Betco, Sr.

Majella,SAP
ED 14 Thesis Writing

Topic: “The decreasing of vocation life in religious congregation particularly in Metro Cebu.”

Sources

1. February 12,2008
St. Mary’s Aggie catholic.org.
Thus, although the world’s religious population did decrease between 2005 and 2006, the
decline was less than 1% of the total– rather than nearly 10%.
1 – A misinterpretation of Vatican II. After Vatican II, many people within the Church tossed
open the windows to the modern world and instead of engaging the world in order to evangelize
it, became evangelized by modern culture themselves. They allowed the culture to be a greater
authority on matters of faith than the Church of Jesus Christ. For more on this part of the story,
you can read some comments I have previously written on Vatican II and its misinterpretation
and implementation.
2 – A disconnect with people living out the faith. I see this often as well. We are sinful
creatures made with a fallen nature. This means we want it both ways – to be close to God and
to do our own thing. We all do this, but it is much more widespread in our Church today. But, if
you can’t get your own way and don’t want to have it any other way, then religious life is the last
thing you would consider.
3 – Lack of a Catholic culture of vocations. Many people decided to stop asking their
children, friends, and others to think about a vocation to the priesthood and religious life. It
wasn’t an option in some parts of the Church to seriously consider it.
4 – Dissent. This one is a very serious reason. Why would you sacrifice your life for something
(the Church) you think teaches lies? Dissent on moral and sexual issues is especially harmful to
vocations to the priesthood and religious life. If you undermine the Church’s moral authority to
teach truth in regards to sexuality then we can expect that people will not answer the high
calling to live a celibate life (or chastity in any vocation – look at the high number of married
Catholic who use contraception). Dissent also is directly tied to reasons 1 and 2.
5 – Specific issues to certain religious orders. Some orders and dioceses are busting at the
seams. Some have no vocations at all. Some orders are expanding rapidly and others are about
to close up their shops. Why? Because of all the reasons above and more. It is a complex issue.
But, to be as blunt as possible, it is mainly because some orders have lost their Catholic identity
or charism (gift of the Holy Spirit). Their missions have become too blurred for them to properly
discern how to live out their calling.
2. January 30,2017
Catholic online. www.catholic.org.

To this factor of the socio-cultural context, others must be added. One of these is the
world of youth, a world that is complex yet at the same time rich and challenging. Not
negative, but complex, yes, rich and challenging. There is no lack of young people who
are very generous, united and committed at religious and social level; young people who
seek a true spiritual life; young people who hunger for something different to what the
world offers them. There are marvelous young people, and not just a few. But there are
also young people who are victims of the logic of worldliness, which may be summarized
as follows: the search for success at any price, easy money and easy pleasure. This
logic also seduces many young people. Our task cannot be other than that of staying
close to them to spread to them the joy of the Gospel and of belonging to Christ. This
culture must be evangelized if we do not want young people to succumb. A conditioning
factor comes from within consecrated life itself, where alongside much holiness -- there
is much holiness in consecrated life! -- there is no lack of situations of counter-testimony
that make faithfulness difficult. Such situations, among others, are: routine, weariness,
the burden of managing structures, internal divisions, the search for power, or "climbers",
a worldly way of governing institutes, a service of authority that sometimes becomes
authoritarianism and sometimes "laissez-faire". If consecrated life is to maintain its
prophetic mission and its appeal, continuing to be a school of faithfulness for those near
and far, it must keep its freshness and the novelty of the centrality Jesus, maintain the
attraction of spirituality and the strength of mission, show the beauty of following Christ,
and radiate hope and joy.

3. 1627-1811
Obituary notices of the nuns Benedictine abbey of ghent
(wwwtn.history.qmul.ac.uk)

Health Some nuns were deemed insufficiently robust to undergo conventual life or
had a specific physical problem, such as poor eyesight.
Other nuns became ill and withdrew from a convent, intending to return
when they had recovered.

Unsuitable Several nuns found it too difficult to adjust to convent life. Others were
asked to leave by the convent, when deemed to be unsuitable.
 Withdrew Some nuns were withdrawn by their families and others decided to leave a
convent of their own accord. Several such nuns subsequently married.

