A group of women religious under 50 is meeting in Cleveland this weekend. No, not Nashville Dominicans, Daughters of St. Paul, Sisters of Mary of the Eucharist, and such. The sponsoring group is called Giving Voice and is thoroughly mainstream. We come here not to cast a shadow on the admirable committment of any religious women, no matter the community, but it’s kind of sad when you consider that if the members of this order attended the gathering, they could probably raise attendance by 50% all by themselves.

From the article:

Young nuns — those under age 50 — make up only 5 percent of sisters in the hundreds of religious orders in the United States. That’s less than the number of nuns who are 90 or older, who represent 7 percent, Coleman said. The majority of U.S. nuns are between 70 and 89 years old.

The young nuns meeting this weekend must figure out how to continue a viable and visible religious life with fewer sisters. While tackling the big question, they plan to discuss topics from how to promote ecclesial leadership of the laity to religious retirement funding to the state of religious vocations.

Sister Mary Stanco, who works as the director of research and planning for Humility of Mary Housing Inc. in Fairlawn, said the challenges that her generation faces make the conference necessary and beneficial.

“We have to tend to religious life for the future. What better way to do that than to come together and have conversations about what we need to do? We all have the same goal — to answer to the call of the needs of today,” said Stanco, 38, of Cleveland. “We all really want to make a difference. This is a very hopeful group and we are as diverse as the world is diverse but we’re all here because of a calling to serve others.”