God's Call Is Everywhere: A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women

Religious life is vitally necessary to the Catholic church today. But it will exist in new and varied forms which speak to the spiritual hungers of different societies, ethnic cultures, and generations. God’s Call Is Everywhere is the first comparative analysis of research in six countries investigating women who have entered vowed religious life in Catholicism in the twenty-first century. The data include survey responses from institute leaders, formation directors, and the women themselves, conducted in the United States, Canada, Australia, and France, along with focus groups and interviews in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France. Through a careful summary of these studies and comparing differences, readers of this book will have a better understanding of the hopes and concerns of those discerning a vocation to religious life and learn how to move forward in the future.
 
God’s Call Is Everywhere includes six major points of comparison:

• Demographic characteristics of the women entering religious life and their personal and familial backgrounds
• What attracted them to religious life and to their specific religious institute
• What they find most satisfying and most challenging about religious life
• Their hopes and concerns for the future
• Experiences and programs that were helpful in their vocational discernment
• Aspects of the larger society, of the Church, and of the religious institutes which make vocational discernment difficult for women today

The analysis is followed by six reflective essays, two of which discuss the implications of the findings for future vocational discernment programs and four of which compare the findings to religious life in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Patricia Wittberg is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati and professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. She is the author of Building Strong Church Communities: A Sociological Overview and numerous other books and articles.

 

Mary L. Gautier is a senior research associate at CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where she specializes in Catholic demographic trends in the United States, and edits The CARA Report, a quarterly research publication. She taught sociology at Louisiana State University and Texas Christian University and has served as a lay pastoral associate. She holds a doctorate in sociology and has co-authored several books.

Gemma Simmonds is a sister of the Congregation of Jesus. She is the director of the Religious Life Institute and a lecturer in pastoral theology at Heythrop College, University of London.