A new study of vocations shows that new members of religious orders are more ethnically diverse and more interested in traditional devotions than their predecessors.

The Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which carried out the study for the NRVC – the National Religious Vocation Conference – found that of the current applicants to religious orders in the US some 21 percent are Latino, 14 percent are Asian, and six percent are African or African American. By contrast, 94 percent of fully professed members of religious congregations are Caucasian.

The study also concluded that people entering religious orders today were doing so to deepen their spirituality. “Young people are looking for communal living,” said NRVC executive director Br Paul Bednarczyk. “They are also looking for their Catholic identity, for concrete symbols and rituals.”