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It's true that the numbers aren't where they used to be ... but I recall that it was the "pre-Vatican II" Church which produced a flood of vocations during the 1950s ... most of which turned out to be the flimsy "I joined the Sisterhood because it was like the PeaceCorps" kind of "non-religious" vocation.

Vatican II was announced in 1959 and convened in 1962. The Peace Corps wasn't conceived until 1960, and not founded until 1961. The kind of "vocations" you ridicule would be conciliar, not Traditional.

The former Sister who said "I joined the Sisterhood because it was like the Peace Corps," entered during the 1950s. She was describing her motivations for entering the convent in retrospect: In other words: "I wanted to do the kind of thing people nowadays do in the Peace Corps, and at the time I entered, the Church was the organisation doing that."

I've also heard: "It was a great way to get an education" and "Because I didn't want to be a housewife."

In any case, the people who entered in 1959, 1960, 1961 were all FORMED by the pre-concilliar Church, right? The formation was obviously not up to snuff.

P.S. I'm not at all saying that everyone who entered religious life during that time period was insincere or had profane motivations. But it's a mistake to pretend that everything was a blissful bed of roses one decade and an absolute nightmare the next, and by that painful contortion, attempt to blame everything on Vatican II.

The unbiased truth is, huge mistakes were made during the 1950s, and then Vatican II popped the pimple.