Factors cultivating well-being of women religious in ministry and their resonance with research on the workforce

ABSTRACT

Using Thematic Analyses the experiences of thriving in ministry were explored across generations of Catholic women religious (N = 1116). Participants responded to open-ended questions regarding their dis/satisfaction with religious life. Sisters expressed concerns about ministry that demanded their energy and time normally needed for community prayer and living. Sisters reported on vital experiences that support their thriving in ministry. Furthermore, Sisters value support from their congregation and the collaboration with ministry partners. Strikingly, these results highlight important factors similar to the findings of research on the workforce and clergy ministry satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Catholic
• spirituality
• women religious
• satisfaction
• thriving in ministry
• overall well-being
• clergy
• workforce
• work settings

Acknowledgments

This research was funded as a part of the Thriving in Ministry grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to Catholic Theological Union in support of developing research and programming on behalf of the integral thriving of all Catholic professionals in ministry. We want to express our gratitude to Sister Dianne Bergant, CSA, who graciously read this article and offered her valuable feedback, which we included in this article. Finally, we also want to thank the administration of Catholic Theological Union for their support and commitment to religious life and to this project. The co-authors do not have any relevant financial or non-financial competing interests. We are also grateful to Sister Kathleen Angel (CDP) who transferred the qualitative data responses into a database.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.