Is there a definitive cause for the collapse in religious vocations?
In this Pints With Aquinas episode, host Matt Fradd asks Sister Miriam Heidland, SOLT, a pressing question: Why are there so few religious sisters today?
“I think part of it is the attack on spiritual motherhood and spiritual fatherhood…really, it’s the attack on man and woman, and like, who are we?” she begins.
Sister Miriam then shares a personal story and offers her opinion on why there are fewer vocations to the religious life today.
“I was talking with the bishop many months ago, and he was saying that in the 1960s…there was a religious community in Wisconsin that was receiving a hundred women a year. 100 women! And they built a brand new novitiate, and then by 1972, they were receiving just four,” she says.
At this point in her conversation with the bishop, Sister Miriam says, he posed the question: “Women still have the capacity to say ‘yes’ to this divine invitation. What is preventing them?”
Sister Miriam tells Matt Fradd that she believes the answer to this question revolves around the sexual revolution of the 1950s and 60s.
“You had kind of an American cultural revolution. You had a difference of just the changing of the nuclear family, you had Vatican II coming out,” she explains.
Sister Miriam mentions the decline in catechesis during this period. There were also misunderstandings around the feminine genius amid the feminist revolution, which also contributed to this decline in vocations to the consecrated life.
“This is not about going back to some kind of supposed golden era of the past…The church is asking us as religious women to be real mothers, to live in the truth of who we are, and to be able to give Christ to the people,” Sister Miriam tells Fradd.
She also believes that parental approval is another major obstacle today.
“I remember even when I became a religious sister, my mom and dad were very faithful Catholics…and people still came up to her–and that was in the 1990s–saying like, ‘What’s wrong with your daughter? Didn’t she have a boyfriend? Like, what’s wrong with her?’”
Sister Miriam explains that since the social acceptance of religious vocations does not provide a reason for answering the Lord’s call, it truly comes down to the willingness to give one’s entire life to Jesus.
“It’s really like stripping it down to like, 'what is my motivation and what is Jesus calling me to,'” Sister Miriam concludes.