Perhaps no other group of women affected Roman Catholics in the first half of the twentieth century as did women religious.  Their distinctive habits, “holy”—if severe—demeanor, and generous spirit marked them as a caste apart, a group who had limited career mobility in their professional lives, generally as teachers or nurses.  Celibacy did not seem too high a price to pay for the genuine possibility of heaven at the end of life’s arduous journey.  Vatican II almost overnight changed all that.

For those who embraced the invitation of Vatican II to renew their religious lives, the previously required accoutrements of religious life fell away.  Young women became convinced that that they could enjoy the love of God even as they listened to the longings of their own hearts, often guided by the counsel of older and wiser religious and lay professionals.  Very soon the numbers of those seeking entrance to religious communities plummeted.  In fact, during the late 1960s alone, the trajectory reversed.  Just as the baby boom generation was promising larger classes or band sizes, the number of young women entering dwindled to near zero as more of them absorbed the content of the Documents of Vatican II and related theological writings.  Hundreds more of these young and not so young women left in droves.  A significant core of women religious entered and remained, however, and they redefined themselves in accordance with the emerging new literature.  One could argue that a healthier group emerged, stronger in purpose and commitment if weaker in numbers.

Vatican II empowered women religious to claim their identity as baptized Christians with a serious obligation to become themselves at their best.  They realized that they were called to be a transition generation and accepted the challenges that this entailed.  An uncertain future awaited them.  Armed sometimes with only their faith and tradition of excellence, they moved forward as they served a God of unconditional love in a hierarchical male dominated church.

As the years have passed, the quality of commitment displayed by women religious has continued to deepen while their numbers have dramatically declined.  These years have brought age and wisdom and grace to the membership as well as passionate commitment to the ideals of inclusion, social justice, and shared authority.  New speculations have arisen in response to the question: Whither religious life?  New challenges have followed the deaths of close friends and the decline of revered leaders.  Combined provinces and even previously separated congregations have introduced challenges to identity, charism, and meeting spaces on a scale previously unimaginable.

The Vatican II inspired renewal has meant new questions and new attempts to cling to the deeply ingrained values of community, constitutions, and faith in Jesus the Risen Christ within the confines of the Roman Catholic Church.  Far from a death knell, Vatican II moved the always responsive, always reflective, always inquisitive women religious to claim their identity in ever new and faithful ways.  The challenges to their self -understanding produced greater clarity.  What was once a protected life lived within the enclosure of convent walls for apostolic religious congregations has given way to an authentic living of the vows in “real world” situations where people come to know these women for who they are and not for the clothes they wear.

As the charism of religious life is shared among others, some men and women desire to join the Sisters as prayer or ministry associates.  Thus, another iteration of the vowed life has been flourishing in the wake of Vatican II.  Whether on a temporary or permanent basis, associates have discerned a call to become companions on the journey.  In many cases, they provide or augment services that the vowed religious cannot provide either for themselves or their ministries.

All the answers are not in; the task has not been completed.  The evolution of religious life continues despite the decades that have elapsed since the last moment of great renewal.  The gift of religious life to the church can neither be measured nor finally defined.  Vatican II invited that reality to emerge in new ways, and the women who live religious life will themselves prayerfully continue to develop new models of the life they have been called to live.  This pearl of great price is alive and well and living among us today.  We are glad indeed!