The Catholic Church and American Nuns

"For more than a thousand years, becoming a nun was the best—and often the only—way for a young woman to get an education and to earn a modicum of independence. In the modern West, though, women have other options. In the United States, the number of religious sisters has shrunk by two thirds since 1965, to 59,600."

Monks Making Money: A Business Beyond Prayer

"Nestled amid lush rolling green hills, the sacred grounds of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit are awash in pastoral tranquility. Here 40 Trappist monks who left the world they once knew -- on Wall Street, in academia and elsewhere -- dedicate their lives to prayer, reflection and the worship of God. . ."