Survey reveals growth in orders
associates
By RETTA BLANEY
Special to the National Catholic Reporter
Associates committed to religious orders in America now total more
than 25,400, with another 2,700 members in formation, according to a survey
released recently by the North American Conference of Associates and Religious.
A less extensive survey five years ago recorded 14,500 associates.
The 11,000 increase is a startling statistic, said
Sister of Charity Ellen R. OConnell, co-executive director of the
conference.
The message for the church is that lay men and women desire
to give a part of their lives to the church and are seeking ways to do
this, OConnell said. People want to connect. The challenge
for religious institutes is to understand the impetus of this group and better
integrate it into the living of their missions.
The study, released to conference members at their annual meeting
held May 5-7 in San Jose, Calif., found differences between mens and
womens reasons for affiliating with religious institutes. Associates in
mens communities are attracted by the ministries of the order and a
desire to work with vowed members, in addition to a desire for community. In
institutes of women religious, associates are more attracted by a desire for
deeper spirituality, especially the spirituality, or charism, of the community.
They seek opportunities for prayer and faith sharing with other vowed members
and associates. Women make up 84 percent of all associates.
Large numbers of people are saying they need a different
lifestyle [from that of the vowed or ordained], but they need to connect and
offer their gifts, OConnell said.
Jean Sonnenberg, an associate of the Sisters of Bon Secours in
Baltimore and member of the conferences survey committee, compared the
decline in vowed religious and rise in associates to the 19th-century tension
over the creation of apostolic orders, which were opposed by many in the church
hierarchy who thought members of religious communities should stay in their
cloisters.
Theres something parallel going on here, she
said. Members of religious communities dont like to see a
particular lifestyle die out. Maybe its not dying out, but a new way is
being born.
Sonnenberg said the large number recorded in the conferences
survey is a hopeful sign for the future. I think its telling us the
Spirit is at work here.
OConnell says 53 percent of religious zcommunities have
associate relationships. Half of those relationships were begun in the 1980s,
although the movement toward involving the laity in this way began after the
Second Vatican Council, OConnell says. At first, the connection was
largely to womens communities; half of the associations with mens
orders began in the 1990s.
The study found 12 percent of male and 3 percent of female
associates are of African-American descent, and 8 percent of male and 7 percent
of female associates are of Hispanic descent. For mens religious orders,
Asian/Pacific Islanders, at 9 percent, are counted the second-highest ethnic
group after Caucasians.
Ninety-two percent make a formal commitment to live the mission of
the religious institute as associates, and 94 percent of them renew that
commitment. The fact that people are committing and renewing their
commitment shows they want to have that enduring in their lives,
OConnell said.
Many of these associates are younger than vowed members. The
largest age group of female associates, 30 percent, is composed of women in
their 50s, and the largest age group of men, 31 percent, are in their 60s.
Sixteen percent of both women and men are in their 40s.
The study, titled Partners in Mission: A Profile of
Associates and Religious in the United States, was the first to include
associates to mens congregations. It was commissioned by the conference
and conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate -- CARA --
at Georgetown. Seventy-five percent of the 1,100 Roman Catholic religious
institutes surveyed responded. Not included were members of third orders,
prayer associations and oblates to particular monasteries.
For OConnell, the growing number of associates is a
cause for rejoicing. The Spirit is working and attracting people in this way.
The work of God is continuing in new ways within religious
congregations.
However, OConnell said rejoicing is mixed with a bit of
grieving. There has to be some element of sadness that were not
seeing the same numbers coming into religious life as I experienced it, but
part of our heritage is the mission of Jesus and how we can help that to
happen.
National Catholic Reporter, May 26,
2000
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