A $4.5 million anonymous gift is making it possible for a little-known Catholic organization to help solve an unexpected but major obstacle to religious life — student loan debt.
The Fund for Vocations, founded in 2004, exists to pay off the debt of young men and women who feel called to religious life but can't enter formation because canon law requires applicants to be debt-free before joining, a natural consequence of the vow of poverty. Since its founding, the Fund has made 350 grants, helping clear a path to the convent or monastery for people who would otherwise be turned away.
For Sr. Zelia Maria Louis, SV, that help made all the difference to her vocation. She told Aleteia:
For years I heard this whisper of God inviting me to religious life. But the one thing holding me back was this problem of my student debt. There had to be a plan for that before I could enter.
I would have been prevented from entering formation without the Fund for Vocations. It allows you the freedom to pursue the vocation that God has put before you–and has given so much peace and joy.
The scale of the vocations crisis
Despite hopeful reports that record numbers of young people are becoming Catholic, one of the biggest problems facing today’s Church is the ongoing vocations crisis. You’ve probably seen its effects yourself, especially if you grew up in the era when there were many more priests and nuns. But the actual numbers are staggering.
There were 59,192 Catholic priests in the United States in 1970. By 2020, that number had dropped to 35,513. The situation is even more dire among religious sisters, whose numbers decreased by 82% over the past 60 years.
The whole Church feels the loss of these religious vocations — in churches being closed, parishes being merged, and the rising costs of Catholic education without religious brothers and sisters as teachers (a problem that especially worries the Pope’s brother). There are many reasons for the drop in vocations — lower rates of religious practice overall, our culture’s aversion to commitment, and many more factors than we could list here.
Most of these problems can’t be easily solved. But student loan debt? That can be solved, so it should not be left as a serious obstacle for young people in discernment.
Curious how many potential vocations are affected? One in four serious inquirers to religious vocations had student debt at the time of their inquiry. Roughly 70% of religious institutes report being impacted by the student loan debt of inquirers.
The Fund for Vocations was established in 2004 precisely to solve this problem and has made over 350 grants to those seeking to enter formation with a religious order, paying off about $6.2M in student loan debt. Of the 350, 84 are fully professed or ordained and an additional 82 are still in formation at this time. The Fund's just-announced gift of $4.5 million is expected to dramatically expand its reach, helping many more young men and women enter religious life.
Support for a radical witness
“The world puts so many barriers between young people and religious life,” said the Fund’s Board Chair, Matt Gerken.
First there is the problem of student loan debt, which the orders cannot afford to pay off. But there are also other financial barriers. Something as simple as not being able to afford the gas to drive to a retreat weekend, or the need to pay for their own health insurance after they’ve left their job but before entering.
Every person whom the Fund helps offers a powerful witness, he said:
Our world is very dark. We live in a culture that encourages and celebrates self-centeredness. These young men and women that we support are radical signs of contradiction, choosing a deeper relationship with the Lord as their first priority.
This is a beautiful and radical act, even for those who will eventually discern out. The Fund for Vocations empowers young people and the orders who accept them to say “yes” to God’s call.
A bridge between vocations
Not only religious life but also marriage rates are in free-fall these days — a vocations crisis of its own.
In this context, the Fund for Vocations offers a meaningful connection among Catholics committed to different kinds of sanctifying vocations.
“I think an underrated piece of the Fund for Vocations ‘magic’ is how it ties together lay supporters like me with religious orders around the country through our financial support and through the prayers we share for each other,” Gerken said.
As a married man with five kids, I don’t get to speak with cloistered nuns very often. And as a collegiate convert who got married shortly thereafter, I never seriously considered a religious vocation myself. So becoming involved with religious life through the Fund is a very spiritually enriching thing for me.
In fact, click the article below to read about how Seoul, South Korea, gets so many vocations with the involvement of laity.
The new gift represents a transformational investment in the renewal of the whole Church, but it meets only a fraction of the need.
Pray for vocations, and support the Fund for Vocations to help solve the student-debt problem that prevents new vocations in the Church.
