The number peaked in 1965 at 179,954 today, there are only 42,441, according to CARA-a 76 percent drop. Still, the number of women religious in the United States has dropped. Seventy five percent of respondents said consecrated religious women were “somewhat or very trustworthy” in offering guidance on matters of faith and morals.
A 2021 survey by America and CARA found religious sisters and nuns were the most trusted of the nine groups of church leaders named in the survey question. Though fewer habits are visible now, the sisters remain role models. Half a century ago, women religious, readily identifiable by their habits, were the face of the church and served as distinctive role models. In communities of women religious, the number of aging members who are dying is much larger than the number of those entering but these women are not only continuing the mission of those orders and congregations, they are also perhaps healing the heart of the church, for that is what they have become. While becoming a religious sister may seem out of character for a generation that largely rejects organized religion, millennials like Sister Margie may in fact be drawn to religious life by characteristics peculiar to their demographic. Sister Margie represents a small but steady number of millennial women who are joining religious orders in the United States.
In 2009, the last time this data was compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, there were more Catholic sisters in the country over the age of 90 than under the age of 60. The median age in the Sisters of Mercy is 81, which mirrors the general population of women religious in the United States. “I didn’t see any young sisters while in high school,” she said, “so I didn’t really think it was an option for me to become one.” Though she attended Mount Saint Mary Academy, a Catholic high school in Watchung, N.J., run by the Sisters of Mercy, she had never considered becoming one herself. On those Sunday mornings she stayed in bed instead of going to Mass, Sister Margie would never have imagined herself in this moment. “Yes, I will,” Margie answers along with the other women in the 2019 ceremony. The images of schoolteachers in habits from their youth did not match the image of the independent woman they wanted their daughter to be. They were taken aback when their only daughter told them, after graduating from Boston College with a nursing major, that she wanted to be a nun. Her parents, both attorneys, had Margie baptized and confirmed, sent her to Catholic schools, but were not the type to make her go to Sunday Mass in high school if she preferred to sleep in. The woman on the far right, wearing a simple black dress, her dark brown hair pulled back, is Marjorie Tapia, who more often goes by Margie. Sister Patricia asks the four women about to profess their final, or perpetual vows, “Will you strive for holiness in your love of God and God’s people by living the Gospel with all your heart and faithfully observing the constitutions of this institute?” They stand before 500 family members, friends, coworkers and fellow members of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, including Patricia McDermott, R.S.M., president of the institute.
#Dreams of desire 1981 windows#
Sunlight streams through stained glass windows and washes across four women in front of the altar.