"There are three things the Lord does not know: how many nuns there are, the thoughts of the Jesuits, and how much money the Franciscans have," runs an old Catholic saying. The world of monastic orders is something of a mystery even to believers, let alone complete outsiders. It is clear, however, that the number of nuns in Hungary has declined continuously over the past 15 years. The same goes for the number of priests. The total population of monks and nuns has declined since 1989. Most of the banned monastic orders were re-established in 1989-90 and were filled with former members, many of whom returned from abroad.
Four orders were permitted in the Rákósi and Kádár eras: the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Piarists and the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The other orders were populated with monastics in their 60s on their re-establishment. Furthermore, those who lived to experience the regime change had only been in the order for a short time before 1950, and so had little experience of building a monastic community. Monastic life had to be restarted with tired, aging members. Most re-established orders managed to recruit new people, but this still left a missing generation. Monastic communities in Hungary are nowadays populated with people over 70 and under 40. At the same time, some 60 to 70 candidates and novices present themselves each year, meaning that there is some prospect of rebuilding the old orders.
There are more candidates than places, allowing the orders to be very selective. At the beginning of the 90s, many turned to the orders seeking an alternative lifestyle or spiritual peace. This rarely led to lasting commitment. "There was an astonishing number of people who came because they couldn't keep up with life," one monk was quoted as saying by a sociologist of the church. And not all stay the course:
not everyone is prepared to renounce personal property and bodily pleasures and swear loyalty to their seniors.
Most of the novices who joined after 1989 came from families that were either non-religious or religious in their own way. Their parents were not religious according to the teachings of the church. Amongst the new members, men were most frequently attracted by the strictures of living in a monastic community, women by the desire to make sacrifices and help others, according to one sociologist.
There is a distinction in the monastic world between orders which withdraw from the world, and those which play a role. The original goal of monasticism was the perfection of inner spiritual life by living a life wholly devoted to God. The Clarists in Szécsény, for example, mainly pray, chant and think, though they may undertake work so long as it can be carried out within the walls of the monastery.
They are open to the world in the sense that they will accept those from outside who would like to withdraw from the world for a short time.
But most orders have an active role: they maintain a school, or a social, cultural or medical institution. Orders were tempted by the prospect of church property restitution in the early 1990s to continue the activities they had been engaged in 40 years before. In many cases, there were two few left to carry out this activity. One or two nuns were expected to cater for the spiritual side of a school education, leaving the the rest of the teaching to secular teachers.