RETREATS

Sanctuary or Agora

In the past two years, the professional organization for the retreat movement in North America, Retreats International (RI), has moved its headquarters twice - first from Notre Dame, where it had its offices for 27 years, then across the highway to St Mary's College, then from South Bend to Loyola University in Chicago. The retreat movement that RI has been identified with and supported all these years has in recent years been undergoing considerable transition, and, while there were other reason for these moves, this shifting of headquarters may serve to symbolize the transition in the retreat movement.

The phenomenon of retreats for the laity throughout most of the 20th century had all the characteristics of a 'movement'. Begun in the first decade of the 20th century by laymen (Chicago and New York vie for the honor of offering in that decade the first retreat for laity in America), it was quickly picked up by religious orders of men, some dioceses and later religious orders of women. Retreat houses sprang up all across the US and Canada. According to The Official Catholic Directory 2004, (OCD) there are over 460 retreat houses in the USA alone. Two professional associations emerged to serve this movement, namely, the National Catholic Laymens' Retreat League, founded in 1911, and the National Catholic Laywomen's Retreat League founded in 1927. Both organizations came replete with well attended and enthusiastic national conventions and publications. They merged in 1977 into one association known as 'Retreats International" ('international' in order to accommodate Canadian members).

Attendance at retreats in these houses, which focused almost exclusively on the so-called 'closed' or silent retreat ultimately deriving from the Ignatian Exercises, apparently peaked in the mid-60's. It was in 1963, for example, that the first alternative to the classic closed retreat burst on the scene, the immensely successful 'Cursillo'. 'Cursillo', an intense, interactive kind of retreat adapted from the Spanish and Mexican Church, not only cut heavily into attendance at the closed retreats, but since 'cursillistas' preferred to rough it on parish premises, the movement left a lot of empty rooms at retreat houses. For example in 1964, weekly attendance at Mayslake Retreat House in suburban Chicago, one of the most successful retreat houses in the country, peaked at an average week-end turn-out of 144. Under the influence of various interactive retreat programs and different understandings of spirituality emerging after Vatican II, attendance at such retreats continued to drop thereafter. A similar story may be told of most old line Catholic retreat houses.

So, the Catholic retreat house joins the Catholic school, the Catholic college, the Catholic hospital, the Catholic parish, the Catholic sisterhood, and the Catholic priesthood as institutions undergoing significant transition. However, unlike these institutions, the retreat house has not been paid serious scholarly attention. For example, The Notre Dame Study on the Pastoral Life of the Church, done in the '80's, reported how many people attended retreats, but did not look specifically at retreat houses. The periodic Gallup Studies of Religion in America do not mention retreats or retreat houses, merely reporting the percentages of people who attend religious activities at some other location than a church, (which may or may not include retreats). This study begins to address that lack.

THE STUDY

The study was designed by myself and Dr Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology and social science researcher at De Paul University, Chicago, IL. It consisted of a mailed survey sent to a random sample of retreat houses taken from the 2004 "Directory of Retreat Centers" published by Retreats International. The survey was pre-tested for consistency by my colleagues at Mayslake Ministries. The sample included 168 retreat houses, and the response was 33% or 56 retreat houses. This represents the high end response to a mailed instrument with no incentives other than a promise to share the findings with participants who asked for it. All findings were reported to the Executive Director of RI, and an interview with her allowed her to comment on them. Validation of our findings was also sought by consulting the annual report (Sept 2004) given by the Director to the Board of Trustees of RI.

Results of the Study

A. The demographics that emerged from this response are as follows:

1. All regions of the US and Canada except the American South and the Canadian East are represented in the study. The dominant response - 50% - was from the Midwest, which is indeed the dominant population in RI membership.
2. Ownership of the retreat houses in the study: religious orders of women, 40%; religious orders of men, 30%, dioceses, 23%, other, 5%.
3. The size of responding retreat houses in terms of bedrooms ranged from 3 to 109, with an average of 46.
4. The age of the retreat houses ranged from 4 - 89 years, with an average of 35 years
5. Staff size of the retreat houses ranged from 1- 24, with an average of 6-7, each staff person working about 40 hours a week.

