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“They Dedicated Their Lives to Serving”: U.S. Church Calls for Support for Nearly 19,000 Elderly Religious
Only 6% of the religious institutes that provided data have sufficient retirement funding for their members. As health care costs rise and religious communities age, U.S. bishops are promoting a nationwide collection to ensure dignified care for those who devoted decades to serving the Church and society.
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES | SOLIDARITY
Ana Paula (Poli)
11/3/20267 min read
Photo caption: Elderly religious sisters take part in the Retirement Fund for Religious campaign in the United States. The initiative seeks to ensure dignified care for those who have devoted decades to serving the Church. Photo: Jim Judkis / United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). © 2026. Used with permission.
WASHINGTON — For decades, they taught generations of children to read, cared for patients in hospitals, supported vulnerable families and brought comfort to people facing difficult circumstances. Many carried out their work without a salary or for very modest compensation, convinced that their vocation was one of service.
Today, as their physical strength diminishes and their medical needs increase, thousands of Catholic sisters, brothers and religious priests in the United States face an unexpected reality: their communities do not always have sufficient resources to provide for a dignified retirement.
In response, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on November 2 a new nationwide solidarity campaign to support approximately 19,000 elderly religious. Organized through the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO), the collection will take place primarily on December 12–13 in participating dioceses, although some may schedule it for different dates.
Its purpose goes beyond raising money. The initiative recognizes lives devoted to service while helping religious communities meet rising costs for medical treatment, daily assistance and specialized long-term care.
A Growing Concern for the Church
Figures released by the U.S. bishops reveal the scale of the challenge. In 2026, only 6% of the religious institutes that provided data to the NRRO had sufficient funds to meet their retirement needs, while 69% reported a median membership age of 70 or older.
Many congregations are therefore confronting several challenges at once: aging members, fewer religious of working age and increasingly expensive care services. Unlike workers with individual retirement savings or larger pension benefits, many older religious devoted nearly their entire lives to pastoral ministry, education and charitable work without accumulating enough resources for retirement.
According to the official USCCB statement, the average annual cost of caring for an elderly religious in 2025 was approximately $62,000, while skilled nursing care averaged $102,000 per person. By comparison, the average annual Social Security benefit received by a religious was just $9,390, compared with $24,856 for the average lay beneficiary.
The disparity illustrates the financial strain facing communities that must continue supporting their apostolic ministries while also providing housing, food, medication and assistance to members who can no longer work as they once did.
The problem is not new. Since 2009, the combined annual cost of caring for elderly religious in the United States has exceeded $1.1 billion. The NRRO warns that many congregations lack sufficient reserves, while smaller communities face additional challenges in hiring specialized staff or establishing long-term care plans.
Yet this situation has also prompted an extraordinary response of solidarity among Catholics who, for nearly four decades, have helped care for those who once devoted themselves to serving others.
From Helping Refugees to Receiving Help: Sister Anne’s Story
Behind the statistics are stories such as that of Sister Anne Lanh Tran, an 80-year-old Vietnamese religious sister belonging to the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Los Angeles. According to a testimony published by the National Religious Retirement Office on October 11, Sister Anne discovered her vocation when she was just eight years old.
Born into a Catholic family in northern Vietnam, she began religious formation as a child and professed her first vows in 1965. Her life, however, would be deeply shaped by the events that transformed her country.
Following the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, she fled with other members of her community to Thailand and later arrived in the United States. There, she learned English, studied social work and dedicated much of her life to accompanying Vietnamese and Indochinese refugees seeking to rebuild their lives far from home.
She subsequently spent 29 years working at the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children, a ministry associated with Catholic Charities of Los Angeles that serves women and children experiencing homelessness. Her mission was to stand alongside those who had lost their sense of security, offer compassionate support and remind them that their dignity did not disappear because of poverty or displacement.
Today, after decades of service, Sister Anne is retired within her religious community, dedicating her time to prayer and a quieter life. Her testimony reveals the deeper meaning of the campaign: those who once extended a helping hand to others may eventually need someone to extend a hand to them.
In her reflection published by the NRRO, Sister Anne expressed gratitude for the generosity of donors, whose contributions allow sisters to live this stage of life with dignity, prayer and trust in God. Reflecting on her faith and the difficulties she has faced, she offered a simple invitation: “Pray and hope in God.”
A Growing Response of Gratitude
Despite the financial challenges, the results of the campaign demonstrate a significant mobilization of the U.S. Catholic community. The 2025 collection raised a record $37.1 million, while in June 2026 the National Religious Retirement Office distributed $40 million in direct assistance to 261 religious communities. It was the first time that annual direct-care distributions reached that amount.
Since the collection began in 1988, more than $1.04 billion has been distributed or allocated to assistance programs. Of that total, nearly $940 million has supported the daily care of elderly religious, while another $103.9 million has funded projects to strengthen congregations and improve their financial planning.
John Knutsen, director of the National Religious Retirement Office, emphasized that the response represents an expression of gratitude from Catholics toward those who have dedicated their lives to the Church. According to the bishops’ statement, the results of recent campaigns allow religious communities not only to meet their members’ present needs but also to plan for the future with greater security.
Nevertheless, Knutsen acknowledged that substantial needs remain, particularly because many older religious had limited opportunities to save during their years of service.
The fund does more than cover immediate care expenses. It also supports educational programs, consulting services and planning tools that help religious institutes anticipate their members’ needs, manage resources more effectively and develop sustainable care models.
In this way, the initiative seeks to prevent the aging of religious communities from becoming a crisis that threatens both the dignity of elderly members and the continuity of their apostolic ministries.
Caring for Those Who Taught Us to Care
The U.S. campaign raises a question that extends far beyond national borders: How do we accompany those who have devoted their lives to serving others when the time comes for them to receive care themselves?
In a society that often measures a person’s worth through productivity, the aging of religious men and women reminds us that a life does not lose its meaning when physical strength begins to fade.
The prayers, experience, counsel and witness of those who have persevered in their vocation for decades remain part of the Church’s spiritual richness.
For many families, their stories are deeply familiar. Behind each statistic may be the sister who taught their children, the brother who sustained a school, the religious priest who served a community for years or the nun who remained beside the sick when others could not.
The collection invites Catholics to transform grateful memories into concrete acts of solidarity, recognizing that the responsibility to care does not end when someone stops working or when a community no longer has the resources it once enjoyed.
The new U.S. Church campaign is a reminder that Christian service is not a one-way relationship. For decades, thousands of consecrated men and women offered their time, labor and lives to others. Today, contributions from the faithful allow that generosity to return to them through medical care, food, companionship and security.
Beyond the amount of money collected, the initiative proposes a deeper understanding of gratitude: no one who has dedicated a lifetime to caring for others should have to face old age without the care they deserve.
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