c. 1996 Religion News Service

(WASHINGTON) There was a time not too long ago when it was a point of pride for a Roman Catholic parent to have a son or daughter enter full-time church work or prepare to become a priest or nun.

No more.

A new survey of active Catholic youth shows that while many young people remain open and sensitive to the notion of entering the religious life or working full-time in some other capacity for the church, they receive virtually no encouragement from their parents.”Fundamentally, there has been a dramatic change in the last 30 years,”said Bryan Froehle of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington.

Froehle was the lead researcher of the survey,”New Directions in Catholic Youth Ministry,”which revealed the sharp shift in parental attitudes regarding their children’s possible commitment to full-time church service.

The survey of 6,000 teens _ the most comprehensive study of youth ministry ever undertaken by the church in the United States _ covered a wide variety of issues, from Mass attendance and involvement in parish life to values and attitudes toward family.

Among its key findings is that large numbers of young people involved in parish youth programs have considered devoting their lives in service to the church, a heartening result in the American church’s looming crisis of a disappearing priesthood and a dwindling supplies of nuns and religious brothers.

More than half of the teens involved in parish youth groups have considered working for the church in such jobs as youth ministry without actually deciding to take lifetime vows to be a priest, brother or sister, the survey found. About 30 percent have thought about entering the religious life as a priest, nun or brother _ 36 percent of the males and 24 percent of the females.

Froehle said that’s about the same level of interest in religious vocations as a generation ago. But now, instead of being pressured, prodded or even gently nudged into religious life by their parents, there is little parental encouragement.”While many church-involved youth are sensitive to religious vocations issues and most of those have experienced some form of follow-up to their interest, parental encouragement is relatively weak,”the survey report said.

According to the survey, only one-fifth report parental encouragement to consider a religious vocation _ 26 percent of males and 15 percent of females.”What’s surprising about this,”said Froehle,”is that this is coming from those _ kids and families _ who are more involved than most in church life, from parents who are away above the norm in such things as Mass attendance and parish involvement.” The Rev. Timothy Reker, director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ secretariat for priestly formation and vocations, said there are a number of factors at play in the shift in parents’ attitudes about their children and religious vocations.”A lot of the time, there are things that revolve around the celibacy issue,”he said.”The (secular) change in family size has had an impact. Many parents want to be grandparents and with smaller families, if someone goes into the priesthood or a religious order, that might not happen.”And there is the fear of parents about what they see as the loneliness (of a celibate lifestyle),”he added.”My own mother says she worries about that.” Reker said there also has been a change as the nation, including many church members, have become more affluent and materialistic.”It is a matter of money and our definition of what success is,”he said.”Before Catholics became affluent, it was more of an admired calling.” Another obstacle, Reker said, is the ambiguity of women’s roles in the church.”I’ve heard mothers say if something isn’t open to their daughter, they won’t encourage their sons.” Many of these obstacles _ along with the general secular trend against making lifelong commitments to anything _ have been recognized by the church’s hierarchy, which just last year adopted a national strategy for increasing religious vocations.”In building a positive climate for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, the family plays an important role,”the bishops said in a 1995 report on the vocations strategy.”Christian parents are called to prepare, develop and protect the vocations that God stirs up in a family.” The new survey underscores that argument.”This study (of teens) will be a strong catalyst”for the vocations strategy, Reker said.”What would really be helpful now is to engage the parents in saying why they respond as they they do.”

END ANDERSON