{"id":1234,"date":"2018-05-23T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T11:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/how-young-women-become-catholic-sisters-today\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T23:19:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T23:19:12","slug":"how-young-women-become-catholic-sisters-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/how-young-women-become-catholic-sisters-today\/","title":{"rendered":"How Young Women Become Catholic Sisters Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n SisterJeanette2\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n \n
\n\n \n

How Young Women Become Catholic Sisters Today<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n Commentary\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Nalika Gajaweera<\/a><\/strong>\n \n May 23, 2018<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n \n \n Share\n <\/span>\n \n \n <\/svg>\n <\/span>\n Copy Link<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/svg>\n <\/span>\n Facebook<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n \n \n\n<\/svg>\n\n <\/span>\n X<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/svg>\n <\/span>\n LinkedIn<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n \n \n \n <\/svg>\n <\/span>\n Bluesky<\/span>\n <\/a>\n \n \n <\/svg>\n <\/span>\n Email<\/span>\n <\/a>\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n \n
\n\n \n

When Sister Jeanette Kong was growing up in Singapore, she felt herself to be a “jaded and disillusioned young person.” She had been raised in a Catholic family environment with a Catholic school upbringing, yet it was only through the accompaniment she felt with the Verbum Dei Missionaries and fellow peers they brought together that she began to experience her first “encounter with a personal God.” It was a foundational experience that later shaped her discernment of a religious vocation.<\/p>\n

Sister Jeanette is exemplary of many younger sisters today. Often, like-minded Catholic peers and mentors guide and accompany young women as they deepen their commitment to the faith of their upbringing and discern a vocation of religious life. She was one of more than two dozen sisters I spoke with for exploratory research on religious vocations in Southern California. Although new vocations in religious life are in rapid decline–as of 2010, only 9 percent of 47,170 Catholic sisters in the United States were younger than age 60–women are still drawn to religious life. Compared to earlier generations, when discerning religious life was highly esteemed and promoted within Catholic culture, religious life today is a radical path that is countercultural to normative expectations for a contemporary woman.\n<\/p>\n

Sister Jeanette Kong on her spiritual journey as a Verbum Dei Missionary:<\/strong><\/h4>\n