Vatican to probe U.S. nuns’ dwindling numbers

WASHINGTON-Prompted by a steep decline in the number of women entering the Catholic sisterhood in the U.S., the Vatican has ordered an unprecedented review of the nation’s 400 women’s religious congregations, officials announced here Friday (Jan. 30). The “Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States,” officially began Friday, said Sister Eva-Maria […]

WASHINGTON-Prompted by a steep decline in the number of women entering the Catholic sisterhood in the U.S., the Vatican has ordered an unprecedented review of the nation’s 400 women’s religious congregations, officials announced here Friday (Jan. 30).

The “Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States,” officially began Friday, said Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the visitation, and will continue for about two years. It is the first review of all the communities of women religious in the U.S., officials said.

Mother Mary Clare Millea, a Connecticut native who is superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was appointed by the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life to lead the review.


U.S. Catholic officials seemed surprised by the announcement. Ackerman said two umbrella groups, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (MSWR), were informed just hours before the review was announced.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which runs a popular yearly fund-raiser for retired women religious, had no comment and was unaware of the announcement until just hours before. Likewise, the MSWR had no comment and the LCWR did not respond to requests for comment.

Ackerman said the visitation aims to “look into the quality of the life” of the approximately 59,000 women religious in the U.S. and their contributions to the welfare of the church and society.

The review is prompted by a precipitous drop in the number of women entering religious communities and a rise in the average age of nuns and sisters, she said.

Between 1945 and 2000, the number of religious sisters in the U.S. dropped by 54 percent, from 122,159 to 79,876, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. That number has continued to drop since 2000.

Some Catholics wondered privately if there wasn’t more to the Vatican review beyond the demographic decline, noting that a few American nuns have been outspoken in recent years on sensitive church issues such as women’s ordination and mandatory celibacy for priests.


Earlier this month, the Vatican released the results of a yearlong study of U.S. seminaries that was prompted by the clergy sexual abuse scandal. That probe found that “difficulties” related to “homosexuality behavior” in the seminaries had been “largely overcome.”

Ackerman said the two reviews are unrelated, noting that the seminary probe was ordered by a different branch of the Vatican, the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Ackerman said she did not know of any other Vatican investigation of women religious in other countries.

American nuns remain popular in the U.S., where they are credited with building the largest private school system and hospital network in the world. The bishops’ annual appeal for retired women religious regularly brings in more than $30 million.

Officials estimate that 2.5 million Americans attend Catholic elementary and high schools; Catholic hospitals treat nearly 84 million patients each year.

“We Americans owe a huge debt of gratitude to the religious in our nation,” Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said Friday in an unrelated statement about the church’s upcoming World Day for Consecrated Life on Feb. 2, which honors both men’s and women’s communities. “Their loyal service to our church and country are unparalleled.”


The study will proceed in three stages, Ackerman said. First, Millea will ask for voluntary input from the heads of religious congregations. The congregations will then be asked for statistics, activities and community practices. Selected on-site visits will be made during the third stage.

Millea’s final report will be confidential and delivered to the Vatican by 2011.

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!