Of the 508 American religious communities which responded to a new survey on the number of men and women who professed perpetual vows in 2023, a total of 438, representing 87 percent, reported that they didn’t have a single member who did so, and only 23 reported that they had more than one.
That tally reinforces other recent data confirming declines in the number of men and women religious in the United States, including a recent projection from the U.S. bishops’ conference that the total will drop 50 percent over the next decade, from 33,000 in 2023 to approximately 17,000 in 2033.
According to a 2023 study by the National Religious Retirement Office, members of religious communities who are 70 or older outnumber those who are younger than 70 by nearly three to one. The data found that the average age of a female religious in the U.S. is 74.85, and 67.64 for men. In the U.S., 55 percent of women religious, and 25 percent of male religious, are over 80 years old.
Aside from declines, the new survey also profiles the new men and women making perpetual vows today.
Major superiors of those 508 religious institutes identified a total of 144 men and women who professed perpetual vows in 2023, including 68 women and 76 men. Of those 144 individuals, the surveyors got responses from 101 to compile further information about demographics, family background, education history, and occupational and ministerial experience.
The survey found that the average age of new religious professing perpetual vows is 36, with half of the responding individuals being age 33 or younger. In terms of race, two-thirds are Caucasian, European American, or White.
The most unanimous finding was that nearly all, or 99 percent, of those 101 men and women who were surveyed were raised by their biological parents during what the survey calls “the most formative part of their childhood.”

It’s being called a successful negotiation between the Holy See and the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The government in the Central American nation this past January 14 announced that it had released Bishop Rolando Alvarez from prison and exiled him to Rome. It also freed another bishop, 15 priests, and two seminarians and sent them to the Italian capital, as well.
Bishop Alvarez, a prominent figure in the Nicaraguan Church and one of last voices opposition to the Ortega dictatorship that was still in the country, had been under house arrest since August 2022. After refusing to board a plane bound for the United States with 222 political prisoners he was sentenced to twenty-six years in prison in February 2023. The following July, the defiant bishop again declined the possibility of negotiated exile with the Vatican, and in October, he was not among the twelve priests expelled to Rome after an “agreement” between the Holy See and Mana-gua. But on January 14, nearly a year after his sentencing.

A group of 60 “slum priests” in Pope Francis’s native country released a January 19 statement denouncing what they described as deteriorating living conditions for millions of impoverished Argentines, driven by rising food prices and decreasing earnings.
Though he’s only been in office for a little over a month, new Argentine President Javier Milei nervetheless came in for criticism by the “slum priests,” who asse-rted that his minimalist concept-ion of the role of the government in society is contributing to the crisis.
“We declare in the letter that the current situation hasn’t begun with this administration. Drugs, poverty, hunger, and unemploy-ment are not something new in the poor neighborhoods,” Father Pablo Viola, who works in a poor parish of Córdoba, told.
“What’s new is that we believe that such issues can become even more complicated if the current administration really reduces the presence of the state in the slums,” Viola said.
Viola said the new admini-stration’s libertarian ideology prevents it from seeing “the complexity of the interests of different social segments and the hardships faced by the middle-class and the poor.”
He also claimed that Milei’s program is at odds with Catholic teaching, not to mention Pope Francis’s own vision.

The shooting happened at the Church of Santa Maria during Sunday mass at around 11:40 local time (08:40 GMT). Turkey’s interior minister later said on X, formerly Twitter: “The two mur-der suspects have been captured,” without giving further details on the motive of the attack.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a post on Telegram the group said two of its fighters had carried out the attack and then fled to safety.
CCTV released by Turkish media shows the moment of the attack. Worshippers were on their feet, facing the altar, when two gunmen came into the back of the church.
They appeared to be following a man who had just come in. After he was shot and fatally wounded, the gunmen calmly left.
The 19th Century church sits behind high walls, close to a small fish market, by the Bosphorus on the European side of Istanbul. The streets around it have been closed off by police.
Inside the church, investiga-tors took statements from those who were there when the attackers struck.
The Turkish Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, who visited the scene said that an individual identified only as CT had died in the attack.
Speaking to reporters outside the church, Istanbul governor Davut Gul said the victim was a Turkish national and that no one else was hurt. He said the atta-ckers only fired at one person.
It was not immediately clear what the motive for the attack was or why the victim was targeted.

In a notification on Jan. 22, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in Paki-stan approved a new curriculum, which makes studying Islam non-compulsory for Christian, Bahai, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Zo-roastrian students in the Islamic nation.
The Religious Education Cu-rriculum 2023 for Grades 1 to Grade 12 will be introduced from the next academic year in 2024-2025.
The Catholic Church has been urging the government to make provision for non-Muslim students to receive religious education in their faith instead of Islamiat, which comprises courses on Isla-mic beliefs and practices.
Naeem Yousaf Gill, director of the National Commission of Justice and Peace, the rights body of the Pakistani bishops’ council, welcomed the development.
“We appreciate the govern-ment for involving Catholic bi-shops in developing the syllabus of Christianity. However, its mo-nitoring and implementation is another challenge. Policies for minorities often flop in our coun-try,” he told.
Pakistan has one of the lowest budgetary allocations for educa-tion in South Asia. The nation allotted 1.7 percent of its GDP for education in the fiscal year 2022-23 against 1.4 percent earlier.
“The long-term process will require training of teachers and a salary structure,” Gill observed.
In 2020, the provincial Punjab government made it compulsory for Muslim students to study the Quran, and non-Muslim students were asked to study ethics in lieu of Islamiat from Grade 3.