4. St. John Bosco today

Magazine 2018 (Celebrating the year of Clergy and Consecrated persons)

Losing discernment in Religious Vocation

1. Review your life History. See God has been journeying with you throughout your life:
your family situation, friends, personal desires, temperament, talents, future dreams
and life goals, interests and motivations.
2. Enlightenment. Remember that it is God who calls, and we merely respond. It is
therefore necessary to keep in mind that we pray in order to know what we want us
to do.
3. Listen to others. Ask superiors, sisters about their vocation stories. They could offer
some insightful help. They will provide you a close encounter with individuals who
have said, ‘yes to God’ invitation to follow him more closely in the consecrated life.
4. Discern. Ask for spiritual guidance from individuals’ sisters or even lay people who
may be of help to co-discern and interpret God’s many invitations. Spiritual
discernment is a journey of prayer, reflection and an in- depth inquiry of the
movement of spirit in your life.
5. Decide. After a while, you may already move forward a specific path. Talk with your
spiritual director about it. Keep in touch as well with the vocation directory as regards
the time frame you have in mind. Continue to discern by maintaining your stance of
prayer.

5. Series Vatican Documents

Congregation for catholic education
Faced with modern challenges

The globalization processes

A. The process of globalization characterizes the horizon of the new century. This is a complex
phenomenon in its dynamics. It has positive effects, such as the possibility for peoples and
cultures to meet, but also negative aspects, which risk producing further disparities, injustices
and marginalization. The rapidity and complexity of the changes produced by globalization.
New technologies
B. The growing development and diffusion of new technologies provide means and instruments
that were unconceivable up to just a few years ago. However, they also give rise to questions
concerning the future of human development. The vastness and depth of technological
innovations influence the processes of access to knowledge, socialization, relations with nature
and they foreshadow radical, not always positive, changes in huge sectors of the life of
mankind. Among the challenges of modern society have to face are threats to life and to
families, genetic manipulations, growing pollution, plundering of natural resources, the unsolved
drama of the underdevelopment and poverty that crush entire populations of the south of the
world.
6. Familiaris Consortio
Apostolic Exhortation on the role of the Christian Family in the Modern World
In these challenges lies hidden an authentic call of the Holy Spirit to rediscover the
wealth and potentialities of this form of life. If in some places consecrated persons become little
flocks because of a decrease in numbers, this can be seen as a providential sign which invites
them to recover their very essential tasks of being leaven, sign and prophecy. The impression
which some have of a decline of appreciation of consecrated life in some sectors of the Church
can be seen as an invitation to a liberating purification. Consecrated life does not seek praise
and human appreciation, it is repaid by the joy of continuing to work untiringly for the kingdom of
God, to be a seed of life which grows in secret, without expecting any reward other than that
which the Lord will give in the end (cf. Mt 6:6). It finds its identity in the call of the Lord, in
following him, in unconditional love and service, which are capable of filling a life to the brim and
giving it fulness of meaning.

7.Vita Consecrata (Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John II)

The Major Challenges facing the consecrated life
The first challenge is that of a hedonistic culture which separates sexuality from all objective
moral norms, often treating it as a mere diversion and a consumer good and, with the complicity
of the means of social communication, justifying a kind of idolatry of the sexual instinct. The
consequences of this are before everyone's eyes: transgressions of every kind, with resulting
psychic and moral suffering on the part of individuals and families.
Another challenge today is that of a materialism which craves possessions, heedless of the
needs and sufferings of the weakest, and lacking any concern for the balance of natural
resources. The reply of the consecrated life is found in the profession of evangelical poverty,
which can be lived in different ways and is often expressed in an active involvement in the
promotion of solidarity and charity.
The third challenge comes from those notions of freedom which separate this fundamental
human good from its essential relationship to the truth and to moral norms. In effect, the
promotion of freedom is a genuine value, closely connected with respect for the human person.
But who does not see the aberrant consequences of injustice and even violence, in the life of
individuals and of peoples.

