Religious Communities and Their Mission

In the past thirty years, religious orders of men and women within the Roman Catholic Church have witnessed both the graying of its members and a decrease in the number of new vocations. Research has shown that only those communities with a clear focus in terms of charism and mission will survive. The present study reports the results of survey research conducted with 484 Roman Catholic religious which investigated three research questions: the uniqueness of the stated mission of seven religious communities, the awareness and experience of each community's unique charism, and an understanding of those lived experiences within community life which contribute to and predict a community's charism. The findings indicate that, while each of the religious communities surveyed can both identify and experience their community's stated charism, their mission statements poorly reflect the charism which is unique to each community. The data also indicates that time spent in prayer, both personal and communal, as well as the level of one's formal education, contribute to and predict and community's charism.