Annual collection to help elderly men, women religious to be held Dec. 9-10

Annual collection to help elderly men, women religious to be held Dec. 9-10

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Most U.S. dioceses will take up an annual collection Dec. 9-10 to help approximately 24,000 elderly religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests pay for retirement necessities, including health care. Through the National Religious Retirement Office, the Retirement Fund for Religious collection supports religious men and women who historically dedicated their lives to church ministries, often with little to no compensation. Consequently, many men and women religious have insufficient retirement funds, especially in the face of rising health care costs. NRRO data show 6% of reporting religious communities say they have sufficient retirement funding. The collection raised $27.6 million last year, with more than $975 million raised since the collection began in 1988. However, the annual expense of supporting elderly religious sisters, brothers and priests has been more than $1 billion since 2009.