Why young Catholics are returning to the habit and cloth

After reading a recent article about the Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest and about young women becoming nuns, it got me thinking. Because it was only just a few years ago when many of us were talking about a vocational crisis within the Church – whether that be priestly or taking the habit.

However, the article in the National Catholic Register, which describes how the order is drawing young women who seek a contemplative life rooted in tradition, adoration and prayer for priestly vocations, suggests something else is going on.

Seeing how young women, many in their early- to mid-twenties, are choosing to embrace the habit, to give themselves to prayer, contemplation and the hidden life of a religious sister again – it is nothing less than a beautiful sign of hope.

In a culture that often treats consecrated life as quaint or passé, this resurgence of the habit speaks of something far more profound – a growing respect for the clerical and religious state.

Of course, society needs mothers, women who nurture families, rear children and sustain household life. But there is something uniquely vital in this return of women to the religious habit: a rediscovery of spiritual motherhood, self-surrender and the desire to intercede for souls.

Where once nuns were caricatured as old-fashioned or severe, today the religious life is becoming recognised, even among young girls, as a blessed vocation, a sign of feminine strength and holiness rather than backwardness.

What we are observing, with these vocations rising, especially in Europe and among traditional priestly societies, is not a trend but rather a quiet renaissance. Among the most visible signs is the growth of traditional-liturgical groups that celebrate the Latin Mass.

The brother organisation, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), for instance, now counts around 147 priests, clerical-oblates and affiliated clerics worldwide.  

Similarly, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), another traditional-liturgical society in full communion with Rome, demonstrates robust vitality. As of 2024, FSSP reportedly has 583 members, including 386 priests and some 200 seminarians and candidates for holy orders.  Meanwhile, the Institute of the Good Shepherd lists 62 priests and some 44 seminarians active internationally.

In many respects, admittedly, these figures stand in counterpoint to the broader global trend. According to recent reports, the total number of priests worldwide dropped to 406,996 in 2023 – a fall of 734 in just a year.

Seminarian numbers also declined globally, from 108,481 major seminarians in 2022 down to 106,495 in 2023, a drop of nearly 2 per cent in one year.  Particularly in Europe and Asia, the decline was pronounced.

Yet despite these discouraging global patterns, traditional orientated institutes such as ICKSP, FSSP and the Institute of the Good Shepherd seem to be thriving, or at least are holding steady. That may be small solace in the face of a global “vocations decline”, but I think the symbolic weight and spiritual significance are not to be underestimated.

Why is this happening and what does it mean? I suspect the root lies in a growing disenchantment with secularism, relativism and the shallow comforts of modernity.

Many young Catholics, both men and women, seem to be rediscovering the beauty of rootedness, of tradition, of sacrificial commitment. In a society saturated by consumerism and unstable values, the call to religious life, to celibacy, to prayer, to liturgical continuity, appears as a radical alternative.

These traditional communities offer more than merely the Tridentine Rite. They propose a spiritual and communal architecture capable of resisting the noise of the world. They entrust a structure that does not move with the spirit of the age. For many, that structure is not oppressive – it is liberating. It is a framework within which the soul can breathe, grow and become rooted in God rather than in worldly ambition.

This, in turn, suggests something important for the Church at large – and that is institutional change, and not merely rhetorical encouragement, if we wish to support and nurture vocations.

Some will call this approach reactionary. Others might regard it as too unwelcoming. But I do not see it as backward, I see it as fidelity. Because what is at stake is not a preference for old vestments or Latin prayers, but the renewal of a Catholic identity rooted in the belief that God matters, that heaven matters, that holiness matters and that souls matter.

The return of the habit among young women, the surge of new seminarians and priests in traditional societies, these are not marginal phenomena. They are a quiet but powerful sign that the spiritual hunger remains, even in an age that pretends otherwise.

If the Church wishes to reclaim influence in Europe and beyond, if it genuinely wants to renew itself, then it must recognise these signs and foster them – not suppress them, not treat them as curiosities.

For in a world increasingly dominated by secularism, individualism and the cult of convenience, the Church’s real hope lies not in compromise, but in fidelity.

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Photo: Nuns join youth and pilgrims gathering in Rome's eastern Tor Vergata neighbourhood for a prayer vigil before Sunday Mass as part of the Jubilee of Youth, Rome, Italy, 2 August 2025 (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)

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