Retirement Fund for Religious collection set for Dec. 9-10

Published: 2006-11-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The 19th annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection will take place in most U.S. dioceses at Masses the weekend of Dec. 9-10. The theme of this year's appeal is "Share in the Care." Last year, the National Religious Retirement Office, which administers the collection on behalf of the U.S. bishops and men's and women's religious conferences, distributed $22 million in basic grants to 525 religious orders. Since the inception of the collection in 1988, response to it has been by far the most generous of all national Catholic collections, raising close to $500 million. Religious orders are not covered by church or diocesan retirement plans. One of every five orders that has submitted data to the National Religious Retirement Office is unable to pay more than 20 percent of projected retirement costs. The cost of living for the 37,000 women and men religious age 70 and up in the United States totaled more than $925 million last year alone.

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