Original scientific paper
Consecrated life and nuns from a youth perspective: an example of secondary school leavers in Zadar (Croatia)
Neven Duvnjak
orcid.org/0000-0002-7705-9823
; The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar Split
Antonio Dragun
; The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar Split
Abstract
We present the survey results among 254 secondary school
leavers in Zadar (Croatia). It was found that 18-year-olds were not
well acquainted with the life of consecrated persons. For a great
majority, Church vocations are not of their interest. In the case where their friend unexpectedly decides to choose the monastic
life, participants are divided regarding the acceptance of such a
decision. A similar reaction was found in the analysis of specific
anticipated reactions on such decisions. Very few of them turn to
consecrated persons for help. They are mostly ready to turn to nuns
for help, but primarily in the case of a “very hard problem”. More
than one-third would never turn to nuns for help. The experiences
of school leavers who contacted the consecrated persons were in
general positive, while the negative ones were very rare. Majority
of them experienced the encounters with nuns as useful and
pleasant. Nuns seemed to contribute the most to understanding
the religious truths, as well as to personal growth in religious life
and to better relations with close others. Also, the largest number
of participants positively perceives the nuns: majority of them
believe they live their vocation with joy, and most frequently see
the nuns as catechism teachers, promoters of peace and love and
as persons who help others. School leavers have divided opinions
whether nuns are sufficiently involved in outside-monastery
social activities, but they think such activities should primarily be
catechism teaching and care for the poor.
One of the church official missions could be to acquaint the
young people with the church vocations. Finding in the research
that the youth have mostly affirmative image and experiences with
the ordained persons, points to their openness to even greater
acceptance of inspirations and guidelines for life, that comes from
the church officials.
Keywords
adolescents; attitudes; consecrated life; spiritual vocations; nuns; church officials; pastoral care
Hrčak ID:
66168
URI
Publication date:
4.4.2011.
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