- He, she, it will be, Chuck?

- [Reporter] It's a rare sight these days: a sister in a habit writing on the board, perfect penmanship.

- How can we recognize a verb?

- [Reporter] But it's a common memory for those who fondly remember the sisters who educated immigrants and generations thereafter.

- I would say the majority of our sisters at that time were in the classroom.

- Or caring for the sick as nurses.

The majority of sisters now are in need of care of themselves.

The average age of a sister these days?

70.

I'm allowed to ask your age?

- 101.

- I beg your pardon?

(sister laughing) They are aging, their numbers dwindling.

Once thriving, local convents are shuttered.

- [Ann] It is heartbreaking.

- I just wish there were more sisters.

- [Reporter] So are local sisters becoming just a memory?

(women laughing) The notion they're giving up is laughable, say the sisters.

- Might be small, but we're mighty.

(plastic crinkling) - [Reporter] Catholic sisters are doing what they always have and always will: serving the poor and suffering any way they can.

(metallic creaking) Television cameras are rarely allowed inside this maximum security death row prison, but the warden invited us because his star employee is a Benedictine nun.

- And she basically disarms the inmates.

(machinery whirring) - [Reporter] We'll also meet a St. Joseph's sister who farms to help feed the poor, Franciscan sisters who sell clothes for 10 cents and the sisters who bring joy to the elderly.

- Old nuns never retire.

They keep plugging away.

- [Reporter] And their mission remains constant.

Although their jobs have changed and their dress may have changed, it's only just a change of habit.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) Tucked in the rolling Hills of Greensburg ♪ You've called me to the poor ♪ - [Reporter] Inside the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill,.

♪ In ways everlasting ♪ - [Reporter] Yet another funeral at the chapel.

- We know that it's a loss for all of you.

- [Reporter] The loss of Sister Mary Sheila Malloy, 94 years old, a religious woman who taught here at Seton Hill University and at Catholic grade schools and high schools throughout Allegheny County.

She had a teaching career that spanned nearly 70 years.

- [Mary Lou] She taught home ec.

- [Reporter] Mary Lou Flavin, Sister Mary Sheila's cousin by marriage, welcomed us to share not in the loss, but in the celebration of sister's life.

- She was a very, very beautiful young woman, and nobody could believe that she actually was going to devote her life to the Sisters of Charity, and that's all that she ever wanted to do.

(gentle music) - [Reporter] She entered the Sisters of Charity in 1937.

In those days, convents were full.

Now they're burying sisters like Mary Sheila, all too often.

(gentle music) - It's happening a lot.

We say it's like living in a funeral parlor.

(birds chirping) - [Reporter] The aging and declining population of the sisters, not just here, but throughout the country, leaves a void, in particular for those who were educated by the sisters and respected them for generations.

- [Mary Lou] I think it's part of the problem with our young people in the world today that they don't have the example of the sacrifice that these women made to educate our children.

- [Reporter] In the late '60s, there were about 190,000 nuns in the United States.

Now, about 50,000.

- I don't know who's going to take up the slack, who is going to fill in for the dedication that these sisters had.

- [Reporter] Even in death, Sister Mary Sheila Malloy can be heard urging young women to hear the calling, through a letter she wrote before she died.

- Perhaps this may be a time for someone who feels she's being called to say, yes.

This is my hope and my prayer.

- [Reporter] At the grave site, a final goodbye to Sister Mary Sheila.

- May she enter the place prepared for her by Jesus.

- [Reporter] And at lunch, we get a closer look at the friends she leaves behind: the aging, gentle faces of those who vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, those who were paid pennies to spend a lifetime teaching.

- There were many immigrants, and so we came here to educate them.

(gentle music) - [Reporter] This branch of Charity Sisters came to serve Western Pennsylvania 143 years ago.

(gentle music) Sister Louise Grundish, who worked as a nurse and taught nursing at the former Pittsburgh Hospital is now the archivist here at the Mother House.

- [Louise] Not many people get in here, but this is where we keep our valuable history, and we preserve our documents and artifacts.

- [Reporter] In this room, thousands of records and pictures, awards, and even relics.

- I want you to see our vault.

(key rattling) This is where we keep our most valuable things.

