CARA

How does diocesan priests’ compensation compare across different job assignments and experience levels? How do lay employees compare to diocesan priests in terms of salary and benefits? How do all those groups compare across different regions? Those are some of the questions CARA explored in the recent report National Diocesan Survey: Salary and Benefits for Priests and Lay Personnel, commissioned by the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA). Blog post with analysis:

Review the state of Catholic priestly formation in the United States in CARA's latest statistical report on the subject. During the 2020-2021 academic year, enrollment in the post-baccalaureate level of priestly formation (i.e., pre-theology and theology) in colleges and theologates totaled 3,110 seminarians. College seminary enrollment (excluding pre-theology seminarians in colleges) totaled 1,118 seminarians. High school seminary enrollment stood at 336 (CARA also has similar reports for diaconate and lay formation programs).

Commissioned by the USCCB, CARA surveyed all U.S. dioceses and eparchies as well as all of their worship sites to examine awareness of and pastoral care for migrants, refugees and travelers. Nearly 1 in 4 sites serve immigrant communities. A similar share serves migrant, refugee, itinerant groups. Comparing to Census data, awareness of these communities should be higher and potential pastoral care gaps are identified. For complete results see the project report:

New Report on the "Satisfaction and Challenges among Recently Ordained Priests." The National Association of Catholic Theological Schools (NACTS) commissioned CARA to conduct a survey of recently ordained Catholic priests in the United States regarding how well U.S. Catholic seminaries are preparing men for their priestly life and ministry and in what areas of their priestly life and ministry the newly ordained priests are most and least satisfied. This report details the results of this study.

Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Boston

CARA was commissioned by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to conduct a study about cultural diversity in vocations to religious life in the United States. In spring 2020, CARA identified and sent a questionnaire to 3,196 current candidates/postulants, novices, and those in temporary vows or commitment as well as those who had professed final vows or commitment within the last 15 years. We received a total of 1,163 usable responses. Recent cohorts of women and men religious in the United States is more culturally and ethnically diverse than their older cohorts. Complete report of findings:

In September 2016 CARA and the African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC) initiated a collaborative project of Visiting Scholars at CARA thanks to the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. ASEC assists in identifying Catholic Sisters from among ten nations of Africa as candidates for the Visiting Scholar program at CARA. The selected Sister Visiting Scholar comes to the CARA offices in Washington, DC for six months where she joins the CARA research team and develop her skills in applied research. For more about the program and their work: