Helped by aggressive marketing and a new generation of conservative Roman Catholics, convents around the country say they are experiencing an increase in applicants for the first time in decades. The women are inspired by Pope John Paul II and his defense of Catholic orthodoxy, and are seeking a life that draws them closer to God.After years of watching the average convent become a retirement home for dying nuns, a change is being seen. How?
Anecdotal evidence about the increase has convinced the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which analyzes church trends, that it should start a formal study of the growth.
“It’s not a huge increase, but for a while there was hardly anybody and now there are some, so something is going on,” said Mary Bendyna, executive director of CARA, based at Georgetown University.
Their founders would tell them to “go to the edges,” embrace technology, says Sister Arlene Scott, assistant vice president of mission at this coed Catholic school in Miami.It seems that after years of hiding in the stone age and acting like it is holiness, it has finally required evidence of their impending demise for them to discover that the civilization they have been running from actually ain’t half bad…
That attitude has helped their order, the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Michigan, attract a handful of new candidates in their 20s and 30s this year. They used billboards and hired an ad agency to research what would appeal to younger women.Sometimes a denial is as good as an affirmation — yep, they ARE selling themselves because, yup, they ARE worried since they ARE dying out. Not that it’s a bad thing though — pretty much the entire western world was wondering what it would take for them to get it and change things…
“We’re not selling ourselves like we’re worried we’re gonna die out,” Scott said. “We’re evolving into something else.”
“A number of religious communities are finding that the Internet is where people are gathering,” said Vieira.
“We’re realizing that we need to have a presence there as well.”
Cool — smashing idea… How about some social networking sites — maybe a means of allowing the learning of the public with respect to Scripture and the voice of God to be shared and interacted with? How about a realization that a batch of celibate lily white priests probably need some online assistance in their interaction with sexuality from the rank and file Catholics who are actually doing it? How about a message board admitting that they don’t have a corner on theology, that some of the people they allowed to write it were basically twisted and weird and that they need to start over from the ground up?
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the largest religious order in the United States, hired an outside ad agency to design ads for secular magazines like People, along with Internet banner ads.
Oh, wait… Never mind. [SIGH]
“It’s a radical way of living,” says Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, of The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tenn.
“When you used to put the habit on, it was conventional. Now it’s radical and I think people want to do something radical with their lives.”
Apparently, even the Roman Catholic church isn’t above spin-doctoring. That being said, they definitely need MUCH more practice…
In Massachusetts, the Sisters of St. Joseph in Springfield is hoping to appeal to the broader public by restructuring memberships to include roles for married women and those with no formal connection to the congregation.
Ok, basically this is the first sign of real hope so far. Finally an organization willing to admit that their long dead human ideas about one organization lead by a dude in a strange hat (The hat loosely derived from the worship of the god Daggon) having the right to arbitrarily decide that 52% of the human race are second class church leadership and that married ones pretty much should sit down, shut up and get pregnant — yep, those ideas are starting to die. Thank God!
They have extended their roles to include people with different levels of commitment to the religious order, said Sister Natalie Cain, coordinator of membership and association for the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Even more hope: The dude’s proclamation that only faithful members of his little club get God’s stamp of approval is even slipping. Now, if only we could get them to admit that God just isn’t that big of a fan of political systems…
Yes, revolutionary change has finally arrived. It’s time for these fine sisters to party like it’s 1997.
Perhaps when they sober up someone can let them know that was a decade ago…
