and academic training in New Orleans in 1965. (RNS archive photo by Frank Methe. Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society)
As those who have given their lives to God become more sca …
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Though the number of men and women drawn to religious orders has dropped dramatically over the past 50 years, a small but steady stream of millennial and Generation Z men and women still choose this strikingly countercultural life, often finding religious life in surprising ways.
Sister Jenny Wilson, who until recently taught theology to high schoolers in Buffalo, New York, said some of her students initially learned about nuns by viewing horror movies.
“I never even knew that was a thing,” said Wilson, 46, who is now a vocation director for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, a 200-year-old order of about 6,000 nuns worldwide who are engaged in varied ministries, including health care, education and spiritual direction.
In 1965, there were almost 179,000 Catholic sisters in the U.S. and about 35,000 religious priests and brothers, according to statistics compiled by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 2021, there were approximately 33,000 women and 14,000 men.
Juniorate members of the Marianites of the Holy Cross turn to bicycling and roller-skating for recreation during a break from spiritual and academic training in New Orleans in 1965. (RNS archive photo by Frank Methe. Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society)
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