Catholic religious orders in crisis, says cardinal

Cardinal Franc Rode, who leads the Vatican's Congregation of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said in a talk on February 3 that Catholic religious orders are in a "crisis" caused by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the loss of traditional practices. These problems, said the cardinal, go deeper than the drop in vocations.

Said Cardinal Rode "The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church," in Naples, Italy.

"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," he said.

Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious increased following the Second Vatican Council, described as a period "rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission."

Many religious orders have turned to "foreign vocations" in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal said, in order to make up for the shortfall in local vocations. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.

"It is easy, in situations of crisis, to turn to deceptive and damaging shortcuts, or attempt to lower the criteria and parameters for admission to consecrated life and the course of initial and permanent formation," he said.

Cardinal Rode continued, "big numbers are not indispensable" to prove the validity of religious orders. He said that religious orders must "overcome the egocentrism in which institutes are often closed, and open themselves to joint projects with other institutes, local churches and lay faithful."

Cardinal Rode, a 75-year-old from Slovenia, oversees the Vatican-ordered review of nuns in the United States to find out why the numbers of their members have decreased during the past four decades.

Cardinal Rode said it is more difficult for Catholic religious orders to find young people who are willing to break away from the world and to embrace commitment and sacrifice. Religious orders, said Cardinal Rode, must define themselves as "alternatives to the dominant culture, which is a culture of death, of violence and of abuse."