B. Questions Raised by the Study

1. IS THE NUMBER OF RETREAT HOUSES DECLINING?

Anecdotal and impressionistic evidence certainly suggests that this is so. In Northern Illinois (my area of ministry), the three largest retreat houses in the area closed in the 80's and 90's eliminating over 250 beds. Several smaller houses also closed, and others became almost exclusively conference centers. At the same time, two new retreat houses have opened in that time frame, adding 60 bedrooms, and one retreat house specializing in youth programs has added 53 new bedrooms. The net loss of space was obvious.

We were however unable to arrive at any precision on this trend. We asked respondents to indicate how many retreat houses had closed and opened in their area (RI is subdivided into 21 areas), but most were unable to give a reliable answer. We looked at the RI membership of retreat houses in the USA in 1981 (N 370) and compared it to membership in 2004 (N 277), but this too proved to be unreliable since the Executive Director in 1981 used a significantly different method of counting than the current holder of that position. A careful count of retreat houses diocese-by-diocese in the Catholic Directory yielded surprising results. Not only had there been no decline in the number of retreat houses in the USA between 1981 and 2004, there had actually been an increase of 41%, from 332 to 469! Why does RI membership show a sharp decline while the OCD show a sharp increase? Several explanations may be offered for this discrepancy. First, the closing of a number of large retreat houses of long standing may have given an inaccurate impression that the number of retreat houses is declining. Secondly, since according to the OCD, only about 60% of the retreat houses in the US are members of RI, RI cannot be looked upon as the only source of information about the status of the retreat movement in the USA. Moreover, since RI from its founding in 1977 has always taken a more liberal position advocating change in the Church, many more traditional retreat houses may have chosen not to take membership. Finally, some smaller houses may simply have been unable to afford membership dues. The Director of RI was able to give us only anecdotal and impressionistic data about patterns of openings and closings. She pointed out that new retreat houses continue to open, but was quite certain that they are much smaller than those large flagship houses that have closed. Clearly, more detailed research is necessary in this area.

2. ARE RETREAT HOUSES BECOMING CONFERENCE CENTERS?

Existing anecdotal and impressionistic data suggests that the character of retreat houses is changing, that is, that they are no longer institutions which offer retreat programs conducted by resident staff, but are also more and more becoming rental sites for other peoples' programs, retreat or otherwise. The data from our study strongly supported this impression. Almost all retreat houses in our study (92%) reported conferencing. Of these, 63% reported it to be on the increase. What is of interest is that conferencing is growing much faster than programs offered by the retreat house staff. For example, even encounter or interactive style retreats - more popular today than quiet retreats - show an increase in less than a third (30%) of retreat houses reporting. Furthermore, conferencing accounted for nearly half (45%) of house income, whereas programs offered by staff accounted for only about a quarter (26%). Finally, nearly half of the retreat houses (45%) reported that they have directors of hospitality, and half of these are full time. Clearly, retreat houses now see themselves as conference centers as well as retreat houses. Indeed, many simply present themselves to the public as both retreat and conference center. This shift is also indicated by the increasing tendency of retreat houses to refer to themselves not as 'Houses' but as 'Centers'.

3. HOW DO RETREAT HOUSES FINANCE THEIR OPERATIONS?

Retreat houses have never been able to support themselves simply through the programs offered. This is because they have always been week-end intensive, reporting occupancy rates typically less than 20%. According to the Director of Sales and Marketing of a large hotel/conference center, no secular hotel or conference center, whose occupancy rates need to be over 60%, could possibly stay open under those conditions. So retreat houses have traditionally relied on the contributed services of religious and priests, and on subsidies from parent organizations. The study inquired directly into both of these. As suspected, only one in ten reported any subsidy at all. And only one in 25 reported any contributed services. Fund-raising accounts for only 12 % of income and endowment accounts for only 4%.

(NB. We also asked respondents to identify some of the special forms of fund-raising employed, beyond events, dinners, and annual appeals. The following: were reported: Planned Giving, Grant Writing, Wish Lists, Gift and Bookstores, Festivals, Memberships, even a Lottery).

