Religious Retirement Collection set for Dec. 7-8

"Promise, Commitment, Impact," is the theme of the 15th national collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious, which will be taken up in Catholic parishes nationwide December 7-8, 2002.

The annual appeal helps retired sisters, brothers, and religious order priests, who spent their lives in church ministries such as education, health care, and social services. This year’s campaign examines the benefits rendered to society through the vows, dedication, and achievement of members of more than 500 religious institutes.

There are an estimated 60,000 women and men religious over the age of 60 in the United States. The unfunded retirement liability of the nation’s religious orders is estimated at $6.1 billion, down from the $7.4 billion that was projected in 1998.

Last year the fund collected $32.7 million, the highest amount collected in the campaign’s 14-year history, and returned more than 98 percent of donations to more than 500 religious orders. "We are making progress," says Sister Andrée Fries, a Sister of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, Missouri, and executive director of the National Religious Retirement Office. "We are building funds that will alleviate the burden of retirement expenses and conducting outreach to find institutes that may be unaware of the Fund."

The collection is one of the most successful in the history of the Church in the United States and a testimony to the impact of religious ministry. Today, 61 Catholic health care systems that evolved from religious ministries comprise the nation’s largest group of not-for-profit hospitals with 16 percent of the nation’s hospital beds. They employ more than 700,000. In 1965, 13,000 Catholic schools - most founded by religious - educated 12 percent of U.S. students. In 20 states, a single sisters-sponsored ministry Mercy Housing, Inc., serves more than 30,000 people and employs more than 800.

Of more than 70,000 women religious in the country, 54 percent are now past 70; of the more than 15,000 men, 37 percent are past 70. Total cost of care last year in independent, assisted living, and skilled nursing homes was $737 million. The annual Social Security benefit received by an individual religious is less than $4,000.

Since the appeal was established in 1988, the Religious Retirement Collection has collected $380 million. The Collection was launched in 1988 by the US. bishops and leaders of national associations of religious orders.