Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA) released the report Understanding U.S. Catholic Sisters Today on December 9, 2015.
The report is a comprehensive look at the latest sociological studies of U.S. Catholic sisters and presents new findings that Catholic sisters are hopeful about their future, unified amidst diversity, and attracted by joy to consecrated life.
The report comes during the Year of Consecrated Life, in which Pope Francis called on religious to look to the past with gratitude; to live the present with passion; and to embrace the future with hope. The report concludes that this outlook has already taken root among American Catholic sisters.
The report finds that 1,200 women are currently in formation to become Catholic sisters and that more than 250,000 millennial Catholic never-married women have considered a vocation to consecrated life. One of the barriers for women interested in consecrated life is educational debt— one in three women applying for admission into a religious community owe an average of $21,000 in student loans. Among newly professed sisters, the report finds higher levels of education (70 percent have bachelor degrees) and greater diversity (17% Hispanic/Latino; 16% Asian/Pacific Islander; 8% African-American/Black/African).
These statistics and others found in the report challenge stereotypes and point to the vitality of women’s religious life.
To download the report or find resources to support, engage, or become a sister, visit wearesisters.net.
For any questions, please contact Lauren Traskey, Associate Director of Communications, at 202-223-3550 or ltraskey@fadica.org.
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For 40 years, FADICA has served as a dynamic and catalytic philanthropic network committed to supporting Catholic activities and initiatives, especially those that support the Church and aid the poor. FADICA enables its members to be informed, involved and effective in addressing church needs through their philanthropy. FADICA accomplishes this mission through ongoing education, fostering the exchange of information and experience, commissioning research, building a spirit of fellowship and shared faith, facilitating occasional joint funding ventures, and promoting interaction with Catholic leadership.
