Catholic laywomen have increasingly joined U.S. religious communities as “associate members” in recent years, according to two reports. Associate membership in religious orders does not require vows of lifetime commitment, but such members are growing while vowed members are declining in many Catholic orders. A recent study cited in CARA Report (Winter), the newsletter of the Center […]

Churches, synagogues and other organizations are recovering and reconstructing practices that incorporate rites of passage into their work in order to help ease young people’s journey into adulthood, according to Common Boundary (January/February), a magazine reporting on the interaction of psychology and spirituality. “Rites of passage currently being conducted include wilderness survival programs; reconstructed African rituals […]