Institute on Religious Life

This year, the IRL celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding. The theme for this year's National Meeting was: "Forming a Eucharistic Heart: 50 Years of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion." The event was held at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois, and was also live-streamed. Regional Meetings were held Kansas City (September 2023), Boston (November 2023), and Los Angeles (January 2024). This year at the Boston Regional Meeting, the IRL for the first time hosted it in both Spanish and English tracks to accommodate growing interest. Speakers at the National and Regional Meetings included religious priests, religious sisters, and lay people. The meetings, attended by religious, lay people, and young adults discerning their vocations, support religious in their vocations, and encourage lay people to promote vocations in the Church. This year, the IRL bestowed its prestigious Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award on His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze for his contributions to the religious life, including the book he wrote in 2005 during the Year of Consecrated Life titled, "Radical Discipleship: Consecrated Life and the Call to Holiness". During this fiscal year, the IRL welcomed five new Affiliate Communities: The Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary in Dulac, Louisiana, The Congregation of Saint John in Orange, New Jersey, The Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular in Loretto Pennsylvania, The Daughters of Mary Mother of Healing Love in Manchester, New Hampshire, and The Apostolate for Family Consecration in Bloomingdale, Ohio.

The Vita Consecrata Institute continues to be a unique program for consecrated men and women seeking to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and develop a profound understanding of their religious vocation. The 4-week summer program (two 2-week sessions) is held at Christendom College Graduate School in Front Royal, Virginia. This year, the IRL welcome 38 attendees for Session I and 32 attendees for Session II. The courses may be audited, or taken for credit through Christendom College. Each course, which typically consists of twenty one-hour classes, is available via audio download for cloistered communities or others. This year's instructors were: Rev. Thomas Nelson, Msgr. Charles Mangan, Fr. William Wagner ORC, Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski O.P., Dr. Mark Glafke, and Ms. Jennifer Settle, C.V.

The IRL publication "Religious Life" magazine, published five times per year, is distributed to over 2,200 religious, priests, bishops, and lay people per issue. That periodical as well as the IRL's four websites (ReligiousLife.com, CloisteredLife.com, ReligiousBrotherhood.com, and VocationBlog.com) are windows into religious life for lay supporters and those discerning a vocation. The amount of traffic and visitors to these sites has grown tremendously in recent years with last year's visitor numbers being 186,000 visitors on ReligiousLife.com, 168,000 visitors on CloisteredLife.com, 6,000 visitors on ReligiousBrotherhood.com, and 33,000 visitors of VocationBlog.com. The IRL's Facebook page has over 11,000 followers and its Instagram page has over 2,000 followers. On ReligiousLife.com young people can review the profiles of 190+ religious communities and find discernment retreats hosted by IRL communities. The IRL also hosts a free Cloistered Life Forum online with over 45 communities represented. It allows cloistered women religious to ask questions in a confidential environment, receive replies and suggestions from fellow participants, and share resources. In January 2024 the IRL implemented a significant new resource: the IRL's own podcast called, "Ever Ancient, Ever New" in honor of the 50th anniversary of the IRL's founding. This podcast features weekly talks and interviews with consecrated religious men and women from many different religious communities throughout the United States, giving not only religious, but also lay Catholics access to the rich and varied archives of IRL seminars, classes, talks, and interviews, while also giving those in religious life the opportunity to tell their vocation stories and share insights into their apostolates. The podcast thus far has over 20 episodes and over 1,000 downloads.