What You Might Be Surprised To Learn About Our New Religious

February 2, World Day for Consecrated Life, is a time for the Church to celebrate the gifts of men and women religious, especially during the Year for Consecrated Life, called for by Pope Francis. As in years past, the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocation commissioned a study of those who professed perpetual vows in religious communities in the United States in 2014.

Along with the statistical data of this report from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, this report gathered what could be called the surprising gifts of the Class of 2014. Heavily educated and diverse, respondents to the survey were asked to complete the prompt, "People might be surprised to learn that I..."

Here's what some of them said:

"...studied broadcasting before entering and I wanted to be a news reporter." - Sister Madeleine Schumacker, Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Immaculate Heart of Mary Province

"...have had personal conversations with both "Weird Al" Yankovic and Richard Dawkins." - James Dominic (Alan Rooney), Dominican Friars (Order of Friars Preachers), Province of St. Albert the Great

"...was an engineer for 20 years before entering the Jesuits." - Thomas Frink, Society of Jesus, New England Province

"...started painting in oils at the age of 13. I worked for eight years in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. I have a 44 year old son who has finally gotten used to the idea that  his mother is a Sister of St. Francis." - Sister Anne Marie Saphara, Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities

"...studied computer engineering for two years before entering the seminary. My goals before entering the religious life was to someday work at NASA." - Luis Cruz, Order of the Pious Schools (Piarist Fathers), Province of United States of America and Puerto Rico

"...graduated from Harvard University where I studied sociology and pursued pre-med requirements. Although I felt called to religious life from a young age, I was hesitant to share openly about it. It was not until I was engaged to be married that I knew for sure that God had made my heart to be totally His -- and He gave the grace to finally say yes to my religious vocation." - Sister Ann Kateri Hamm, Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal

"...practiced martial arts for 7 years and was a competitive runner prior to joining." - Alexandro Rubio, Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, Christ the Priest Province

"...like rock and alternative music. The wisdom, courage and depth of our elder sisters inspire me in my vocation and in my life of love and service to the people of God." - Sister Carrie Flood, Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

"...went to college at Harvard, taught at a university in Ukraine, and became a wine-maker my first year in the Order as a novice." - Ryan Thornton, Order of Friars Minor, Saint Barbara Province

"...was a software engineer that worked on the 4G network before I entered the convent. When I gave my two weeks notice, I was asked if I had found another job. My manager also offered me a raise if I would stay at my job. I told them I was going to enter the convent where I would have no money." - Sister Maria Jose Acosta, Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

"...worked as a chemist before entering the Oblates and hope to continue teaching science as part of my future ministry." - Ryan Cronshaw, Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, Wilmington-Philadelphia

"...attended UCLA before entering religious life and discerned my vocation with the support of a beautiful group of friends I found there." - Sister Agnes Maria Pineda, Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

"...begged the Lord to let me go to college before calling me to be a sister. Always a gentleman, He pursued me after I graduated." - Sister Dominica Bickerton, Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation

"...really love to shovel snow." - Sister Maria Benedicta Mantia, Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregration

Changing Face of Religious Life

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

A poster on the wall beside my desk reminds me to pray for vocations. It includes pictures of 28 women on the path to becoming Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. In fact, there are 30 such women in our community, but two didn’t want their pics on the poster. Thus goes the new age of freedom in formation.

However, the right to say you won’t be included in a community poster is not the only thing new. What also stands out is how these women reflect a changing church. Only 15 of those pictured come from the United States. The others come from the Philippines, Guyana, Jamaica and Peru. Older Mercies who welcome the new members are predominantly white and hail from families with roots in such countries as Ireland, Italy and Germany. Research from the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) finds a similar picture nationwide. Today, more than a fifth of the people in formation in the United States are Hispanic; one in eight, Asian American; and one in 15, African American.

It’s hard to judge ages from pictures but it appears that most of these women are older than I was when I joined the Sisters of Mercy at 17. Now we don’t even accept women for formation until they are in their twenties. Four of the current group are in their twenties, five in their thirties, two in their forties and one, who was in another community before coming to us, is in her fifties.

Our younger religious have more education that I did starting out. Many enter with professional credentials, among them nurses, teachers and lawyers. Most of the women now in our formation process in the U.S. have their bachelor’s degrees, and some have master’s. There are two teachers, two in finance and three in nursing. One is a lawyer and one’s getting her master’s degree in theology. Another is a computer expert and one served in the U.S. Coast Guard. There’s a chef too.

Despite these differences, their vocation quest holds many similarities, no matter the age. They want a special relationship with Jesus. They pray. They enjoy other Sisters of Mercy of all ages. They also are romantic enough to follow Someone unseen Who beckons with a soul-searing call. They look about them and see needs to be met and want to do their part to make a better world.

Catholic schools give America more than chump change

            I’ve bought pizza, chaperoned dances, donated to appeals – all fundraisers for Catholic schools – and paid tuition. Which is why I am bent out of shape by an article on church finances in Aug. 18 issue of The Economist. The article in the magazine that defines itself as “authoritative” makes all kinds of claims without data to back them up. Most annoying is its blithe statement that local and federal government “bankroll” Catholic schools.

            The article is filled with errors, such as its guess that church giving dropped by 20 percent because of the sex abuse scandal heralded in the media in 2002 and henceforth.  Real data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) indicate, however, that church giving increased significantly in recent years. CARA researcher Mark Gray noted August 21 that "on average, Catholic households gave about $8 in weekly collections in 2000 and today they give about $10. Even after adjusting for the effects of inflation, annual offertory in parishes in the U.S. grew from $361,000 in 2000 to 478,000 in 2010."  Adds Gray, who spends his life crunching numbers, “there is no evidence I know of that Catholic parish weekly collections have declined.”

