Report: Is Educational Debt Affeecting Vocations?

February 22, 2012: A new study on Catholic vocations reveals that educational debt is derailing the dreams of young people to become religious sisters, brothers, or priests. And the problem is likely to get worse: Religious institutes report an increase in the number of inquirers with large educational debt and national averages show record levels of student debt continuing to rise.

The 2012 Study on Educational Debt and Vocations to Religious Life, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA) for the Chicago-based National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC), finds that seven in ten institutes (69 percent) turned away at least one person because of student loans. In addition, many religious communities ask young people to delay their applications to enter because of educational debt.

Of approximately 15,000 serious inquiries to men’s and women’s religious institutes in the past 10 years, one in three (32 percent) involved a person with educational debt averaging $28,000, a figure slightly higher than the $25,000 national average.

The majority of communities (two in three) show a willingness to work with candidates with educational debt—and some 42 percent of responding institutes assume educational debt for a least some of those who apply to enter their communities.

Read More

Archive