So, what is picking up the slack? Not, as one might expect, programs offered by staff, which provide only 26% of income. The largest source of income in our study comes from conferencing, which provides nearly half (45%) of retreat house income. It is of interest to note also that where nearly half of retreat houses (45%) , in keeping with the trend toward conferencing, reported directors of hospitality, only 13% have development directors (none full time), and only 11% have marketing directors, only half of whom are full-time.

4. PROGRAM GROWTH IN RETREAT HOUSES

In addition the study also inquired into program growth in retreat houses. The following chart indicates the percentage of houses reporting growth in nine different areas:

Program	% of Houses Reporting Increase
Conferencing	63%
Spiritual Direction	49%
Conferencing - specifically of Protestant groups	45%
Directed Retreats	40%
Encounter style retreats	30%
Days of Recollection	26%
Quiet retreats	25%
Adult education	25%
Public worship - e.g., Taize	20%

Once again, we note that the greatest growth reported by retreat houses is in the area of conferencing. Forty to fifty percent of our respondents reported growth in the highly individualized spiritual direction and directed retreats. Only a quarter to a third report growth in group retreats, which suggests that two thirds to three fourths of retreat houses are not showing increase in such programs. Although she has no firm data on the various programs, the Executive Director of RI strongly affirmed our finding about spiritual direction, a trend also reported in her report to the RI Board of Trustees in September 2004.

5. WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF COMPETITION TO RETREAT HOUSES?

We asked respondents to rank order four likely competitors of retreat houses for the attention of clients: 'Parishes', 'Other Retreat Houses', 'Motivational Speakers', and 'Other'. Nearly half of the retreat houses (48%) reported that the principal competition comes from 'Parishes'. 'Other Retreat Houses' were reported to be principal competition in only a quarter (27%) of our respondents. 'Motivational Speakers' and 'Other' were reported by just fractions of retreat houses. ( Note that other such competition as work, movies, TV, the Web, travel, and other activities of our vigorously multi-tasking, multi-optioned society. were not included in the study. They would certainly merit a study of their own).

6. NATURE OF PROGRAMS PRESENTED BY CONFERENCING GROUPS.

As they steadily enter into the business of conferencing, retreat houses skate at the thin edge of not-for-profit commerce, thus putting their tax exempt status at risk. So, we asked respondents to indicate what proportion of hosted programs are religious in nature, and which are more secular, such as entertainment, cultural events, nature appreciation. Over 80% reported that their hosted programs are religious in nature, and the trend appears to be more of the same.

Conclusions from the Study

What emerges then from our study of North American Retreat Houses are the following:

1. Although significant numbers of large, prominent retreat houses have closed, there is considerable evidence that the overall number of retreat houses has actually increased.
2. The character of the retreat house has shifted from being exclusively a house of prayer to becoming typically a multi-tasking conference and retreat center.
3. Significantly more retreat houses report that their greatest growth is not in programs presented by staff but in conferencing, the vast majority of which is religious in nature.
4. As traditional sources of funding evaporate, retreat houses are relying more and more on conferencing for operating income.
5. Greatest program growth is reported for spiritual direction and directed retreats.
6. About half of retreat houses report that their principal competition comes not from other retreat houses, but from parishes.

The study of course has limitations. This is primarily due to the relatively small response -- 15% of all retreat houses holding membership in RI, which itself represents only about 60% of US retreat houses, and the absence of response from Eastern Canada and the US South. It also of course relies on self-reporting.

