
The NRVC's Catalyst newsletter has alerted us that the USCCB published their annual report with the characteristics of the women and men making perpetual profession in 2022. Here are some of the characteristics the NRVC on review of the report:
- On average, respondents report having known the members of their religious institute for three years before they entered.
- On average, respondents report that they were 18 years old when they first considered a vocation to religious life, with half being 18 or younger when they first did so.
- Respondents who reported educational debt paid down an average of $34,000 in educational debt before admission.
- 84% had work experience prior to entering their religious institute. The main work fields are business, education, and healthcare. 14% were Catholic school teachers.
- 12% report being raised by their grandparents during the most formative part of their childhood.
- 36% attended a Catholic high school, compared to 8% of U.S. adult Catholics.
- 93% report that someone encouraged them to consider a vocation to religious life.
- Women are more likely than men to report being discouraged from discerning a religious vocation (64% compared with 37% of men religious)
- 30% report having a relative who is a priest or a religious.
Read other studies on vocations to religious life here.