An article in the Economist of June 30th described the impact falling numbers of religious vocations in the US was having on the provision of education and healthcare for the less privileged in that country.
In 1950, 75 per cent of teachers in Catholic schools there were religious, today it is 6 per cent. And while the Economist article acknowledged the valuable contribution made by lay teachers, it observed that "they cost three times as much as nuns".
Similar demographic shifts in the numbers of religious and priests available for teaching and hospital ministry are being experienced in Ireland today - with similar impact on costs.
Religious form a small fraction of schoolteachers and hospital nurses. Although there are still 12,000 religious in Ireland, a survey by John Weafer published in Religious Life Review last year suggested they were becoming invisible in Irish society, as a growing number of people had no contact with men or women religious.
In the early 1970s the Irish bishops invited religious to become more involved in the pastoral work of the church. This came at a time when all religious, in response to the documents of Vatican II, were rediscovering the intentions of their founders. The effect of that returning to roots was destabilising. Religious, faithful to their spiritual powers given by God, made work and lifestyle choices which were not always appreciated by a society that valued them as service providers, particularly in schools and hospitals.
The large, isolating, Victorian-style convents and monasteries were vacated in favour of homes in housing estates, bringing religious closer to the people and their needs.
A recent internal survey by the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) among 50 congregations showed something of what has been served by the disposal of these religious-owned properties and land in the past 10 years.
Since 1990 Irish religious have given £47 million for facilities in schools by way of extra playing fields, classroom space, prayer rooms, school halls, and sites to extend schools.
Religious were crucial in making the dream of free education for all come true by their willingness to sink their salaries into the buildings to accommodate the influx of pupils.
Four agencies have been established by religious to address social housing needs - the Share, Focus Housing, Respond and Sophia Housing Agency help to provide accommodation for the elderly, the unemployed, and the physically incapacitated.
Property worth £22 million has been donated by religious to voluntary groups, local authorities, and social housing agencies. Some religious still live in renovated properties with the new tenants, as in George's Hill and Stanhope Green in Dublin, Blarney Street in Cork, and in Portlaoise. And arrangements are in place to give Dublin Corporation first option on buying religious-owned property for social housing.
Convents and monasteries have been given a new lease of life in fulfilling key roles in local communities.
Among the 19 addiction treatment centres set up by the Sisters of Mercy is the only teenage addiction treatment centre in Europe. It is in the former convent at Ballyragget in Co Kilkenny.
The Franciscan friary in Killarney was donated to Kerry Youth Services, while the donation of the Sacred Heart convent and boarding school in Roscrea made the development of extensive leisure and recreational facilities possible.
Former novitiate and houses of formation have become retreat and pastoral centres offering opportunities for spiritual revitalisation to all who seek to get off the treadmill from time to time. You'll find them in Waterford, Kerry, Antrim and Derry, in cities and almost in every county.
Clann Credo, the first social bank in Ireland was created by religious and set up to advance cheap capital to voluntary and community enterprises with little, if any, collateral. To date 70 projects have received loan and equity investments from it. These include self-employed and community-owned services, sports clubs, childcare and care of the elderly projects, cultural enterprises, training of disabled persons, social housing and a leisure centre for Travellers.
Before Clann Credo's socially directed investment fund, small groups and individuals without substantial assets could not afford to borrow the seed capital needed to start their enterprises from banks. The roar of the Celtic Tiger seems, on occasion, to have deafened the ears of the establishment to the needs of the poor person and the smaller groupings in our economy, a fact highlighted by recent UN and ESRI surveys on poverty in Ireland.
If one was willing to do so, a search of Ireland would show, as the Economist article concluded of the US, "that much of the social infrastructure is held together by priests and nuns". Quantifiable donations to the social economy by religious in Ireland over the past 10 years are measured at £7.25 million. However, as all countries are aware in this UN International Year of the Volunteer, the total contribution made by volunteers, lay and religious, is incalculable.
I HAVE mentioned some of the benefits and consequences resulting from the refocusing of religious here on their primary task. But not everything has changed. Provision for the disabled and/or mentally handicapped in Ireland is 80 per cent supplied by religious.
Irish congregations still send personnel to and in support of missions in developing countries, so it was gratifying to hear the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs pay tribute to the positive image these missionaries have created of Ireland abroad and which helped this country secure a UN Security Council seat.
In the business world an organisation with a reducing workforce that is parting with property would be described as "down sizing". Religious read the situation in which they find themselves in the Western world differently, as a transitional time.
God is calling them to leave behind the status of an honoured place in the prevailing culture, which they enjoyed for many years, for the potentially dangerous role of the prophet who points to the injustices perpetrated against the poorer and weaker people in our society.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of CORI's Justice Commission which, every year, challenges the distribution of wealth in the Government's annual budget.
For religious, every decision to withdraw from an institution, medical or educational, is governed by the criterion of what best may serve the poor, given the resources of personnel available to the congregation concerned.
Religious in Ireland are not abandoning the Irish people, but in reorienting their lives they are answering the call of the Gospel to listen to the cry of the poor. In the final analysis, religious life is not essentially about providing an institutional response to the social needs of any country. It is, first and foremost, a way of life which helps the person find God by closely imitating the life of Christ in his mission to the poor.
Undoubtedly, the historical forms of apostolic life are changing. The failure of some religious to live out the values of the vocation to which they are called is a matter of profound regret. However, despite the frailties of human nature, the essential inspiration of religious life - the God quest - remains constant.
That is probably why 92 per cent of CORI's congregational leaders express hope for the future of religious life, in spite of the diminished numbers of new entrants over the past 30 years. If that hope is matched by a corresponding appreciation of the value of religious life within the faith community, by families and individual women and men, then the newer forms of religious life in Ireland will be assured.
Sister Elizabeth Maxwell is secretary general of CORI