Saturday, November 14, 2015
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
The annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection will be Nov. 21 and 22 in the Diocese of Youngstown.
The appeal is in its 28th year and coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office and offers support for senior Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests whose communities lack sufficient retirement funding. Some 33,000 women and men past age 70 benefit.
The Diocese of Youngstown contributed $335,202 to the last collection. In 2015, the Antonine Sisters, Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Mark and the Ursuline Sisters received financial assistance made possible by the Retirement Fund for Religious.
Women and men who serve or have served in the diocese but whose communities are based elsewhere may also benefit from the annual collection.
The 2014 appeal raised $28.3 million, and the NRRO distributed more than $25 million in financial support to 395 religious communities.
Throughout the year, additional funding is allocated for communities with the greatest needs and for retirement planning and educational resources. Ninety-three cents of every dollar directly aids the elderly; the remainder is used for administration and promotion of the appeal.
The U.S. bishops initiated the collection to address retirement funding among U.S. religious communities. Proceeds are distributed to eligible communities to help underwrite retirement and health-care expenses.
While the response to the collection is unprecedented, so is the need. The total cost of care for senior women and men has exceeded $1 billion for each of the last six years.
At the same time, the number of those needing care is on the rise. In 2014, 66 percent of the religious communities providing data to the NRRO had a median age of 70 or older.
Accompanying the higher median age is a decrease in the number of religious able to serve in compensated ministry, which further reduces the income available for eldercare.