Catholic church concerned over decreasing nuns, priests

The lack of manpower to manage the numerous institutions, hospitals, charity and relief organisations, seem to pose a serious threat to the stability and growth of the Catholic Church in India. Few reasons for this are being attributed to the industrialization, luring jobs, and the persecution of Christians in different states in the country.

Rev. Babu Joseph, spokesperson for the Catholic Bishop Conference of India (CBCI) says, there has been an almost 30-40 percent decline in the number of girls opting to be nuns.

"The decline in the number of young Catholics joining the religious way of life is certainly alarming, and it will affect the sustainability of the Catholic institutions managed by priests and nuns," Joseph told IANS.

The Catholic Church in India runs more than 30,000 educational institutions, 6,000 hospitals and dozens of relief and charity organisations.

Church officials fear, the increasing number of professions, people's desire to begin a family, and avoiding the strict religious vocation might be few of the reasons young people ignore the ascetic life. Kerala, which contributes thousands of nuns for the Church service, has seen a decrease, as more women are taking to the nursing profession.

The Church also feels, the violence on Christians is one of the reasons for this.

"Globally too there has been steady decline in the religious vocation of nunhood and religious life. It has affected the Indian Catholic community. Incidents like what happened in Orissa and Catholic families getting smaller have also adversely affected the numbers opting for nunhood and priesthood," said Joseph.

To combat this adversity, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) is planning to conduct a study on nuns and priests.

Father Stephen Alathara, spokesperson of the KCBC, said: "So far, no study has been done on this. Currently, there are more than 45,000 nuns and 13,000 priests in the Catholic church."

A Catholic reformist and editor of Hosana, a Christian publication, Joseph Pulikunnel, according to the IANS, challenged the church to come out with figures on the number of nuns.

"The figures that they are quoting are fudged and meant to impress Rome. Earlier there were more people because economic instability in large families and, to a certain extent, failed marriages of the elder sisters saw young girls arriving at convents to enter the profession of nuns," said Pulikunnel.

"Now there are other options for these girls and many are attracted to the career of nursing. Just look at the number of nursing colleges that have sprouted in the last one decade," he said.