Religious brothers might want to seek advice from their religious sisters on this one. CNS is reporting that Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, wants to turn his attention to religious brothers. (See: Vatican preparing documents on prayer, brothers.)
While the numbers of religious in every category have dropped in the last 50 years, the number of religious brothers has decreased most drastically, he said, citing the example of the Christian Brothers who had 16,000 members in 1965 and have fewer than 5,000 today.
"We think one of the reasons for the decline in these vocations is due to a certain lack of attention on the part of the church" to brothers, who are mentioned only in passing in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and Vatican documents published later, he said.
Good luck brothers.