In the Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum in Innsbruck, Austria, featuring regional art of the Tyrol, there is a collection of magnificently, and intricately, carved nativity scenes. One of them shows the manger set amidst the mountainous Alps, with medieval towers looking down on the scene. That carving may not be historically accurate, but it is not heresy either. Its lack of historical precision does not undermine the doctrine of the incarnation. On the contrary, the Tyrolean manger exemplifies the doctrine. We Catholics believe that, just as the Son of God took on human flesh, the Christian faith can and must inculturate itself, adapting to the goodness inherent in all human cultures even while purifying any elements that are inherently contrary to the Gospel.
I thought of that manger scene when reading the response of the African bishops to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s decree Fiducia supplicans. The Vatican document said that while not changing the church’s perennial doctrine about marriage, it wanted to commend the practice of giving non-liturgical, spontaneous blessings to couples who are in an irregular union, whether because they are divorced or remarried or because they are in a same-sex relationship.
“We, the African bishops, do not consider it appropriate for Africa to bless homosexual unions or same-sex couples because, in our context, this would cause confusion and would be in direct contradiction to the cultural ethos of African communities,” the statement read. Signed by Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, or SECAM, the statement represented the united voice of the African bishops.
How is that different, then, from the decision by the German Synodal Way in March 2023 to affirm the practice of blessing same-sex couples? The article about the German decision noted, “German bishops face pressure from frustrated grassroots Catholics in a country where Christians are roughly equally divided between Protestants and Catholics.” In Germany, unlike Africa, it seems scandalous to many Catholics that the Catholic Church does not bless same-sex couples.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Va-tican secretary of state, said the debate surrounding the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the possibility of blessing gay couples shows that deeper reflection is still needed.
At the same time, he said, the reaction is a normal and healthy part of the Catholic Church learning how to take Gospel values and apply them to new situations.
Speaking to reporters who were attending his speech on the Holy See and peacemaking Jan. 12 at Rome’s Academy of the Lincei, the cardinal was asked if the turmoil surrounding the document on blessings was good or bad.
“It is always good,” the cardinal replied, according to Vatican News. “The important thing is that we always proceed according to what is called ‘progress in continuity.’”
“In the Church there has always been change,” he said. “The Church of today is not the Church of 2,000 years ago. The Church is open to the signs of the times; it is attentive to needs that arise, but it also must be faithful to the Gospel, it must be faithful to tradition, faithful to its heritage.”
“But if this upheaval helps us walk according to the Gospel in responding, then it is welcome,” he said.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Card-inal Peter Turkson reflects on the importance of entrepreneurs wor-king to change business practices and goals in order to promote the economic integration of people enduring poverty.
Global leaders need to adopt a transformative approach to economics so that people facing economic hardship may be lifted out of poverty.
As he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Card-inal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sci-ence, emphasised this aspect of Pope Francis’ message to global leaders.
Speaking to Vatican News’ Mario Galgano, Cardinal Turkson highlighted the importance of changing the goals of leadership within companies, as well as the imperative for businesses to con-tribute to society beyond their own profit maximization.
The Cardinal stressed that although companies traditionally exist to make profits, they should also align their business objectives with values that benefit society and the common good.
For this reason, the Cardinal proposed a shift from maximizing profit and returns to optimising them, urging businesses to con-sider the broader impact they have on society and human life.
“We want to leverage the obje-ctives of busines–not only profit and monetary gain–but also the transformational value that it bri-ngs to society–making life better, worth living, equitable, and inclu-sive,” said Cardinal Turkson.

Six nuns from the Congrega-tion of the Sisters of Saint Anne were kidnapped Jan. 19 while traveling on a bus in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, according to the Haitian Conference of Religious.
Other passengers on the bus also were taken in the abduction, the conference said in a statement.
“These many kidnappings fill the consecrated people of Haiti with sadness and fear,” said the statement, signed by conference president P. Morachel Bonhomme.
Pope Francis appealed Jan. 21 for the release of all the hostages, while praying for “social harmony” in the country, Vatican News reported. In remarks after the Angelus, he said he had “learned with sorrow the news of the kidnapping” of the sisters and the others. “I call on everyone to stop the violence, which causes so much suffering to that dear population.”
Bonhomme in his statement prayed that “the spirit of strength be given” to the sisters “to find a way out of this terrible situation.” “May the solidarity of the consecrated people of Haiti and the world help them overcome this difficult ordeal,” he added.
In a statement published Jan. 19, Bishop Pierre-André Dumas of Anse-à-Veau et Miragoâne prayed “to help us put an end to this bitter nightmare and this tragic ordeal of our people which has lasted too long.” He also offered himself in exchange for the hostages.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who also serves as an adjunct secretary of the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, says the Catholic Church has lost “good priests just because they chose marriage.”
Speaking to the Times of Malta, the archbishop said, “Why should we lose a young man who would have made a fine priest, just because he wanted to get married?” Scicluna said priestly celibacy was optional for the first millennium of the Church’s existence, “and it should become optional again.”
Although priestly celibacy is mandated in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, it is allowed in the vast majority of the Eastern Rites, where celibacy is still mandated for bishops. Even in the Western churches, there are some married priests, such as when married protestant clergy convert to Catholicism and are allowed to be ordained priests. Previously married men can also be ordained, if the marriage is annulled or the wife has died.
The Malta archbishop was answering a question from the newspaper about Catholic priests who secretly live in a romantic relationship while they publicly continue to serve their duties as priests.
“A man may mature, engage in relationships, love a woman. As it stands, he must choose between her and priesthood, and some priests cope with that by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships,” he said.
“This is a global reality; it doesn’t just happen in Malta. We know there are priests around the world who also have children, and I think there are ones in Malta who may have too,” Scicluna added.