The Associated Press has a piece detailing how some traditional convents are seeing a boom in the number of young people interested in joining.

I love seeing this information get out there because it’s so countercultural and counter to the prevailing wisdom that the Church needs to modernize in order to attract young people.

A handful of Roman Catholic convents are contradicting the decades-long slide in the number of women choosing to devote their lives to the sisterhood. And at least two of them are doing it by sticking to tradition, including the wearing of habits.

The number of nuns in the U.S. has dropped dramatically over the last several decades as more women in religious life approach retirement and are not replaced with younger sisters.

But the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville have remained an exception for years. The order has 27 postulants entering the convent this fall, likely the largest group of new nuns in training in the U.S., according to religious scholars.

Sisters at St. Cecilia’s and other thriving U.S. orders typically are younger, which makes them closer in age to potential newcomers. These orders also emphasize traditional practices, like wearing long, flowing black-and-white habits, and educating students.

After joining the convent, nuns are limited to a great degree in their contact with the outside world. They can’t always use cell phones, are only allowed to visit family certain times of the year and must share the use of items like cars with other sisters in the convent.

“Initially when you enter you think you’re giving up so many treats: going out to Starbucks whenever you want in your car or going out to eat,” said Sister Scholastica Niemann, 31, who just entered her third year at St. Cecilia’s. She’ll take her final vows in five years.

“The reality is, through God’s generosity and generosity of people, you have more than you could ever want,” she said. “You don’t have to own things to use them. You realize material possessions sometimes, because of our human nature, they can possess us.”

Women entered religious life in large numbers in the 1950s and ’60s, but that changed dramatically in the following decades as more career choices became available. In 1965, there were 179,954 religious sisters in the U.S. while today that number is around 57,544, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

More than nine in 10 women religious, who have taken final vows, were 60 or over in 2009. At St. Cecilia’s the median age for the 272 sisters in the order is 36; the youngest sister is 18, the oldest 101.

Potential postulants see “young vibrant women, obviously happy with what they’re doing” at St. Cecilia’s and other growing orders, said Mary Gautier, senior research associate at CARA.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich., has 22 postulants entering this fall, many of them right out of college.

Like St. Cecilia’s, sisters at Mary, Mother of the Eucharist wear habits. And the average age of the sisters in the Michigan-based order is close to 28.

Thanks to the AP for noticing and reporting it. Click here to continue reading>>>