Patricia WITTBERG, Mary L. GAUTIER, Gemma SIMMONDS, and Natalie BECQUART, God’s Call Is Everywhere. A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2023. PP 222 + xxvi. $26.95pb. ISBN 978-0-8146-6913-6. Reviewed by Anthony J. BLASI, 4531 Briargrove St., San Antonio, TX 78217.

It is well known that in the industrial West women have ceased entering religious communities in the numbers they had in the past. This volume reviews and interprets studies of the phenomenon and trends outside the West as well. It pays particular attention to the experiences of those who are entering religious life. Studies in the different nations use various survey and qualitative methodologies, but they all find that the relatively small numbers of women entering the institutes are seeking deeper prayer life and rewarding community living. They find that they had often idealized the latter, but the real community experience can be a challenged rather than an obstacle. A problem that is unique to France is a stereotype of female religious as medieval contemplatives; active religious institutes are virtually unknown there. In Australia, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, and the United States the abandonment of visibly different garb combined with the small number of sisters still in active ministry make it unlikely that the typical Catholic woman can identify and become familiar with vowed religious women.

Two studies focused on non-Western societies. Religious institutes in India have a troublesome presence of caste distinctions within the communities. Moreover, they are beginning to experience the lack of many entrants that the West has known for some time. In Kenya, entrants are joining in great numbers, but there is suspicion that mixed motives may be at work because of the lack of professional opportunities for women outside the religious institutes. Moreover, in Kenya which has many entrants from other African nations, the necessity of using a second language—English—presents many entrants with a difficulty.

The methodological differences of the studies from the different nations complicate the making of any comparisons. Some have mixed methods; some have surveys; some unstructured interviews. The UK and Ireland are reported in the same survey, but the two nations have quite different histories. The UK study also includes institutes in the Church of England, but in the Anglican Communion of Great Britain women also have the option of entering the priesthood. Canada is a bilingual nation—a bicultural one really—and no separation of data by language group is provided.

One can assume that this kind of l review of available studies will lead  to a major global study. One would hope that a future study would present data from control groups: e.g., knowledge about active religious institutes by non-Catholics, by Catholic women in their twenties who have not entered or taken steps to enter, by entrants who stayed up to a year and returned to non-vowed life, and by entrants who stayed up to the time of data collection. A future study should separate data from contemplative institutes and active ones; the emphasis placed on prayer by respondents to the surveys in hand may reflect a presence of members of contemplative institutes. Comparisons with Anglican and Catholic institutes, as well as Orthodox ones, might be pursued more. Such major Catholic nations as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Poland might be included. Finally, richer qualitative data, such as what can be collected through participant observation, might be collected, rather than mere interview and focus group data.