Making a gift of gratitude to retired priests, religious through special Easter Collection

We thank God for everything they are and everything they do, and we continue to rely on them for inspiration and intercession.”

Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell

Holy Orders and Final Vows don’t diminish in the autumn of life.

In fact, that’s when they reach their fulfillment.

“Our retired priests and sisters remain such a blessing and their charisms continue to impact us in our daily lives,” said Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell.

“We thank God for everything they are and everything they do, and we continue to rely on them for inspiration and intercession,” he said.

As Easter approaches, Bishop O’Donnell is urging everyone to make a gift of gratitude to this year’s special Easter Collection to benefit retired priests and religious.

The collection will be taken up on Easter Sunday throughout the diocese. A special envelope will be inserted in the April 3, 2026, issue of The Catholic Missourian.

Contributions can be made online at: diojeffcity.org/donate-easter.

Half of the proceeds from the collection will go to the diocese’s Priests’ Mutual Benefit Society (PMBS), which provides defined retirement and health benefits for qualifying retired priests of the diocese.

Twenty-four retired priests currently receive PMBS benefits. That number will rise as more priests of the diocese grow older.

The other half of the collection will be sent to the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) in Washington, D.C., which helps religious orders and congregations throughout the country provide for their aging members.

NRRO currently helps more than 21,000 retired religious sisters, priests and brothers.

Among them are School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Franciscan Sisters of Mary, Adorers of the Blood of Christ, De La Salle Christian Brothers and others whose members have served with great distinction in this diocese.

“For decades, the faithful service of these religious has touched countless lives,” said NRRO director John Knutsen.

“Through your generosity, we can help ensure they are cared for with the dignity they so rightly deserve while also living out the values of compassion and solidarity that unite us as disciples of Jesus,” he said.

Eternally grateful

The diocese established the PMBS in 1988 to help provide a secure retirement for priests of the diocese.

The plan is governed by a board of trustees consisting of the bishop, four elected priests and two persons appointed by the bishop.

“I look back on so many of the priestly pillars of our diocese who have gone to meet the Lord,” said Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, vicar general of the Jefferson City diocese and secretary of the PMBS.

“What I remember most about them is the wisdom, the perspective, the prayerfulness and wonder that God bestowed on them through their decades of priestly ministry that reached full bloom for them in faithful retirement,” he said.

“They came about that wisdom by working and praying hard for us,” he noted. “Our priests who are now retired or are preparing to retire have done likewise. It’s only right for them to know the depth of our gratitude and that they will be properly provided for by the people they have served with such a generous spirit.”

Deferred compensation

Sister Kathleen Wegman of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), the bishop’s delegate for religious sisters in this diocese, noted that for generations, religious sisters in the United States taught in Catholic schools and served in other capacities at a very low cost to parishioners.

“Much of the compensation was what we would call ‘in-kind,’ which met the immediate needs of the sisters living there at the time,” she said.

This almost never included preparing for retirement.

SSND and other communities of religious women eventually established their own retirement funds, with help from generous donors, but they have been consistently underfunded.

SSNDs and other religious sisters apply for all the government benefits that are available to them.

“Our thinking,” said Sr. Kathleen, “is that while we need to ask people to help fund the retired religious appeal, out of a sense of gratitude for what the sisters have provided throughout their lives, we don’t have a right to ask the laity to contribute to more than they have to when the taxes they pay already support all of these government benefits.”

Over the past half-century, the Catholic Church in the United States has gone from an abundance of men and women religious, to having more and more laypeople provide the bulk of those ministries.

“Which all is of God!” Sr. Kathleen stated. “The charism of the laity is a great gift to the Church.”

But the needs of retired religious remain — along with the legacy of services that have been provided to the Church by women and men religious for generations.

“We have a long, great history in this diocese of ministry provided by sisters, brothers and religious priests, and of great relationships with local parishes and the institutional Church,” said Sr. Kathleen.

“It’s important, especially for anyone who has been educated in Catholic schools, to find ways to give back from what we’ve been given, and this is one good way to do that,” she said.

“Deeply thankful”

Many religious communities in this country face a severe gap between the rising cost of care and the limited resources available.

The average annual cost to care for senior religious, as reported by the NRRO, is $56,600 per person, with skilled nursing averaging $96,000.

The typical Social Security benefit for a religious is $9,090 — less than half that of the average lay beneficiary.

In 2024, religious past the age of 70 outnumbered younger religious by nearly 3 to 1, and only 4 percent of communities reporting to the NRRO said they were adequately funded for retirement.

“Supporting our aging religious is a profound opportunity to show gratitude for their lifetime of service, and we hear all throughout the year how deeply thankful they are for that support,” said Mr. Knutsen.

Sr. Kathleen noted that many of the religious sisters currently serving in this diocese are retired or partially retired from full-time ministry.

They continue to visit the sick, the elderly, the homebound in their parishes and to inspire young people with their unfettered commitment to God.

Numerous other retired sisters now engage in full-time ministry of prayer and presence, offering any weakness or discomfort up to God for the good of the whole Church.

“Those who once supported the founding charism of their order are now becoming a part of that charism, that gift of the Holy Spirit,” she said.

“What a privilege it is to be able to contribute to that!” she stated.