Annual appeal for elderly Catholic religious weekend of December 9-10

The 19th national annual appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be conducted in Catholic parishes on December 9-10. Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, the appeal benefits the projected $9 billion retirement liability of the nation's religious orders.

The Retirement Fund for Religious appeal has generated a greater response than any annual appeal in U.S. Catholic Church history. Almost $500 million have been raised through this appeal to help ensure appropriate care and handicapped accessible housing for more than 37,000 Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests who are now past age 70.

The crisis in unfunded retirement became evident in the early 1970s. Catholic schools, operated primarily by religious orders, were educating more than 10 percent of the student population in the United States. Catholic hospitals were becoming the largest group of not-for-profit hospitals in the nation. But the salaries and stipends to religious were earmarked primarily for good works, new ministries, and training and education that prepared religious for ministries.

For generations, the care of elderly members had been carried out by those entering religious life. Today, however, elderly religious far outnumber wage-earning religious.

So, in 1988, church officials launched the Retirement Fund for Religious.

As autonomous organizations, Catholic religious institutes are not covered by church or diocesan retirement plans. Of the 687 institutes that provide data to the NRRO, one out of five can pay less than 20 percent of projected retirement costs. The average Social Security benefit for women and men religious is approximately one-third that paid to the average U.S. beneficiary. Almost 95 percent of donations are awarded to religious institutes through grants. Administrative and promotional costs absorb less than six percent of the amount collected.

Last year the fund collected almost $30 million, with the Archdiocese of Chicago collecting $1.3 million.

Please give generously in your parish the weekend of December 9-10.