Patricia Wittberg, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati and professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University, is one of the co-authors of New Generations of Catholic Sisters: The Challenge of Diversity. (Oxford University Press, 2014; $29.95).

Her co-authors are Mary Johnson, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and professor of sociology and religious studies at Trinity Washington University and Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA).

Mary Lou Nolan reports on her interview  with  Mary  Johnson, “Unlike some predictions about the future of religious life, Johnson’s vision flows from statistical analysis. Relying on two major studies of women religious conducted 10 years apart, Johnson and two other academics look at the experiences of women who entered religious life in the United States after 1965 in a new book. At 141 pages of text (with some 60 more in research sources, references and the two surveys themselves) New Generations is both focused and compact. But spinning off its statistical analysis are conversation-starters for at least a month of Sundays.”

For example…

• How has the appeal of religious life in the United States changed over generations of women?
• What does religious life offer millennial Catholic women, who are less connected to the church than earlier generations?
• Can a religious institute articulate and maintain a distinct identity that also speaks to changing world-views among 21st century generations?

The article concludes…

The authors’ suggestions cover a lot of ground. Create more opportunities for women of different generations to get to know each other. Get better at inviting women to religious life. Encourage institute members “to articulate a charism that provides a sufficiently distinctive group identity but is also sufficiently encompassing to appeal to a wide range of potential entrants” and still maintain unity among members.

New Generations of Catholic Sisters holds a lot of warnings around demographic trends and reports that “. . . the future of religious life in the United States would appear to be in peril – unless concerted efforts are made to reach out to those who, surveys tell us, have considered religious life but did not choose to enter it.”

Still, Mary Gautier, from CARA, has another message.

“The primary thing we would like people to take from this book,” Gautier said in an email, “is the realization that religious life is not going away, but it is transforming. The Holy Spirit continues to call women to religious life, and the women who are attracted to religious life are responding to the prayer life, the community life, and the ministry, just as the generations who have responded to that call in the past did.”

Be sure to read the full interview  and report.

[Mary Lou Nolan is managing editor for Global Sisters Report.]