Chicago, Ill., Aug 11, 2009 / 19:43 pm
A new survey of those in U.S. religious communities finds that most vowed religious are aging. However, most postulants in training are under 30 and tend to favor larger communities that are faithful to the Church’s teachings.
The Georgetown University-based Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) conducted the survey on behalf of the National Religious Vocations Conference (NRVC), a Chicago-based professional association of religious vocation directors.
The survey polled both religious institutions and individuals who were in training for their vows or had made final vows, determining that at least 2,630 responding men and women were in initial formation and nearly 4,000 were in initial formation or had professed final vows in the previous 15 years.
Of those in training, about 43 percent of the respondents were under 30. About 21 percent of these were Hispanic, while 14 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander and six percent African or African American.