Honoring Those Who Served: Denver Catholics Invited to Support the Retirement Fund for Religious

This year’s January 3–4 collection helps provide essential care for the sisters, brothers and priests who shaped our faith.

(Photo by Jim Judkis. © 2025 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Used by permission)

Every year, Catholics across the Archdiocese of Denver unite to support women and men whose quiet sacrifices shaped the Church in the United States: our aging religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests. This year’s Retirement Fund for Religious collection will be held January 3–4, offering the faithful a chance to say thank you to those who have given their entire lives in service to Christ and his people.

In 2024, Catholics in Northern Colorado contributed more than $144,000 to this national appeal. From the collection, the Capuchin Franciscans and the Capuchin Poor Clares received nearly $195,000 in direct assistance. These funds provided essential care for elder members of their communities — religious who spent decades teaching in schools, staffing hospitals, serving the poor, evangelizing, praying for the Church and forming generations in faith.

Their needs remain great.

A Lifetime of Service, A Need for Our Support

For most of their lives, today’s elderly religious worked for little or no pay, teaching in Catholic schools, nursing in Catholic hospitals, running retreat centers or serving in missions. There were no pension programs, 401(k) plans or Social Security benefits similar to those earned by salaried workers. Today, the average annual Social Security benefit for a religious is just $9,090, less than half the average layperson’s benefit.

This has created a profound strain for many communities:

• Only 4 percent of religious communities are adequately funded for retirement.

• Religious over age 70 outnumber younger members nearly three to one.

• The United States is home to 21,296 religious over age 70, many in need of specialized care.

• The average annual cost for one elder religious is $56,600, with skilled nursing care averaging $96,000.

Since 2009, the annual cost to care for senior religious nationwide has exceeded $1.1 billion.

The Retirement Fund for Religious exists to help bridge this gap, and each Catholic can play a part.

“Your generosity makes a profound difference”

“The generosity of U.S. Catholics continues to make a profound difference in the lives of aging religious,” said John Knutsen, director of the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO). “This year, we invite all Catholics to help provide the care and dignity these women and men of faith so richly deserve.”

Since the collection began in 1988, U.S. Catholics have given more than $1 billion toward the care of retired religious. Of that, $900 million has gone directly toward day-to-day elder care, while over $103 million has supported long-term planning and collaborative healthcare projects within religious communities.

These contributions ensure that those who once served in classrooms, parishes, missions and cloisters can receive the medical care, housing and support they need in their later years.

A Call to Gratitude — and Generosity

Religious life is built on radical generosity. For decades, religious sisters, brothers and priests poured themselves out for the Church, teaching children, forming families, praying for the world and caring for the most vulnerable. Their fidelity helped build the Catholic communities we treasure today.

Now, the Church has the privilege of caring for them.

Supporting the Retirement Fund for Religious is a concrete way to live the Gospel call to honor those who have gone before us and to uphold the dignity of every human life. Every contribution, large or small, directly supports elder religious within our own archdiocese and across the nation.

As the new year begins, Catholics throughout Northern Colorado are encouraged to prayerfully consider how they can support the women and men who shaped our faith through decades of quiet, joyful service.

How to Give

The special collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious will take place January 3–4 in parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Denver. Checks should be made out to individual parishes with "Retirement Fund for Religious" in the memo line. Donations may also be made online through the national campaign at retiredreligious.org.

Let us give generously — in gratitude, in love, and in honor of those who spent their lives serving Christ and his Church.