In that spirit, his organization has sponsored an online outreach of its own: a matchmaking site. As Bednarczyk describes it, "We took the secular concept of Love Match or eHarmony.com and applied that to religious life." Men and women considering taking vows may log on to voca tionmatch.com, answer questions about the types of community, prayer and ministry that they are looking for, and get a list of potential fits. Some 7,000 have done so over the past year.
That's more than a tenfold increase in queries from the old paper-based method. The National Religious Vocation Conference still publishes an annual guide to religious communities with cards that can be returned to request more information. But the most cards it has ever received in a year was 600, according to Patrice Tuohy, executive editor of the VISION Catholic Vocation Guide.
According to Tuohy, 91 percent of Love Match users say they are seriously considering religious life, and 5 percent who filled out profiles last year report they have now entered religious life. "There's no question in my mind that the rise of the use of the Internet has been a huge benefit to religious communities," she says, noting that information is much more accessible online.
At the Sisters of Bon Secours, Sister Pat Dowling, the national vocations director, has seen the impact of Web outreach. When she became the order's chief recruiter eight years ago, she says, "if we got 60 inquirers during the year, you know, I thought that was pretty good." But as the sisters' online presence has grown, so has interest in joining: The number of queries jumped from 199 in 2007 to 263 last year, and Dowling expects another increase this year.
The sisters, who number about 40 in the United States, operate a national network of hospitals, including Bon Secours Baltimore Health System. The order has welcomed eight new candidates in the past five years - nearly enough, Dowling says, to sustain membership at the current level. She credits several factors, including political, economic and social upheaval, a younger generation grown accustomed to community work through school service project requirements, and having a full-time vocations director. She sees her online efforts as another factor.
"You can't sit behind a desk waiting for someone to come to you," she says. "You need to find ways and be creative in telling people who you are and what this life is about. ... People can't choose what they don't know about."