SOME REFLECTIONS

1. THE IMPACT OF CONFERENCING ON THE RETREAT HOUSE.

The emphasis retreat houses are placing on conferencing has clearly changed their nature. For most of their history, retreat houses were places of quiet withdrawal, where people went to find solitude and quiet, and most retreats presented there emphasized these qualities. Even meals were taken in silence. ("The Sanctuary") The coming of encounter style retreats in the 60's and 70's was the first breach of that conventional approach to retreats. The rapid increase in conferencing, most of which does not typically emphasize quiet, has compromised that approach dramatically ("Agora"). Today, it is increasingly difficult to find retreat houses where that kind of atmosphere can be maintained. Frequently, in order to increase occupancy, quiet retreats will be booked at the same time as interactive programs, and the loser, especially in the dining room, is invariably the quiet retreat. From another perspective, Catholic retreat houses are beginning to resemble more and more the Protestant version of the 'retreat house' - the camp. There is an irony in the latter, since the value Protestants have begun to place on solitude and quiet as factors in spiritual formation, has lead them to look to Catholic retreat houses as venues for their retreats and spiritual formation programs. We note however that as this shift in the character of retreat houses takes place, some other institutions are providing alternatives. These are the abbeys and monasteries that are opening up their guest houses and other lodgings to retreatants seeking quiet and solitude; the little houses of prayer popping up around the country, sometimes in homes, functioning as spiritual 'bed and breakfast' enterprises; and single occupancy hermitages being built on the grounds of larger retreat houses. These, however, pick up little of the slack created when retreat houses become conference centers, and none of them, of course, provide the group or preached retreats that were the staple of the conventional retreat house. The two or three persons making retreats at an abbey or in hermitages are a far cry from the crowds - by the hundreds in some places - that made quiet retreats at retreat houses in the past.

As retreat houses turn over more and more of their space and energies to conferencing - whether for ideological or financial reasons - and as quiet and solitude become the exception rather than the rule in their buildings, retreat houses, in order to stave off starvation, are, so to speak, eating the seed potatoes of deeper spiritual formation. Furthermore, the relegation of quiet retreats to the margins of a house's business or to hermitages, abbeys and houses of prayer suggests a kind of elitism that the kind of spirituality such venues appeal to is restricted to a very small segment of the population.

Retreat houses as conference centers will of course have to compete with the conferencing industry. Commercial institutions of this kind will cast a suspicious eye upon them if retreat houses, without paying taxes, continue to take a share of their market. On the other hand, if conferencing continues to be the central activity of a retreat house, it will have to be concerned about making itself competitive by offering such minimal amenities as air conditioning, private baths, good food, a 24 hour concierge, not to mention doing away with the ancient and honored practise of asking departing retreatants to put fresh linens on their beds! All of this naturally increases expenses, increases the cost to retreatants, and,. as I shall suggest below, will be increasingly difficult to raise money for!

All of this may be simply the inevitable need to bring about a balance in the retreat programs made available to the faithful. After all, much of the conferencing consists of retreats brought in by outside groups, some of which are traditional quiet retreats. However, as I shall suggest below, the motivation for this change has not been primarily a shift in ministerial perspective, but a need to make money to keep the place open. As such, retreat houses need to take a deeper look at the long range consequences of this historical shift in an important Catholic ministry. He who sups with the devil, as the old folk proverb states, must use a long spoon.

2. THE FINANCING OF RETREAT HOUSES

As noted above, retreat houses flourished in this country into the 1960's because of the availability of cheap labor (nuns, priest and brothers), and generous subsidies from parent organizations. The dramatic collapse of membership in religious orders and the priesthood, the spiraling costs of supporting elderly religious and priests, and the heavy burden of paying off claims made by victims of sex abuse, have had severe repercussions on retreat houses that now have to pay their own way - including respectable salaries even to members of the sponsoring community or diocese. And, as we have seen, they fall far short of the occupancy rates that their commercial cousins - hotels, motels and conference centers - must have in order to survive.

So, what are retreat houses doing to make up the difference? As we have seen in our study, very few of them are putting their stock in large scale fund-raising, or development of endowment funds. We found only a fraction (13%) even have development directors, none of whom are full-time. We also found that only one in ten had marketing directors, only half of which are full-time. Both these positions are of very recent origin, the longest tenure being only 12 years. Two thirds of the houses report that they sponsor no fund-raising events. Two thirds also report that they carry on no unique or special fund-raising. Fund-raising and endowments overall accounted for less than 15% of income.