- [Reporter] We entered the vault to see the original writings from the early 1800s of the founder of the Sisters of Charity, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

You're holding the writings of a saint.

- [Louise] Yes.

Yes, we are, and we value that.

That's why it's locked in this vault and nobody gets to it very much.

- [Reporter] But to the hundreds of thousands of local Catholic school graduates over the decades, it's the archival pictures that stir memories.

Take a look at this, a 1907 graduating class at Holy Cross School on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

- [Louise] This is a picture of a child at DePaul School.

- [Reporter] The sisters founded the DePaul School for the Deaf in 1908, and they're still there.

- [Louise] This picture is a sister taking care of the altar boys and at big occasions, the sisters had to make sure that our bows were tied and their surpluses were clean.

- [Reporter] We found this, a very active sister during recess back in the mid-'60s.

And we found her in the dining room, Sister Mary Janet Ryan.

I went to the Sisters of Charity archives.

- Oh, did you?

- And I found a picture of you.

- Oh, did you?

- You wanna see it?

- Yeah.

- I loved it.

- Oh yeah!

I haven't seen that- - She's 95 now and spry as ever.

What were you doing with the baseball bat?

- Playing ball with the kids!

(laughs) - This is a sister at a podium, but you might remember that sisters, when they were at the podium, expected good order from the students listening.

- [Reporter] Yes, sister, we remember that.

Many will remember the soft caring ways of the nuns in Pittsburgh area hospitals, and even before the turbulent Civil Rights protests of the '60s, Catholic nuns courageously promoted integration in the classroom, in the church and in society.

This face might look familiar if you're a Baby Boomer and you attended St. Stephen's School in Hazelwood.

Sister Inez Mary is 101.

She spent 81 years teaching music.

Wow!

You look fantastic.

It must, I'll tell you, it must be a nice community that you look so healthy and good, huh?

- I'll go for it.

(laughs) - [Reporter] Sister remembers when Catholic schools were plentiful and populated and she remembers this branch of Charity had 900 sisters strong several decades ago, compared to about 200 sisters now.

Will it ever be 900 again?

- I doubt it.

Well, it's very, very sad, but we're just hoping that we will make the correct decisions.

(gentle music) - [Reporter] Boosting vocations, getting more young women to join is in God's hands, say many of the sisters here.

In the meantime, a clear majority of sisters vow not to sit back and complain about it.

- But instead of complaining about it or feeling sorry for yourself, you just reinvented yourself.

I often say, old soldiers never die.

They just fade away.

Old nuns, never retire.

They keep plugging away.

- [Catherine] Embrace the world with love, to model that as Sisters of Charity, not just to one another, but everyone we serve.

- [Reporter] Sister Catherine Meinert is the United States Provincial Superior of this order.

She too faithfully believes God will bring more young women back to this vocation as this order maintains its mission of charity where needed - Well, we still are trying to be on the cutting edge and looking at ministries that really reach out, whether it's pro-life or whatever it is that we can do, and I really do believe that the girls will come and embrace this carism.

- [Reporter] In the meantime, sisters move on in new ministries.

(metallic creaking) 1800 inmates live here at this state correctional institution, SCI Greene County.

It is maximum security.

- The intention was to house a lot of the problematic violent inmates in one facility.

- [Reporter] Lou Folino is the superintendent, that title formerly known as warden.

He told us our visit will be monitored by high-tech remote equipment, our every move watched as we travel through common inmate areas.

You have a Benedictine nun inside this place every day.

- Yes, sir.

(metallic creaking) - [Reporter] Her name is Sister Sue Fazzini.

Superintendent Folino allowed us unprecedented access to show you why this religious woman is one of his star employees, a sister who, by her mere presence mentally disarms violent felons.

(metallic banging) - Basically the inmates have the deepest respect for her.

She lives a life of sacrifice and service to the church.

And so she gives that to the inmates, too.

It it rubs off on all of us.

- [Reporter] Sister Sue, a native of Donora, has been a Benedictine sister for 37 years, entering the convent in 1976.

She taught at several local Catholic schools around the region, and when so many closed, she became an addiction counselor, moved to Greene County in the late '80s to begin a mission of serving the poor.

- We did work with Habitat for Humanity and with the food bank.

