When the last two Sisters of Mercy remaining in Columbus retired this month, 162 years of nuns serving this community came to a close.
It’s part of a national trend. The number of nuns, also called religious sisters, serving in the United States declined by 80% from 1965 (178,740) to 2023 (35,680) despite the number of Catholics affiliated with a parish increasing by 53% during the same time span (from 44.3 million to 67.8 million) and the number of priests seeing a more gradual decline of 43% (from 59,426 to 34,092), according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
The decline in the number of nuns is attributed to several reasons, according to patheos.com , a website exploring issues of religion and spirituality. Most of the reasons are linked to the expanded career options Catholic women have now compared to six decades ago.
Sisters of Mercy arrive in Columbus
The Sisters of Mercy started serving Columbus in 1862, one year into the Civil War, when five nuns came by wagon from St. Augustine, Florida.