Less than 1% of nuns in the United States today are 30 or younger. That number has remained steady in the past decade but shows little signs of increasing.
Between 100 and 200 young women enter into a religious vocation each year in the U.S., and not all of them will complete the process to become a nun.
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For those who do, they are giving up many trappings of modern life — dating, material wealth and sometimes even cell phones and fashionable clothes — for the sake of a radical religious life and intergenerational community, at a time when the average age of an American nun is 80.
Just this year the pope urged orders to pray harder for more priests and nuns as he acknowledged the number of men and women entering Catholic religious life continues to plummet in parts of the world, including Europe and the U.S.
Here are other takeaways from AP’s reporting on young nuns.
From sharing flip phones to wearing habits, nuns choose a radical life
In August, Zoey Stapleton, 24, joined the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother — a community in rural Toronto, Ohio.
It’s part of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, a U.S. association of orders often seen as more conservative than its larger counterpart, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
The order’s patron saint, Francis of Assisi, led a life of poverty. In emulation, the sisters dress in modest habits consisting of a long white veil and grey robes that many choose to pair with modern sandals.
The women abstain from other forms of modernity, using only a set of shared flip phones and the internet when necessary for their ministry.
Stapleton was drawn to the community because of the joy and freedom in the sisters’ relationship with the Lord. “I think it connected with that part of me like wanting to express actually how much I do love the Lord,” she said.
Student loan debt can be a barrier to a religious vocation
Nuns traditionally relinquish worldly possessions to meet the expectation of poverty. That includes debt, which can be an issue for educated young women today.
“Like almost half of all those discerning in the U.S., I’m blocked from my vocation because of student loans,” said Katie Power, 23, who is currently an aspirant with the Carmelites of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
Power found support through the Labouré Society, a Catholic nonprofit organization that helps young women discerning religious life pay off their student loan debt.
Power has shared her call to religious life with church communities and various groups in hopes of gathering donations that will go toward debt relief for her and others in formation.
She hopes to be officially debt-free by December and join the Carmelites as a postulant in the summer.
About half of prospective nuns complete the long process to make final vows
On average the full process to become a Catholic sister or nun takes between 7 and 10 years.
Commonly one enters as a postulant and lives at least part-time with the order. A woman is officially called a sister when she enters the novitiate stage followed by the canonical novitiate, which is a year dedicated to prayer and studying the vows of the order.
Then, she makes temporary vows and finally perpetual, or final vows.
For Sister Seyram Mary Adzokpa, there was the added challenge of discerning her vocation during a global pandemic. It forced the now 30-year-old to meet members of the Sisters of the Holy Family over video call.
A nurse by training, Adzokpa is now one of four women younger than 40 in the New Orleans community.
Unlike the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R., whose median age is 40, the Sisters of the Holy Family, one of the few religious orders founded for Black women in the United States two decades before the Civil War, is among the majority of communities today whose members are on average 70 and older.
The New Orleans order continues accepting new members, unlike many communities that have had to merge or close, but it can be difficult to recruit and retain prospective sisters.
About 50% of all who enter religious life stay for their final vows and half leave, according to Sister Debbie Borneman, director of mission integration with the National Religious Vocation Conference.
Intergenerational living fosters joy and purpose
The Sisters of the Holy Family now runs a nursing home for aging members, the Lafon Nursing Facility of the Holy Family.
Because of the older sisters, Adzokpa continues to use her nursing skills.
She offers her assistance, takes the sisters’ blood pressure, and checks heart rates, all in collaboration with the paid nursing staff on site.
“I truly find it God’s grace that I’m able to not feel isolated, even though the age gap is tremendous,” said Adzokpa. “I enjoy sitting with them, talking with them, easing their aches and pains and just being around them."
“The joy is undeniable,” she said.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.