By Mary Gabriel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sister Renata Stroer joined the convent during the Great Depression in 1939 when she was just 13-years old.
"My mother said to my Godmother, she'll always be taken care of," Sister Renata, now 81, recalled from a Sisters of the Most Precious Blood home in O'Fallon, Missouri, where she lives with 34 other retired nuns.
In reality, it was Sister Renata who did the care-taking. Until 1992, for wages that averaged about $30 a month, she taught generations of children in Catholic elementary schools. And from that meager salary she sent money back to the order to support elderly nuns who could no longer support themselves.
That was the way the religious life worked. The young took care of the old. The Catholic Church had no obligation to support them.
But today Sister Renata and the other 35,000 retired nuns in the United States find themselves the victims of a new reality. They are living longer, health-care costs have soared, their Social Security benefits are a third of the average American's and, most critically, there are not enough younger nuns to support them.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops figures show there are 429 nuns under the age of 30 and 4,096 over 90. This year's shortfall between what the elderly nuns have and what they need to cover basic costs -- shelter, food, clothing and health care -- is estimated to be about $700 million.
The total unfunded past liability for nuns in the United States is about $4.5 billion.
"We used to have a whole lot of young nuns and we'd be out there working and we'd send money home to take care of a few older nuns," said Sister Andree Fries, executive director of the National Religious Retirement Office at the bishops' conference offices in Washington. She estimates 75 percent to 80 percent of what she earns goes directly to the care of the elderly.
"Now we have an inverted pyramid. We have a very small group of women working and a larger group needing care," she added.
PRIESTS SUPPORTED BY CHURCH
Priests, ordained to a specific district or diocese under a bishop's jurisdiction, are supported by the Catholic Church. But Christian brothers and priests who are members of independent religious communities, and all Catholic nuns, are not.
"From a legal point of view, every religious congregation is autonomous and a fiscal entity unto itself, so the church has no fiscal responsibility," said Rita Hofbauer, president of Support Our Aging Religious, Inc., a national support group that organizes fund-raising events in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago.
In 1970, the National Catholic Education Association conducted a survey of the needs of the retired religious in America. Its figures were the first to show the safety net of religious communities was inadequate and that while the retired religious could not turn to the church for support, neither could they turn to the federal government -- elderly religious in America were not eligible for the government benefits meant to protect all its citizens.
"It's very hard for the Europeans to understand this," Sister Andree said. "In Europe there is no separation of church and state, so religious there have always been eligible for the same benefits as lay people."
In 1973, with legislation supported by former Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, nuns in the United States began contributing to Social Security, the U.S. retirement program, and became eligible subsequently for federal health programs.
While that was a step forward, it wasn't nearly enough. Because the contributions began so late in many of the nuns' careers and their annual salaries were so minuscule, their benefits were meager. The average annual benefit for a retired religious beneficiary is about $3,500 compared with $9,800 for lay people. It is also well below the federal poverty level of $8,259 for a single person over age 65.
When a front page article in The Wall Street Journal in 1985 focused fresh attention on the crisis, Sister Andree said foundations got together with the bishops' conference and Conferences of Major Superiors prompting creation of the National Religious Retirement Office.
ANNUAL ADVENT COLLECTION
Its goal is to make up the shortfalls the elderly religious face each year by collecting and distributing money. Its most important event falls on the second weekend in Advent, the weeks when Christians prepare for Christmas. On Dec. 8 and 9, Catholic churches nationwide will ask parishioners to contribute in a special collection for the National Retirement Fund.
Last year the collection raised $32 million, the largest amount since it began in 1988, but still only a fraction of the $717 million needed.
Making up the difference has involved other financial management strategies that include establishing collaborative retirement facilities, selling church property, making sure nuns can qualify for all federal health benefits and advising them on how to avoid "getting mugged on Wall Street," said Sister Andree.
But problems persist. In rural communities where nuns do not have the benefit of communities, or along the Mexican border where nuns working with the poor are now living like them, the situation remains grave. Individual communities must also work toward their own support -- even in retirement.
Sister Benedict Day lives in a community in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, with other elderly members of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph. She joined the convent in London when she was 19. She is now 84.
"When I entered, I presumed I would always be in a convent. When I could see retirement on the horizon, I began to realize it was going to be very different," she said. "Of course that is what the sisters are facing now because we're all getting older and fewer sisters are able to work.
"We have events during the year, a golf event and a fashion show, that does help support us. And we all receive Social Security, but we were very late in going in and so the Social Security is very little, $200 and something a month."
When asked if she worries about what tomorrow might bring, however, she responds with a most assured no.
"I know the Lord is still in his heaven and I am very sure that after all the years the sisters have given to his service he won't leave us by the wayside. He may put some stumbling blocks along the way, but some way or other he will see we're taken care of minimally. He will not leave us alone.
"If he even thought about it, I think his mother would get after him," she said.
((Reuters Americas Desk, 1-800-869-9108, Mary.Gabriel at Reuters.com)
Tuesday, 4 December 2001 16:22:28 ENDS [nN03237928]
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