Program growth, as seen, is relatively limited, and provides only a quarter of the houses' income. It is of interest to note that the fastest growing programs are not the group retreats, but the individualized experiences of spiritual direction and directed retreats, both of which are labor-intensive, that is, require a heavy commitment of staff without commensurate income. (Stipends for individual sessions generally range from $35-$50, and are usually lower for directed retreats)

What retreat houses are doing to meet their expenses is conferencing. Nearly half the houses report that their principal source of income is conferencing, and nearly two thirds report that conferencing is their fastest growing activity. In order to achieve this growth, 50% of the houses have hospitality directors (as compared with the 13% that have development directors!) Half of these are full-time, and tenures go back as far as 23 years.

This widespread commitment to conferencing as a source of income - and all the data indicate that this trend will continue - once again raises the issue of what increased conferencing will do the retreat house. It also suggests that retreat houses may have to come up with alternative ways of raising money. Most do annual appeals, some do events such as dinners and golf-outings, a few are attempting to build endowment funds. As they do so, they will have to be mindful that it will be increasingly difficult to raise money or establish an endowment for an institution that does little more than compete with its better heeled secular counterparts. The laity may with relative ease be convinced to support a retreat house that they can call their 'spiritual home'. It will be a far tougher sell to get them to support a religious meeting house. You can raise money for a 'Sanctuary'. Can you get support from anyone other than investors for an 'Agora'? But whatever the problems, there is a critical need to explore creative ways of financially supporting a retreat house, and most retreat houses do not appear to be putting their money on any horse but more conferencing.

3. THE RETREAT HOUSE AND THE PARISH

One of the principal reasons given for flagging attendance at retreats is the variety of options people have today that they didn't have in the 'fifties, whether recreational, occupational, educational, or religious, even spiritual. When we asked them to check different sources of competition, including other retreat houses, nearly half of them indicated that parishes are their principal competitors. This would hardly have been the case 40 yeas ago, when parishes supported rather than competed with spiritual formation programs such as retreat houses.

However, much has changed in the parish since then. For one thing, many popular or folk devotions such as the public recitation of Rosary, Stations, Novenas, Perpetual Adoration (showing some signs of revival) have either disappeared or declined severely. Parishes as a result recognize that the laity must be presented with more than sacramental/liturgical ministry. So there has been an increasing attempt to offer adult education programs and spiritual formation programs done on parish premises and sponsored by the parish. This includes retreats and spiritual direction, previously the private domain of retreat houses. Some parishes are even billing their annual mission as a "parish retreat" One parish in my area offers five retreats a year, three on site, and two at a retreat house ( all overnight, and all well-attended, and all conducted by parish staff or adjuncts), and two trained spiritual directors. This is made possible because more and more parishes, like the one just referred to, are taking on full or part-time staff members whose principal work is adult education and spiritual formation. With the rapid increase of theologically and spiritually trained laity who wish to work for the church, this trend appears to be well established.

Retreat houses consequently have to enter into a closer relationship with this constituency, which, while it is competitive, is also its greatest and most natural source of clientele. Retreats International might be a likely means to establish this connection. In my region of RI (Northern Illinois), members hold two annual meetings, one overnight. In the 23 years that I have been associated with the region, there has never been an attempt on the part of the RI region to meet with or even reach out to local parishes. The closest we came in 46 meetings was a session with auxiliary bishops from two of the three dioceses we minister in. The leadership of the 21 regions in RI might well consider hosting such dialogue with a view to enhancing collaboration- and more use of the retreat house facilities. More immediate, each retreat house might seek out invitations - or even become members - of the local clusters of parishes so that the retreat house becomes a working and natural partner with the various parishes. Historically, collaboration between retreat houses and various Catholic institutions has been the basis of successful recruiting. These included, among others, the Knights of Columbus and other fraternal organizations, Holy Name Societies and Mens' clubs, Altar and Rosary societies, and sometimes just the pastor and the parish. These ties have virtually disappeared, and as retreat houses struggle for their identity, it would be well worth their efforts to build up, if not these, then similar connections.