8. YouCat
Youth Catholic (Chapter 3 man responds to God)
Most of the youth until now seeking the true meaning of Life and their faith.
Anyone who wants to believe needs a heart that is ready to listen. ( 1 king 3:9). In many ways
God seeks contact with us. In every human encounter, in every moving experience of nature, in
every apparent coincidence, in every challenge, every suffering there is a hidden message from
God to us. He speaks even more clearly to us when he turns to us in his word or in the voice of
our conscience. He addresses us as a friend and believe him, trust him completely, learn to
understand him better and better and accept his will without reservation.
Faith is knowledge and trust. It has seven characteristics:
• Faith is a sheer gift of God, which we receive when we fervently ask for it.
• Faith is the supernatural power that is absolutely necessary if we are to attain salvation.
• Faith requires the free will and clear understanding of a person when he accepts the divine
invitation.
• Faith is absolutely certain, because Jesus guarantees it.
• Faith is incomplete unless it leads to active love.
• Faith grows when we listen more and more carefully to God’s Word and enter a lively
exchange with him in prayer.
• Faith gives us even now a foretaste of the joy of heaven

9. www.Quara.com
Reasons leaving the religious Life
January 2,2018
Her purpose there is complete, probably it was a meant to prepare her for more stuff. It could be
the process was for her healing, or for the community to have her for a short time, or she
transferred to another community.
Sometimes the community and herself need to decide her departure for some sad reasons,
either psychological or situational or anything else. But usually this is for severe matters.
Some quit because they entered only to discern, not really to make the final decision. Come and
See program is common in the catholic Church.
Some other parties caused her departure.
She misunderstood what nuns were all about. Or perhaps she needs to take time off to discern
if she wants it forever while she still can.
Any many others. it is not usually about lifestyle or love or what secular people usually think
about although a small number might use that as an excuse. Even so, all these usually resolve
around Jesus and not around her own selfish wills
10.www.theatlantic.com
Declining the Religious Congregation
June 2018

Love could be one reason for distraction depicted in a real-life story of the Austin nun. Another
could be disillusionment with what we regularly read infractions in the dioceses by the priests
highlighted in another 2006 documentary film Sex Crimes and the Vatican filmed by Colm
O'Gorman, who was raped by a Catholic priest in the diocese of Ferns in County Wexford in
Ireland when he was 14 years old.

The latest scandal involving no less than a Cardinal in Australia attests to the hypocrite
dispositions of the religious gurus preaching the virtue of a straight life but themselves straying
from practicing this virtue.
Sex scandals are in fact a common phenomenon in the religious temples irrespective of faiths .
11. Encourageandteach.wordpress.com
Why youth choose to live outside the convent
November 6,2014

They could never wear the same thing every day! I still remember asking Sr. Catherine Mary
if she missed wearing jeans. She thought for a second, and said “No.” I was certain she was
lying and it was a trap to get me to consider being a sister.
They could never wake up that early every day!
They want to have children. You had better want to have children. As women, we are
designed to bear children, and it is the most precious gift bestowed by God. It is a sacrifice. And
as with all sacrifices, there is a grace from God to live a full and fruitful life with a gift for spiritual
maternity. Each day, I am moved by an experience of being a “mom,” with many of the same
joys and sorrows I hear echoed from women raising children.
They want to get married. Again, you should want to be married. Created in God’s image, we
are built physically, emotionally and spiritually to a complement relationship with another —
specifically, with a man. As Christ reminds us, this will not happen for some women for various
reasons, and some will be asked to sacrifice this for the kingdom of heaven. We are all called to
a spousal commitment that entails total self-gift and sacrifice. This is very true of marriage, as it
is true of religious life.
They could never be obedient to someone. We are not talking about servile, abusive or “go
get my slippers” obedience. In our Baptism, we are called to imitate Jesus, the obedient Son of
the Father. We are all called to obedience to God, His Commandments and to those who are
given authority to uphold His teachings. We are called to a maturity in relationships that will
include obedience to what is right and good, whether between husbands and wives, parents
and children or religious superiors and the sisters.
They could never pray all day. Well, all of us should have a life that is offered to God, and
should pray throughout the day. Most sisters are actually not in a chapel, or church, all day
praying. As far as I can tell and have been told, this struggle never ends.
They could not live without my cell phone.
They could never live with lots of women. First of all, convent and community sizes vary. You
might be with dozens, or two or three others. Regardless, the reality that religious life is based
on communal living and a spousal dedication to each sister is a very powerful mystery of our
faith.
Our parents said they don’t want me to be a sister. A call to religious life, and priesthood, is
supernatural, as in, not natural to our human inclinations. When this thought and desire persists,
it is a sign that it must be explored. Yes, many have “explored” and have discerned that they
were not called to religious life, but the process of discerning was integral to the next step God
had in mind. Please, parents, do not be the obstacle to this vocation, it is hard and frightening
enough without your disapproval.
12. U.SCatholic
Faith in life
What is your take on the challenges facing religious life today?

