Younger sisters’ concerns prior to their entrance to religious life

ABSTRACT

In this International study, 91 Roman Catholic sisters, responded to an open-ended question regarding their previous hesitations, obstacles, and fears as they discerned to enter religious life. Frequent concerns expressed by these young Sisters included varied doubts about their vocations, lack of support or understanding from others, insecurities about the ability to live obedience, and sacrificing marriage and children. These results suggest the need for Sisters to explore new expressions of vocation promotion activities, vital initial formation programs, viable intergenerational community living experiences, and to creatively collaborate with others to further the Mission of religious life into a viable future.

KEYWORDS:

• Catholic sisters
• wellbeing
• hesitations
• generational differences
• developmental lifespan
• social capital

Note 1: For the coding scheme used for the analysis of the question examined in this study please contact the author.

Note 2: The data analyzed for this article is a part of the research generously supported by a grant from the Conrad National Hilton Foundation and given to Sister Maria Clara Kreis and Duquesne University since January of 2016. The grant from the Hilton Foundation supports the extension of the ‘Life Satisfaction Scale for Apostolic Women Religious (LSSAWR) to younger women religious and the development of the Manual for the LSSAWR in English, Spanish, and German.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation [G1600019];