And Then There Were NUN

Sr. Paschal OLAM

As a young boy, I attended Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic School in Chalmette, Louisiana. Back then, the school was run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND). Our principal was a nun, and I had the privilege of being taught by several nuns, although I may not have acknowledged that as a "privilege" at the time.

It sure seemed to me that there were nuns everywhere! Not only were they around to instruct us, but once or twice a week we would go to the on-campus convent to watch educational videos (no tv in every room, can you imagine?) or visit the chapel. I saw many nuns at Mass every week, and we would even "bump into" a nun at the grocery store from time to time.

Today OLPS is no longer run by the SSND, and there is not a single nun on the faculty list. Last I heard, the convent was a daycare center, and I can find no "history" link on the school website, so I wonder if the current students are even aware of the school's past.

For many years, priestly vocations suffered a decline. While such decline was very evident because of the nature of the vocation itself, the decline in female religious vocations just was not as apparent to me...until I just didn't see nuns anymore.

That doesn't mean that they disappeared altogether, but they just were not as visible to me as they once were.

I'm going to use just a few statistics here. They are not comprehensive nor even completely comparable, but they will have to suffice for my little blog post. I will use my former archdiocese (New Orleans) and my current (Dallas) to make the point.

In 1970, in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, there were 1,706 nuns (636,242 Catholics). The number of Catholics per nun was about 373. In 2009, there were 458 nuns (387,101 Catholics). The number of Catholics per nun was about 845. +

But wait! That's nothing compared to the Diocese of Dallas. In 1970, in the Diocese of Dallas, there were 481 nuns (108,986 Catholics). The number of Catholics per nun was about 227. In 2006, with a very substantial increase in the number of Catholics (955,298) there was still a significant decrease in the number of nuns (127). The number of Catholics per nun was about 7,522. +

Archdiocese of New Orleans
YEAR	CATHOLICS	NUNS	CATHOLICS PER NUN
1970	636242	1706	373
2009	387101	458	845

Diocese of Dallas
YEAR	CATHOLICS	NUNS	CATHOLICS PER NUN
1970	108986	481	227
2006	955298	127	7522

We're not doing a very good job at fostering religious vocations. We're doing a terrible job at fostering female religious vocations!

But not all is lost. There are still young women answering the call. Over at The Anchoress, Elizabeth Scalia has a wonderful post titled Nun News for Autumn 2012 which lists many female religious communities along with short summaries of vows taken, professions made, and other nun fun stuff.

Why not spend some extra time praying for our nuns, praying that more young women answer the call, and perhaps share Elizabeth's article with a young lady who may just need a little water on a seed that God has planted.

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+ Statistics from Catholic-Hierarchy