We've raised over 160 foster children from the ages of right from the hospital till 17 years of age.

- [Reporter] And 10 years ago, Sister Sue ended up the prison.

- [Sue] I always say, I'm the luckiest nun in the world, that I get to work in the prison.

- [Reporter] She was offered an addiction counselor position and she enthusiastically accepted.

- What keeps you doing the right thing in prison, and how can you keep doing the right thing when you get out of prison?

- [Reporter] We were not permitted to show inmates' faces, but they were attentive and respectful.

Sister Sue meets with numerous inmates throughout the week, those who will sooner or later be released on parole.

- No police contact.

Okay, does that have anything to do with getting a job?

- Or your fines?

- Sure.

Absolutely.

'Cause if you don't have a job, you're not going to pay your fines, and if you don't pay your fines, you're gonna start to get in trouble.

- [Reporter] She prepares them to get out of prison, to stay sober and stay out of trouble.

You're in group sessions.

- Correct.

- [Reporter] With 45 inmates in a maximum security prison.

- Correct.

That's right.

- [Reporter] Are you ever nervous?

- I'm cautious.

I'm cautious always, but no, I'm not nervous.

And so, then life gets a little challenging.

I believe if you treat people with respect, they will give you respect back.

And that is what I have found has been the case with the men I work with.

(metallic rattling) - [Reporter] Her safety has never been threatened here.

Is this a religious mission for a Benedictine sister?

- I think anywhere we minister is a religious mission.

I think wherever we are called to be, where God calls us to be and where we do our best.

- [Reporter] As a Catholic nun, she believes she must answer the Biblical call to feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned.

- [Sue] 'Cause I think that's our call, as gospel women, as Christians, we're called to help those who can't help themselves.

See ya.

- See ya.

- Oh, you're wonderful.

It's so easy to kick somebody down when they're down and out on their luck and judge them that they're not trying, but it's not the case that I've seen.

I've seen some very strong broken people that if you can help give them their inner strength back, give them their faith, give them some hope, you have a success story there.

- [Reporter] And Sister Sue Fazzini doesn't worry about the sharp decline in the number of nuns.

She, too, believes God will provide.

- We might be small, but we're mighty.

You know, we have sisters in their 80s that are still working full-time ministry.

You can't get us down too easily.

(machinery whirring) - [Reporter] You can't keep this high riding sister down.

- [Lynn] I'm actually responsible for the grounds here.

- [Reporter] The expansive grounds at the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden, Beaver County.

The Mother House was dedicated in 1902.

This congregation also has a rich history, yet another local group of sisters who, for decades, taught at many schools and served as nurses at local hospitals.

(gentle music) And while a handful of sisters are still in education and help care for seniors and the congregation's senior high rise nearby.

- [Lynn] It's a garden that we use the produce from that garden in our kitchen.

- [Reporter] Many are reinventing their careers.

Sister Lynn Szymkiewicz, a former religious education administrator, does full-time now what she always loved, gardening and growing food the feed the aging sisters and to distribute to the poor.

- We have acres here, and we also have some property in Ligioner, so I'm just responsible for managing.

- [Reporter] Throughout the growing season, youth groups help Sister Lynn.

At several of her gardens, much of the produce harvested- - We do offer to the food banks.

- [Reporter] Sister Lynn also maintains honey bees.

Honey and wax harvested produce tasty honey sold at the sisters' gift shop.

Along with homemade soaps and lotions, the profit subsidize the aging and retired sisters of St. Joseph.

What's the median age?

- For us right now, I believe it's 71 or 72.

- [Reporter] Wow.

Is that scary for you?

- You know, it's really not.

I don't look at that with any kind of fear or trepidation, because I think what really is our character is the energy.

- Oh, you're a goody.

- [Reporter] Another new and fun mission here at the Sisters of St. Joseph, therapy dogs.

And when the dogs come and visit you here, what's that like?

- Heaven.

(laughs) - [Reporter] These therapy dogs, little Buster and big Luca, are the work of St. Joe's Sister Sharon and Sister Pat, both former teachers.

They bring them not only to the aging sisters, but to senior care centers and hospitals all around the region.

The sisters say the dogs bring healing and compassion.

