This is what religious with perpetual vows in the USA are like, according to the CARA 2025 survey
A new national study by CARA at Georgetown University analyzed the 179 individuals who professed perpetual vows in U.S. religious institutes in 2025. The overall institutional trend remains challenging, with 82% of responding superiors reporting no perpetual professions in their communities last year. The average age of the 2025 profession class is 38, with half of the new members being 35 or younger. While 69% of those making final vows were born in the U.S., nearly a third come from international origins, highlighting the global nature of American Catholic communities. Men constituted 55% of the respondents making perpetual vows, compared to 45% women.
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The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University released its 2025 report on women and men professing perpetual vows in U.S.-based religious institutes.1 2
CARA surveyed 723 major superiors, with 520 responding (72% rate), identifying 179 perpetual professions: 74 women and 105 men.1 2
Of these, 130 individuals (73%) completed detailed questionnaires.1
Eighty-two percent of responding superiors reported no perpetual professions in 2025.1 2
Ten percent had one profession, while 8% had two to nine.1 2
This highlights ongoing challenges in U.S. religious life amid aging communities.1
The average age was 38, with half 35 or younger; ages ranged from 22 to 74.1
Men comprised 55% of respondents, women 45%.1
Sixty-nine percent were U.S.-born, with 12% from Asia, 9% from Latin America, and 7% from Africa.1 2
Ethnically, 57% identified as Caucasian/European American, 16% Asian/Pacific Islander, 16% Hispanic/Latino(a), and 9% African/African American.1
Ninety-two percent were Catholic since birth; converts averaged age 20.1 2
Ninety-five percent had at least one Catholic parent, 85% two; 35% had a priest or religious relative.1
Most grew up with siblings in intact families raised by biological parents.1
Nearly half attended Catholic elementary schools, 35% Catholic high schools, and 39% Catholic colleges.1 2
Seventy percent held college or graduate degrees; 8% delayed entry due to $55,500 average debt.1
Eighty percent had prior work experience, often in business or education, plus extensive parish ministry like altar serving (60%) and youth ministry (56%).1
Most sensed a vocation around age 18, with regular prayer and 92% attending discernment programs like "Come and See."1
Eighty-six percent received encouragement, mainly from religious (52%), friends (48%), or priests (46%).1
However, 53% faced discouragement, more often women.1 2
Despite low numbers challenging decline narratives, the 2025 class shows vocational vitality: well-educated, ministry-experienced individuals from strong faith families.1
The report supports the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for World Day of Consecrated Life.1 2
Investigate how Catholic doctrine addresses scarcity of perpetual vows
Catholic doctrine defines the religious state as a stable, public commitment to Christian perfection through the perpetual profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, distinguishing it from other forms of consecrated or apostolic life. While no magisterial text directly confronts a modern "scarcity" of perpetual vows—understood as a decline in permanent religious commitments—the Church's teachings underscore their enduring value as a sign of total self-gift to Christ, while promoting vocational discernment, formation, and education to foster generous responses to such calls. Historical condemnations reject attempts to limit vows to temporary periods, affirming perpetuity as essential for the vowed religious life. Contemporary emphases include rigorous preparation, synodal accompaniment, and gratitude for vocations amid pastoral needs.
At the heart of Catholic teaching on consecrated life is the religious state, which requires "the three evangelical counsels: voluntary poverty, perfect chastity... and... obedience to lawful authority; the external profession of these counsels... [and] the perpetual profession of these counsels." This perpetual commitment ensures stability and irrevocability, making the religious life a "mode of life, irrevocable in its nature." Solemn profession, the highest form, annuls prior unconsummated marriages, creates diriment impediments to future marriage, and restricts property rights without Holy See permission. Simple profession can be perpetual or temporary; when perpetual, it binds as firmly as solemn vows in congregations, though lacking juridical solemnity.
The Church distinguishes religious institutes with perpetual vows from "pious societies" or congregations without them, such as the Daughters of Charity (annual vows) or White Fathers (oath of obedience only). These latter lack full religious status, highlighting perpetuity's doctrinal weight. Temporary vows serve as probationary preparation, typically three to six years before perpetual ones, with no gap allowed upon expiration to maintain obligation. Thus, doctrine prioritizes perpetual vows for authentic configuration to Christ's total self-offering.
Catholic dogma has long rejected proposals to restrict vows to short terms, viewing them as threats to religious stability. The 16th-century condemnation in Denzinger 1589 explicitly opposes systems limiting chastity, poverty, and obedience vows to one year, renewable only with episcopal permission, declaring: "The vow of perpetual stability should never be allowed... the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience should not be admitted as the common and stable rule." This reflects Trent-era defenses against Reformation-era laxity, affirming perpetual vows as consonant with monastic tradition and ecclesial edification.
Earlier, councils like Lateran IV (1215) and Lyons II (1274) required ecclesiastical approbation for religious life, evolving to mandate express authority. Popes like Gregory XIII validated Jesuit scholastics as religious despite simple vows, but perpetuity remains definitional. Dispensations from even temporary vows are reserved to the Holy See, underscoring their gravity. These teachings counter any notion that scarcity justifies diluting perpetuity; rather, they call for fidelity to the vowed ideal.
While not all are called to perpetual vows—"not all Christians are called to this state" of consecrated life—the evangelical counsels inform every baptismal vocation, manifesting "the inner nature of the Christian calling" as spousal love for Christ. Consecrated life holds objective primacy as a sign attracting others to fulfill their duties. Marriage and family life assume natural eros into Christian vocation without eradicating it, paralleling how celibacy purifies communion.
Priesthood, intertwined with religious life in some cases, demands gratitude for its "gift" nature amid U.S. shortages, urging bishops to highlight its dignity to spur responses. Schools foster discernment, presenting "diversity and complementarity of vocations," guiding youth toward priesthood, consecrated life, or lay states.
Doctrine addresses vocational challenges indirectly through discernment and formation. Pope Francis stresses discernment as "synodal, personal, and directed to the truth," countering individualism via communal accompaniment. Formators must discern suitability rigorously, respecting Church doctrine on vocations. Preparation includes temporary profession to "strengthen fidelity," culminating in solemn perpetual vows as "indissoluble union" with Christ.
No sources prescribe policy for scarcity, but they imply promotion: preaching against errors, vocational pedagogy, and evaluating with Scripture amid life's "complicated" choices. The Church's mission includes retaining priests and religious for sacraments' "specific and concrete" efficacy.
Catholic doctrine robustly upholds perpetual vows as constitutive of the religious state, rejecting temporality as normative while distinguishing vows' grades and effects. It does not explicitly strategize against scarcity but integrates vows into the universal discipleship call, urging discernment, formation, and proclamation to elicit generous commitments. Recent emphases on synodality and gratitude amid pastoral needs suggest ongoing fidelity, not adaptation by diminishment. This framework invites the faithful to pray and act for vocational abundance, confident in God's specific saving love.