As another school year starts, it is time to highlight the church’s contribution to American education.

            The government has a mandate to educate youth, and some public schools in well-off suburbs perform spectacularly; in other areas, not so well. However, in meeting its obligation, the government gets huge help from the Catholic Church, to the tune of about $23 billion dollars a year. That is what the government does not have to pay because Catholic schools educate about two million U.S. students annually. Catholic schools provide a realistic choice in education. Given this $23 billion, you could argue it’s the church subsidizing the government (or “bankrolling” it, if you wish to use The Economist’s hyperbole), not vice versa.

            In many nations, the government subsidizes Catholic schools, but in the U.S., government aid to non-public schools is minimal. In fact, other than the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, which helps fewer than 2,000 students, no U.S. government programs fund non-public schools. In some school districts, government pays for textbooks and transportation, but even that aid is for students, not schools. It does not pay for heat, light, building repair or the principal’s salary, for example. In some impoverished areas, students receive remedial help, whether they go to a public school or parochial school. Again, such aid is for students, not schools. In fact, the money does not go directly to the Catholic school, but to a public school central office, earning interest for the public schools until the district meets its obligation to provide resources for needy students.

            Who benefits from the Catholic schools? The nation.

The National Catholic Education Association provides informative data, here from the 2010-2011 school year:

·       Catholic schools help more than Catholics. Non-Catholic enrollment is 15.4 percent. In the urban/inner-city, the percentage of non-Catholic students soars to 42 percent.

·       Minority enrollment is 30.2 percent.

·       The average per pupil tuition in parish elementary schools is $3,673. That is approximately 62.4 percent of actual costs per pupil of $5,367. About 93.9 percent of elementary schools provide some form of tuition assistance.

·       The mean freshman tuition in a Catholic secondary school is $8,182. That is approximately 80 percent of actual costs per pupil of $10,228. About 97 percent of secondary schools provide some form of tuition assistance.

·       An estimated 99 percent of Catholic secondary school students graduate, and 84 percent go on to college, compared to 44.1 percent of public school students.         

How do Catholic schools meet the shortfall between actual cost and what families pay? Primarily through direct subsidy from parishes, dioceses, religious orders, development programs and fund-raising activities.

            The Economist ought to be embarrassed. A little fact-checking would have gone a long way. When it comes to who is helping whom, the church’s contribution to America is worth $23 billion annually. Not exactly chump change.

Holy Intersections

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a new study, Faith in Flux: Changes in the Religious Affiliation in the U.S. Among the interesting findings is one unearthed by Mark Gray from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). Mark notes that when people were asked the open-ended question, why did you leave the church, only two-three percent cited the sexual abuse crisis. (If you suggest sex abuse as the reason about 25 percent agree.)

The crisis has been so horrific that when Mark pointed it how few cited it, I was surprised. It just feels like it must be more. That may be the effect of media coverage. When you read something in the newspaper it can seem bigger than life. As big as the sex abuse crisis is, media can make it look even bigger.

In some ways, like politics, all religion is local. People make judgments on the church based on the priest at Mass, the chaplain in the hospital, the cleric at the funeral home, the deacon who performed the baptism – at the holy intersections – the significant and tender moments in their lives.

Number of Hispanics Entering Ministry Continues to Grow

Our office has received inquiries regarding the number and percentage of Hispanic seminarians being ordained in the United States, as well as efforts to recruit seminarians from the Hispanic community. This year’s ordination numbers came to us from Mary Gautier, Ph.D., senior research associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. She reported that for the class of 2009, 12 percent of men being ordained to the priesthood listed Hispanic/Latino as their primary race or ethnicity. This breaks down to 13 percent among priests ordained in dioceses and 9 percent among priests from religious institutes.

She adds that “approximately 14 percent of seminarians in theology are Hispanic/Latino. Overall, the ethnic distribution of seminarians in theology is gradually becoming more diverse. In 1993, the first year CARA collected racial and ethnic data on seminarians, 11 percent were Hispanic/Latino.”

Jesuit Father Allan Deck, executive director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity at the USCCB, added that despite this movement of Hispanics into ministry in the United States, “it still doesn’t come close to the percentage of Latino Catholics which is in excess of 35 percent and moving up all the time.”

According to Father Deck, of the many seminaries in the U.S., the most Hispanic is Assumption Seminary in San Antonio (where most of the actual courses are taken at Oblate School of Theology).

He added that there are also many programs that set out to recruit Hispanics, noting, “One of the longest-standing programs is in the Archdiocese of Chicago where Hispanics are provided with a residence where they can live and study English and get the educational background necessary to succeed in the seminary. It is called Casa Jesús. Many Hispanic priests have gone on to the priesthood from here.”

Mary Gautier noted that one seminary program in Mexico City accepts only seminarians sent by U.S. and Canadian bishops.

“It is called the Seminario Hispano de Santa Maria de Guadalupe,” she said. “The seminary sees itself as helping to promote priestly vocations among Hispanics in the United States and Canada arising out of the need that exists for priests to minister to these groups of Catholics that are increasingly found in those countries.”

According to Father Deck, one of the most frustrating aspects of recruiting Hispanic seminarians is that “some good prospects come forward but lack legal immigration status. It becomes increasingly difficult if not impossible to gets visas and/or regularize these prospects,” he said. This is due in part to laws put in place after September 11, 2001, and it puts a strain on candidates born outside the United States. These candidates constitute the largest group of Hispanic seminarians.

“The other story is the rise of Hispanic permanent deacons,” Father Deck added. “Of the approximately 16,000, some 3,000 are Hispanic. They are pounding to get into programs. This is a much under-reported success story.”