Are Non-Catholics a Gold Mine for Vocations?

There’s a small but sure growth in vocations in the United States, thanks be to God. Most of us think of good Catholic families as the best source for vocations. But what about non-Catholics?

Many religious communities turn non-Catholics away at the door when they ask about joining the communities - but are they passing up a gold mine?

Everyone knows of the movement of evangelical leaders becoming Catholics, such as Scott Hahn, Dale Ahlquist, or Dr. Francis Beckwith. The Coming Home Network, the leader in ministering to, and encouraging converts, lists twelve categories of converts on its website, which includes Evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, as well as Jewish, Muslim, Atheist and Agnostic.

It stands to reason that there are also a lot of single Christians who are strong in their Protestant faith who are discovering that they have consecrated vocations.

One of the men’s vocation directors in our Come & See Vocation Promotion Program said that a lot of their recent vocations have been converts. I wonder how many Protestants strong in their own faith are hanging on to the edge of the Church, looking through the windows with a lot of curiosity? Will converts make up many of the priests, sisters, brothers and other consecrated persons in the Church moving forward?

Non-Catholics Who Click on Catholic Ads

In our vocation program, social media ads for vocations are aimed at those whose Facebook activity show that they are interested in the Catholic faith. Although we try to aim our ads toward Catholic audiences, Facebook finds some who are not Catholics.

In the “Is Jesus Calling You?” quiz for one of our communities of women, a small number of them described themselves as not Catholic. You wonder about the interests of these young women, age 18 - 25, who see pictures of happy young religious sisters in habits and click on our ads asking if Jesus is calling them to this life. Are they curious about the Catholic faith? Have they already taken steps toward becoming Catholic? Do some of them have consecrated vocations?

Faithful, But Not in the Fold

Among 1,121 such quiz-takers for this women’s community from 2015 to January 2019, our data shows that 165, or 15%, described themselves as non-Catholics, or as Christian but not Catholic.

One of the questions on the quiz was, “Do you accept all the teachings of the Catholic Church?” Fourteen, or 8.5% of non-Catholics responded by clicking, “I consider myself a faithful daughter of the Church and follow her teachings.” Now, I see it as encouraging that this many quiz-takers who were not Catholic described themselves as being faithful to Catholic teaching. (You wonder how many Catholics at large would say this.)

In response to the same question, seventy-eight, or 47% were honest enough to say, “I don't know enough about the Church's teaching to say right now.”

Eighty-eight, or 7.9% of the entire group of 1,121 are recent converts or were in RCIA (The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) to become Catholic.

These are small numbers, but could it be that this is where the fire is hottest? Religious communities have traditionally turned them away.

But maybe there should be some program, or some way of keeping them in the loop, to nurture a possible religious vocation. Or at least bring them into the Catholic fold. It takes a long time to become a Catholic - six months in the RCIA program, so you have to provide some bread crumbs on the path.

The England of the 1800s witnessed the Oxford Movement, which saw many Anglican priests such as Ven. John Newman becoming Catholic. And then there were such notable converts as G. K. Chesterton and Ronald Knox.

I say open the doors to the converts, especially if this means to the convent and monastery. Who knows if this is the way the Holy Spirit is working today?