4. CREATIVITY AND THE RETREAT HOUSE

Creativity was not .one of the aspects of retreat house ministry that we looked at. Although the study pointed somewhat toward this issue, what is noted here is mostly speculative.

One of the interesting and unexpected results of the study was that when we ran statistical tests across varieties of variables, we found no significant differences anywhere. Thus, when we compared retreat houses owned by women to those owned by men, we found no difference in their responses. When we compared retreat houses from the East with those from the West Coast, or with the Midwest, we found no differences on any of the variables. Does this have any meaning at all? Perhaps not. But perhaps it reflects a kind of informal and probably not even recognized commonality of vision. When I posed the question of creativity in the retreat movement to the Director of RI, her response affirmed the retreat houses. She said that while there may be a 'nucleus of commonality', some retreat houses are "on the cutting edge of the institutional church", that indeed, some of the best creativity in spirituality is taking place in retreat centers. She also noted that retreat houses are "as creative as the Bishops will allow". However, she offered only one piece of anecdotal evidence about any of this.

The remark about Bishops suggests another line of thinking. Is creativity in the minds of many identified with challenging the conventional, including Bishops and pastors? The first director of RI and for over 20 years its only director, clearly saw RI as such an organization, not so much a support organization, which professional societies typically are, but as an advocacy movement to bring about change in the church. Consequently, the organization has always viewed itself as liberal and progressive, Catholic, but on the 'cutting edge'. The current director (since 1998) appears to hold similar views.

One of the consequences of such thinking, if true, is problematic for retreat houses and retreat ministries generally. It is what I have termed the "Two Percent Solution". If more and more retreat houses see themselves, as some even call themselves, renewal centers dedicated to forwarding an agenda, specifically a certain view of the post Vatican II church, then its appeal will inevitably be limited. Unlike Sunday Mass, nobody has to go on a retreat. And if the retreats are of such a nature that they are not attractive to the general Catholic or Christian, then they simply won't go. Many retreat houses, especially those run by religious women, have vigorously embraced this vision of renewal so that their retreats focus on topics that typically are found on "the cutting edge" These include feminism, eco-spirituality, Native American spirituality, ecumenical experiences, oriental methods of spirituality such as Zen, reiki and tai chi, multi-cultural spiritualities, self-help and therapeutically oriented programs. Not to mention the increasing availability of massage and labyrinth. These are all good programs, people who attend them are enthusiastic about them, they expand the horizons of spirituality for all of us, and they do tend to 'renew' the face of the church. But there aren't that many people interested in these kinds of speciality or boutique spiritualities. Following on the famous studies of how one introduces new ways of thinking into a society, perhaps 2% of the population, the so-called 'early adapters' will respond to this kind of creativity. They form a small 'choir' to whom the retreat houses are increasingly 'preaching'. And if more and more retreat houses adopt this stance towards ministry, it isn't surprising that attendance is dropping in so many places. This is not the mainstream. The success of the traditional retreat house was built on the mainstream. The retreat movement clearly can't survive if it serves only 2% of the population. It needs to serve new spiritualities and new expressions. But it dare not for its own good health turn its back on the mainstream. The 2% can't support a net work of nearly 500 retreat houses!

Creativity then does not work just on the cutting edge, nor is it defined simply as challenging the bishop or pastors. Creativity also means finding ways to minister to the whole church in a challenging way that will encourage them not only to come to our houses, but to support them financially.

CONCLUSION

I have no illusions as to the accuracy of this study. It has, as noted, some methodological deficiencies. It clearly has a bias that favors the 'sanctuary' over the 'agora', and thus questions the trend toward conferencing. And so I make no claims as to certitude. But, I do think it is important that retreat house directors take a long hard look at what current trends investigated in this study hold for their future. And I believe that this 'long hard look' should be taken with not in isolation but in dialogue with their natural allies: especially parishes, but also schools, seminaries, universities, associations, religious orders, dioceses, and now the rapidly rising number of Protestants interested in the kind of spiritual formation retreat houses have always stood for. If this study will do no more than serve as an incentive for the ministry to come together over its long-range future, it will have done well.