- For that moment that they can have that sense of joy and happiness is everything because their days are long and their pain is great, and for them to light up when they see Buster and Luca come in.

- Buster goes to several nursing homes.

We actually together started the pet therapy program at Magee Women's Hospital in the cancer center.

- It's very affirming to my own spirituality and levels of compassion for people.

- [Reporter] Sister, you're not 100, are you?

- In one month, I'll be 100.

- [Reporter] Oh my.

Sister Mildred and her senior buddies who worked tirelessly for decades, educating children, (group laughs) they light up with big smiles when the dogs visit.

- I love you.

(laughs) - [Reporter] And these seniors appreciate the fact the younger sisters continue to find the compassion to care for seniors as a religious ministry.

- Our particular mission, the Sisters of St. Joseph, our mission is to love and serve God and neighbor without distinction.

- [Reporter] They were in nearly every classroom in the schools they served, versus just a handful of sisters in schools now.

- What we see that happening now with fewer women entering is far more like it was throughout history.

What we saw in the post-war boom, where we have larger and larger numbers, that was really the anomaly.

And then we began to see in the '60s and '70s, that taper off.

So what we're seeing now with fewer women entering religious communities is far more like what religious life has been like through history.

- [Reporter] Sister Mary says the sisters of St. Joseph join many other large orders of religious women in the belief not to equate the value of religious life and ministry with numbers or the steep decline in vocations, but to embrace how the remaining sisters' mission has evolved and continued on.

- Religious life has survived and evolved over the years because we take the long view, and religious life has served God for centuries.

It's about how we continue to reinterpret the mission and the expression of what we do for a new time.

- [Reporter] If you're wondering whether a so-called youthful order of religious sisters exists, ♪ Holy, holy, Lord God almighty ♪ - [Reporter] We found one in Steubenville, Ohio.

♪ Holy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ - [Reporter] The Franciscan Sisters of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother.

While it's a small order, 34 sisters total- ♪ Is your name ♪ - The median age is 32 years old, and it's a growing order, with several young women taking their final vows every year.

These Franciscan sisters are semi-cloistered, meaning half of their time is spent inside in solemn prayer, the other half in jobs at nearby Franciscan University and on the streets, helping to feed and counsel the impoverished of Steubenville.

Some Catholics differ on the tradition, why you're getting more vocations in terms of the habit, the prayerfulness versus being so close to young people at Franciscan University and being connected to the educational.

Which is it?

- I think it's both.

I think it's the fact that we do have connections with college age women and that we do campus ministry and parish missions, and I think it is also that, when a young person today decides which communities they're going to look into to possibly join, I think that they particularly look for communities of sisters that have corporate witness of some kind, that have a witness through what they wear, what they do, how they pray, how they live, and they want that to be identifiable.

- [Sister] Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come- - No doubt this order is considered more traditional.

They wear sandals and full, simple habits.

No television.

- Yes, correct.

- No air conditioning.

- Except for in the chapel.

(group laughs) - [Reporter] Okay, okay.

- Our living spaces are very simple and somewhat austere and our house, we keep it as simple as possible.

- [Reporter] But some consider this branch of the Franciscans a modern religious order, given the fact they were founded only 25 years ago.

Sister Mary Rose Braitlein is the Director of Development.

You're founded in 1988.

- Yes.

- [Reporter] That seems wild to people.

- That it's a modern foundation?

- Yes.

- Uh-huh.

And it's a miracle.

(laughs) It's not just something that you can just decide to do one day, but it takes a lot of friends.

It takes a lot of prayer.

It takes a lot of support.

- [Reporter] Sister Mary Rose says this all started because of a movement to return to a more traditional mission.

- Every foundation of Franciscan sisters is beautiful and wonderful and was called for a certain reason and does wonderful works of mercy and lives a beautiful life of prayer.

But we wanted to renew the contemplative dimension of the earliest Franciscan sisters.

- [Interviewer] Are you 33?

I thought you were 27.

(women laughing) - [Reporter] Two of the youngest, Sister Agnes Therese on the left and Sister Rita Claire on the right.

They work here at the Franciscans' Thrift Store and Emergency Food Bank in Steubenville.

You'd be hard pressed to find any item priced over a dollar.

