The annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection will be held Dec. 8-9 in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office in Washington, the appeal benefits 31,000 elderly Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests.
The archdiocese donated $97,322.20 to the last collection. In 2018, the Benedictine fathers, whose central house is located in the archdiocese, received financial support made possible by the Retirement Fund for Religious. Almost 94 percent of donations aid senior religious and their communities with the remaining funds used for administration and promotion of the national appeal.
The 2017 collection raised more than $28 million and the NRRO disbursed $25 million to 360 religious communities for the direct care of elderly members. Communities combine these funds with their own income and savings to help furnish necessities such as medicine and nursing care. Throughout the year, additional funding is allocated for congregations with critical needs and for retirement planning and educational resources.
Religious orders are financially autonomous and thus responsible for the support of all members. Traditionally, Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests – known collectively as women and men religious – served for little-to-no pay. Today, hundreds of orders lack sufficient retirement savings. Of 547 communities providing data to the NRRO, only 4 percent are adequately funded for retirement. Compounding the financial crisis are the rising cost of care and the increasing number of those needing care.
U.S. bishops initiated the national collection in 1988 to help address the deficit in retirement funding among U.S. religious communities. Since the collection was launched, U.S. Catholics have donated $844 million to the appeal, helping many communities stabilize their retirement outlook.
Visit retiredreligious.org.