U.S. News & World Report declared: “Ministers by the thousands are leaving the church entirely . . . All together, statistics released by the National Association for Pastoral Renewal in September show, the rate of priests’ departure from the active ministry so far this year is up 31 per cent over 1967 . . . thousands of nuns​—an estimated 3,600 in 1966—​are also quitting their orders.”

With this trend in many churches it is not surprising to find mention in the New York Times of March 8, 1969, of a national organization with fourteen offices in major U.S. cities designed to help priests and nuns who are leaving religious work to find secular employment.