There is a sizeable low-income and homeless community here, but these young Franciscan sisters are not at all intimidated by any obstacles.

Is it true you were a football player?

- Yes.

I played five years of women's professional football for the Detroit Demolition.

- [Reporter] And you played in Pittsburgh.

- [Rita Claire] I played against the Pittsburgh Passion.

We won four national championships.

- Were you any good?

- Yeah.

I was MVP in 2005.

- [Reporter] What's more difficult, playing football or the work here?

- [Rita Claire] Religious life is way more difficult.

- [Reporter] Why do you say that?

- Because in football, you can run people over when you're mad and in religious life, you have to die to yourself and listen to the Lord.

- [Reporter] Young Sister Agnes Therese agrees.

25 years old.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Reporter] Some people may say, why?

Why did you do it?

Why are you doing it?

- Well, nothing really in the world can hold a candle to being with the Lord and just to be able to be his and to live for him and with him and to serve him with your life is the best thing that I could think to do.

- [Reporter] What made you decide to wear sandals and a habit and a veil?

- Well, that's all in the periphery.

You know?

What I decided was to follow the Lord and to trust him with my life and everything else, that's a consequence of that.

Even the things that are hard are just, you just accept them with joy.

(plastic rustling) - [Reporter] There are differing opinions among Catholics on why some orders like this one appears to be growing while others are stagnant.

But one thing is clear.

We found different Catholic religious orders of women support and pray for each other and never criticize each other, especially over the sometimes contentious debate about wearing habits.

- Different sisters have different reasons for wearing it or not wearing it.

- [Reporter] And you wouldn't be judging them for not wearing it.

- Of course not.

♪ Let all the Earth rejoice ♪ - [Reporter] And a common mission to serve and to grow their individual religious communities.

It's a tall order, given the population of sisters across the country is only a quarter of what it was in the late '60s.

Once thriving school convents like this one are vacant, mattresses and simple furniture left to gather dust.

- With so few sisters, you know, it really isn't feasible to keep some of these places open, but it is heartbreaking.

- [Reporter] Heartbreaking for Sister Ann Rosalia of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order.

But she's grateful to still be teaching one night a week here at St. Paul's Seminary.

She teaches Latin to the Pittsburgh diocesan seminarians.

- [Ann] I still write on the board because I love it.

- [Reporter] And she loves wearing the habit.

- I wear the habit as a visible sign of God's presence in the world.

I think sometimes, you know, people in a secular society forget about God and if they're seeing this habit, this veil reminds them of God, that that's at least one time during the day that they think of God's presence.

- [Reporter] They instilled God's presence into this little average boy, David Zubik, and hundreds of thousands like him.

- Sister Estelle.

She was a Felician sister taught me the first grade, taught me how to write and how to read, how to pray.

What an inspiration she was.

- [Reporter] Now Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik can relate to the local Catholics who worry about the diminished presence of the nuns.

- I just wish there were more sisters.

- [Reporter] And despite attending funerals like this one frequently, Bishop Zubik like the sisters all around the region remains confident.

- It doesn't matter how young or how old they are, they really are fired up about the church and about Jesus and about serving people.

And I think by and large, that's what you find in so many, so many of the religious women.

- [Reporter] What do you think, what do you hope the future is?

- I hope that more women will come to appreciate the great vocation they have and sign up.

♪ How great is our God ♪ - [Reporter] As you know, there are just too many local orders of sisters to feature here, but those who benefited from the charity and love of their favorite nuns won't forget them, and the sisters pray they'll stay for generations to come.

- God is always calling young women to serve him, whether that be in religious life or not.

I think that the Spirit is directing God's call to sisterhood.

- We pray that you may give her all the graces that she needs as she battles cancer.

- There are several new communities these days, which are more traditional and they are attracting younger women.

The reasons for that, may be many, but I think God is in charge of it.

♪ Be unto your name ♪ ♪ We are the broken ♪ ♪ You are the healer ♪ ♪ Jesus redeemer ♪ ♪ Mighty to save ♪ ♪ You are the love song ♪ ♪ We'll sing forever ♪ ♪ Bowing before you ♪ ♪ Blessing your name ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord God almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Highest praises, honor and glory ♪ ♪ Be unto your name ♪