Here we go again...  The Vocation Olympics.  

This topic was pretty hot a couple of years ago.  

To summarize what researchers found:

1)  The large number of men and women religious that we saw 50, 60 years ago was actually the anomaly.  Smaller numbers of men and women religious were the norm previously
2)  The decline in numbers is a return to the norm
3)  Because of the smaller number of habited orders vs non-habited, one person joining will have a greater numerical impact.  1 person joining a 10-person community is a 10% increase.  1 person joining a 100-person community is a 1% increase.  It is still one person joining.

Please...  The Vocation Olympics pops up from time to time, creates a lot of sturm und drang, and resolves nothing.  Leaves a lot of bad feelings, however.

How about we all decide not to participate in these particular Olympics?