VOA慢速英语2011-More Young Women Find a Calling in Cathol

For years, the Catholic Church in America has struggled to find new clergy¹. The average age of priests and nuns² is seventy and rising. But some Catholic orders are having more success than others.

The Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia are mainly a teaching order. They are based at a convent in Nashville, Tennessee. And they just celebrated³ their one hundred fiftieth year.

The sisters are active across the United States and in Australia. There, they teach more than thirteen thousand students in thirty-four schools.

Today, Saint Cecilia's has its largest number of postulants in many years. A postulant is a candidate for admission into a religious order.

Sister Catherine Marie, a spokeswoman, says the current group of first-year students represents ten percent of the whole order.

SISTER CATHERINE MARIE: "There are two hundred seventy of us and our growth of late has been rather extensive. This year we had twenty-seven young women enter. Last year, it was twenty-three. Great blessings⁴ to us."

The average age of the church’s serving priests and nuns is 70 and rising. But some Catholic orders in the United States are successfully attracting new members.

Nearly one-third of the women in the order are under thirty.

Sister Catherine says she thinks these young women are looking deeper into their faith in reaction to changes in society.

Participation⁵ in organized religion is falling among Americans under age thirty. That was the finding of a national survey last year by the Pew Research Center.

A different group, the National Opinion Research Center, recently found that seventeen percent of Americans do not identify with any faith. And another poll found that this was true of almost twenty-five percent of first-year university students.

Sister Kelly Edmunds is a first-year postulant at Saint Cecilia's. She says she came to the order out of a desire to serve others. She had seen Dominican sisters serving at the University of Sydney.

SISTER KELLY: "Just to watch them, walking down the main boulevard of campus wearing their habits -- it was just such a powerful witness. I had friends in engineering who were, like, they knew I was Catholic so they would say to me ‘Who are these nuns on campus?’ And so it was a really great witness to me of the power of religious life."

Sister Victoria Marie is in her second year. She came to the convent with a degree in civil engineering. She says she had discovered that people were more interesting to her than roads or bridges.

SISTER VICTORIA: "So it was a big shift in my life to go from utility to relationship, from ‘What am I going to do? ’ to ‘Who am I going to be for the Lord?’ "

A postulant’s day includes work, study and prayer. Sister Victoria says it requires a lot of energy.

SISTER VICTORIA: "For a couple weeks after I entered, I thought, ‘I just want to lay on the couch for the day, and I don’t think they do that here, you know.'"

But Sister Kelly says she was surprised by how much time she has gotten to simply enjoy life.

SISTER KELLY: "There have been a lot of fun moments just to be outside and enjoy the beauty of the world and creation."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Steve Ember.

1 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

2 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。