Religious orders in Germany near their end. Detailed and shocking figures. Church in total denial about causes carries on down Synodal Path to oblivion
Figures from 2021, reported in 2022
The number of members in Catholic religious orders, both women and men, has been steadily declining for decades, both in Germany and around the world. Women's orders are more affected by the decline in their membership than men's orders. While there were 100,000 nuns in Germany in 1965, by the end of 2021 there were only 12,000, of whom 85 percent were over 65 years old.
Number of members
Nuns
Active orders
Contemplative orders
Monks
Priests
Brothers
Many more charts accompanying text from link below
1. Preliminary Remarks
2. Women's Orders
3. Men's Orders
4. International Affairs
1. Preliminary Remarks
According to the information in the Church Handbooks (1990 ff.) and the statistics of the German Bishops' Conference on members in religious institutes (1998-2021), the number of women and men in Catholic religious orders in Germany is continuously declining.
The German Conference of Superiors of Religious Orders (DOK) currently provides the total figures and the differences.
"As of December 31, 2021, the DOK includes approximately 410 superiors, representing a total of around 15,200 religious women and men in Germany.
Among the male orders and congregations, there are 109 independent religious provinces, abbeys, and priories of 63 different religious communities with 3,377 religious men in 395 monastic establishments.
Among the female orders, the number of communities, establishments, and members in Germany is many times greater: There are 304 generalates, provincialates, abbeys, and independent individual monasteries with 11,829 religious women living in 1,011 monastic establishments.
In addition, there are 101 foreign religious communities with approximately 1,743 members (1,538 sisters and 205 religious men), which have formed the "Association of Catholic Orders for the Promotion of International Solidarity" (VKO).
The largest groups are the Benedictine, Franciscan, and Vincentian religious orders.
An overview of the religious orders of women and men existing in Germany can also be found on the website of the German Conference of Superiors of Religious Orders (DOK). In addition to the Catholic religious orders, there are 32 Catholic secular institutes in Germany, as well as Protestant communities or communities with nuns.
This article is a continuation of the two articles on women's orders in Germany and men's orders in Germany 1990-2016.
2. Women's Orders
The decline in membership numbers is greater among women's orders than among men. A good 50 years ago (1965), 100,000 nuns lived in Germany (source); in 2021, there are 12,000 (see Table 1.1). "In 1955, there were 3,500 novices in Germany; in 2013, there were 62. The consequence of the 'dwarfing' of the orders is that monasteries and Convents are being abandoned." (Source)
In the period of approximately 30 years (1990–2021) presented here, the number of nuns decreased by 32,380 from 44,209 (1990) to 11,829 (2021), i.e., by three-quarters (73 percent). The decline in contemplative orders is (at a lower level) lower at 52 percent than in active orders at 74 percent. On average, between 1990 and 2021, the number of nuns in active orders decreased by four percent annually.
The reason for this decline is the lack of new members. For the period 1990–2021, there were an average of 1,044 fewer nuns per year, but an average of only 132 novices per year. In other words: the decline of 30,380 nuns is offset by 4,114 novices. This is leading to an aging of women's religious orders.
In a breakdown by age group, with the subdivision "up to 65 years" and "over 65 years," the proportion of nuns older than 65 is around 83 percent.
However, this does not mean that all of these nuns are "retiring"; around a quarter of these nuns are still active. This is also reflected in the fact that only 64 percent are listed as "no longer active."
The main areas of activity in which the nuns of active religious orders work remain the same: economic sectors, pastoral care, nursing professions, and administration.
Regarding the decline in women's religious orders, the Vatican stipulated in 2016 (with the Apostolic Constitution Vultum Dei quaerere) that, among other things, a minimum of five nuns must be maintained for a monastery.
"Another innovation concerns the minimum number of nuns who must live in a monastery: If the number of nuns who have taken perpetual vows falls below five, the monastery loses the right to elect its own superior. At the same time, the Holy See must be informed of the situation in order to jointly assess the community's future viability. Recruiting foreign nuns to secure the future of one's own monastery is therefore prohibited."
There has been little research to date on the reasons for this change. A study by the University of Lucerne on Benedictine nuns, "Monasteries are part and at the same time a mirror of society" (2021), particularly highlights the change in educational opportunities for women.
"Between 1920 and 1960, this decision was much more influenced by economic and educational motives and the religiously associated environment than it is today. Priests actively sought out new members for the monasteries, and especially in an agrarian context, monastic life was therefore often an attractive option and, in this respect, a rather unconscious decision. Women in particular had few other educational options at the time. Today, entering a monastery is a much more conscious decision – people are looking for a communal, religiously regulated way of life in which spirituality can be experienced."
3. Men's Orders
The decline in membership in men's orders is also a reality, but – for the period 1990-2021 – is lower at 51 percent, and at a lower level: instead of 6,916 monks (1990), there are now 3,377 (2021).
The decline in the number of monks affects all orders/religious families. In the approximately ten years from 2012 to 2021, they lost an average of a quarter (26 percent) of their members.
The issue of aging also affects men's orders, albeit not as severely as women's orders. In the overviews of the age structure, around 55 percent of monks are older than 65, instead of 85 percent of nuns. In individual cases, however, the situation is more serious, for example, among the Franciscans.
"In Germany, 240 Franciscan monks still live in 30 monasteries and convents. Most of them are over 80 years old, and only 15 monks are currently under 50. The aging population is a problem, which is why the Franciscans are abandoning sites like the St. Ludwig parish in Berlin-Wilmersdorf." (Source)
4. International Affairs
Since the mid-1960s, the number of nuns and monks worldwide has been declining. According to Catholic Church statistics, in 1970 there were one million nuns (1,004,304); in 2020 there were 619,546, a decline of 38 percent. The number of monks worldwide was around 80,000 (79,408) in 1970, and in 2020 there were only 50,569, also a decline of just over a third (36 percent).
In the USA, for which data have been available since 1965, the number of religious sisters declined from 178,740 (1965) to 36,321 (2022), a decline of more than three-quarters (77 percent). For religious brothers, the decline was from 12,096 (1965) to 3,516 (2022), a decline of 70 percent.
The detailed church statistics of the Swiss Pastoral Sociological Institute (SPI) also show the same developments. The same applies to the number of new members in Poland.
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