Good News: Catholic Nuns and monks diminishing
Offline Some good news folks, catholic clergy numbers are diminishing at an increasing rate.
Makes the heart beat all warm and fuzzy don't it?
Numbers of Catholic nuns, monks declining
The Vatican has released figures which show a dramatic fall in the number of Roman Catholic monks and nuns worldwide.
In a single year between 2005 and 2006, the number of men and women belonging to religious orders worldwide fell by 10 per cent to just under 1 million.
This means that the downward trend of recent years in membership of religious orders is accelerating.
The number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by about a quarter during the reign of the late Pope John Paul II and this further drop in a single year shows that new recruits are failing to replace those nuns who die, or decide to abandon their vows.
- BBC
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This actually doesn't surprise me; monks and nuns (more properly, Religious, who are considered laity, as they are not ordained, and who are addressed with either "Brother," or "Sister," as applicable,) have been declining for some time. Some sort of "critical mass," if you will, seems to have been reached. I don't know what's causing the sharper downturn, but my instincts lead me to believe that a sudden bout of rationality would have little to do with it. Think about it: if someone has a talent for, say, automobile maintenance, why would they become a Relgious Brother just to maintain the cars of Father Whoeverheis? He can still do that--and make a bunch more money, and maintain much greater freedom--just being a perfectly ordinary auto mechanic down at the local station. (And he *still* might be working on Fr. Whoeverheis's car! And the local Bishop's car, too!) The same principle goes for teaching: why become a Sister? (Oh...technically, a "Nun" is cloistered; the women Religious that you meet and talk to are almost guaranteed to be Sisters...but not "Nuns."
Some folks say that the Catholic Church has done its self-assigned job of educating the public all too well. That may indeed be the case.
Conor
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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
The Diocese here is doing fine. However, I have heard of several parishes in the Midwest that are locking their doors do to lack of priests. Unfortunately I doubt this will cause any overall reductions to the number of believers in the church. Last time something like this came out I was in High School and the Vatican's response was to allow girls to serve as 'altar boys.'
Thanks for the post, encouraging to see that. I just wish the numbers were that cheery with fundichrists. Unfortunately, I think they're still on the rise. How do ya fight that? It's like trying to hold back the West Nile virus... Wonder if aerial spray.... Nah.
"Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society." Thomas Jefferson
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