It seems like there are a lot of young people today who want to make a difference in the world,
but they may not realize religious life is a way to do that.
I just think religious life is in a great amount of change right now and that's a good thing. It can
be scary but it's a good thing.
We can’t just be looking at the externals. Saying the numbers have shifted, ministries have
shifted, people can’t be in the parishes or the place they once were—those are simply externals.
The work I’ve done on the history of religious life shows that in every epoch it goes up, has this
moment of stabilization, and then goes down.
I think one of the challenges in religious life today is to give enough space to that kind of
pondering. That requires a contemplative attitude, a way of looking at the world that says yes.
Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut. But we need to see where the Spirit is inviting us. It
reminds me of that line from Vatican II, that we’re called to “carry forward the work of Christ
under the leadership of the befriending Spirit.” Otherwise we become like mice running on
wheels, and that just does nothing but exhaust people.
13. Anunslifeministry.blog
Changing of Priority ( March 5,2018)
As society grew more open, able to embrace globalized communication and got in touch with
the new values of the Western world. The market economy has invaded made them forgets their
traditional values. Today, many young people are richer materially but poorer spiritually.
The educational system has made many serious mistakes, like focusing on the achievement of
quantity over quality. This is called "achievement disease in the educational system." Parents
want their children to be the best. Teachers want their students to excel to the point that they
disregard quality teaching. Students want to achieve to the extent that they even resort to
cheating.

Even sadder, many people, especially the young, display individualism and pragmatism. They
focus only on themselves, wanting to get plenty of money, good grades, or convenient lives
without working. All these trends are even affecting religious today. We are pulled by pragmatic
lifestyles and affected by social pressures. Some sisters might choose religious life to escape
from difficulties. A congregation might seem to be a good place to have a comfortable life or
improve themselves without worrying about earning a living.
14. EconomicTimesandnation.Com
Shortage of nuns as fewer women willing to devote fully to religious life
April 11,2015

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a practice among many, especially poor, Christian families to
pledge one or two children to the Church. There were allegations of parents coercing daughters
to join the convent. That has mostly stopped as today’s families have just one or two kids, who
have many career options. Women from Kerala now travel across the globe to work in
healthcare, IT and other industries. “Today’s woman is aware of her needs, knows the job
opportunities around her,” says writer and social activist Sarah Joseph. “She has increasingly
come to respect herself or her identity and believes in taking her own decision.” And, the
declining trend in women taking up monastic life is a global phenomenon, she says, According
to Adayanthrath, there was a 25% decline in the number of nuns globally between 1965 and
2010: from about 10 lakh to around 7.5 lakh.
15. article.vice.com
July 24,2013
“Nobody can make a commitment.”

The decline is more complicated than America becoming less religious, according to Mary
Gautier, a senior researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate. The lack of sisters today is relative, she said. There were unprecedented numbers
of immigrant women turning to the vocation in the early 20th century (in fact, when Mount St.
Francis was founded nearly a century ago, most of the women there only spoke Italian), and
there was also a tremendous surge in young, disillusioned women joining the church following
the two world wars. America’s nuns are fading away, but it’s not because God or man has
decided they’ve done anything wrong or that their lifestyle needs to be wiped out. It’s just that
young women don’t think of joining an order as a way toward a fulfilling life, or think of it at all.
(according to Faith Survey, weekly Catholic mass attendance fell over 30 percent between 1993
and 2010) and a gradual disengagement from the public as the Catholic church struggles to
combat its, er, PR problems, and a global rise in secularism. "For a lot of people, you're going to
love best in marriage and family life. Freedom isn't a word often associated with religious life
when you consider the vows.