Religious Life: nobody buying what you're selling?

Want vocations? Here's your plan. . .

Under the heading, "Best Practices in Vocation Ministry," we find this eye-opening paragraph:

Although these practices can have a positive impact on attracting and retaining new members, the research suggests that it is the example of members and the characteristics of the institute that have the most influence on the decision to enter a particular institute. The most successful institutes in terms of attracting and retaining new members at this time are those that follow a more traditional style of religious life in which members live together in community and participate in daily Eucharist, pray the Divine Office, and engage in devotional practices together. They also wear a religious habit, work together in common apostolates, and are explicit about their fidelity to the Church and the teachings of the Magisterium. All of these characteristics are especially attractive to the young people who are entering religious life today.

Allow me to break these characteristics out for easy digestion. . .

What attracts young vocations to religious life in 2013:

--the example of members [of the institute]

--the characteristics of the institute 

--a more traditional style of religious life

--members live together in community

--participate in daily Eucharist, pray the Divine Office

--engage in devotional practices together   

--wear a religious habit

--work together in common apostolates

--explicit about their fidelity to the Church and the Magisterium 

We can easily derive from the list what young vocations are NOT attracted to:

--angry, bitter, rebellious religious

--religious life circa 1983

--"lone wolf" religious living by themselves

--institutes where Mass and daily office are avoided, mocked, or suppressed

--where devotional practices are dismissed as "so pre-Vatican Two"

--religious who dress to "blend in," i.e. hide

--"do their own thing" in ministry

--institutes whose members are explicit in their dissent from the Magisterium. 

Given all of this, I would add that religious institutes/provinces/congregations that refuse to admit vocations who long for a more traditional religious life, or actively persecute tradition-minded vocations they've already professed, do so b/c they fear the changes these young vocations will eventually bring their preferred way of life. 

IOW, the grand rhetoric of Vatican Two tolerance, diversity, and openness crashes on the sharp shoals of progressive ideology and the rhetoric is exposed as a lie.

We either believe what we preach about being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, or we do not.

To put all of this in crass commercial terms: religious life today is a buyers' market. If no one is buying your product, you need to seriously consider radically changing what you're selling.

The alternative is a slow but inevitable corporate suicide. 

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