By Rita McInerney

On Dec. 8 and 9, Catholics in the archdiocese and around the nation will have the chance to give "a loving response" to aging Religious sisters, priests and brothers who taught many of them.

That's when the 1990 appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be held in parishes throughout the archdiocese.

In a letter noting the collection, Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, says about 45,000 Religious are 70-plus in years. "These priests, sisters and brothers are in need of care and sustenance. The Religious still in active ministry support themselves and one or two retirees. Both the active and retired brothers, priests and sisters need our loving response in the annual retirement collection."

This year's appeal marks the third of a 10-year collection seeking to ease conditions for the aging Religious who gave unselfishly to educate generations of Catholic children and young people and to care compassionately for the sick and the orphaned. The small stipend these men and women received for their work took care of their meager daily needs but didn't stretch much beyond that. When the cost of living began to rise and the number of vocations began to fall off drastically, senior members were placed in precarious situations.

Generous Catholics in the archdiocese responded with a record-breaking $222,950 the first year of the appeal, 1988, and $134,715 in 1989.

On the national level the Tri-Conference Retirement Office reports that over $46.5 million was raised in the first two years. But the retirement fund deficit continues to grow higher than the $2.5 billion estimated several years ago. The collections were authorized by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, who with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men make up the Tri-Conference Project.

While numerous congregations represented in this archdiocese received grants at their provincial headquarters, the 1989 report lists one congregation in Georgia approved for a grant.

The Visitation Sisters, an autonomous cloistered monastery in Snellville received $4,332. Mother Mary Jozefa, superior, said the money went into a special fund for nursing home care or equipment "should we need it."

"There is no special retirement fund in the cloister. We take care of our own. We retire when we die," she said.

She said she didn't want it to appear that the sisters in Snellville are destitute. The monastery is self-sustaining, with contributions from retreatants, for altar breads made there, and for the ceramic Nativity scenes they make.

There are four sisters in their 80s, and three in their 70s among the 19 sisters at the Snellville monastery. The sisters range in age from 32 to 87. One sister, 82, is in charge of retreatants while another, 82, recently scaled down from being full-time cook to part-time.

The monastery did not apply for a grant in 1988, Mother Jozefa said.

The first year the collection was taken, both sisters and lay people made appeals from the pulpit beforehand. One couple glad to help in this way were Joe and Roseanne DiBenedetto of All Saints in Dunwoody and leaders of Marriage Encounter.

They didn't have the daily experience of Catholic schools, but attended religious education classes twice a week as youngsters. They agreed to talk for the appeal after viewing a poignant video distributed by the Tri-Conference Project to promote the collection.

When she watched the video, Mrs. DiBenedetto was reminded of a talk given several years before by Sister Barbara Smiley, RSM, adult education and youth coordinator at St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville. She was talking to an RCIA group at All Saints.

"She spoke of how her vows -- poverty, chastity and obedience -- freed her up “to do the work she had freely chosen," Mrs. DiBenedetto recalled. She told the group that her vow of celibacy freed her to work well beyond the five o'clock quitting time for working wives who then went home to all the chores waiting there. And her vow of poverty, the Mercy sister went on to say, provided her with a car and job security. It freed her from worry.

Then the DiBenedettos saw the video and she suddenly wondered "What happened to the dream? They grow old after working for coolie wages. They relied on the security of the order. Somebody needed to take care of these ladies who gave in trust, in love. Now we're saying "There's nothing in the pot for you."

When they took the pulpit in front of parishioners at All Saints, the message was direct: "In family and church when someone is hurting, we meet the need. When members of congregations are hurting, we should take care of them. The devoted their lives to us, taught us what Church is all about."

Contributors at All Saints gave $27,000 to that first year's collection.

According to Sister Mary Oliver Hudon, SSND, director of the Tri-Conference Retirement Office, the first task was to generate new capital to be invested in the retirement funds of the hundreds of religious orders woefully underfunded.

"The results of the first two years of fundraising have been tremendously successful, and I feel confident that people will respond generously again this year," she said in a recent press release.

The retirement grant checks, she said, provide only a portion of what is needed but have a powerful effect on recipients. "The older men and women see the contributions as an affirmation of their work -- people do remember and care."

Religious "are not sitting around waiting for handouts." Their superiors are joining intercommunity projects to contain or reduce health care costs, establishing pooled funds and reassessing their property and other assets.

"It's hard to play catch-up when no retirement benefits were available during the 40 to 50 years that some now-retired members were working," Sister Hudon said. "But the past ingenuity of religious orders, who know how to do a lot with very little, combined with the goodwill of Catholics and their affection for Religious look like a winning combinations."

Bishop Lyke concludes his letter on the collection with these words: "Won't you remember the education, the pastoring, the nursing, the encouragement and enthusiasm of our retired Religious and give to the collection.

They pray for your support and they pray for you."