Retirement in Catholic Orders

LenaClaire

I was reading this article and am a bit confused. I was hoping the great people of AH could provide some clarity.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/irish-nuns-who-spent-lives-on-the-missions-had-no-homes-to-go-to-1.1907738?page=1

This article states that there is an order of nuns that have been working on education missions in Africa and now all the nuns are in their 70s and 80s and there is no place for them to retire. They managed to get a house built for the nuns but the church is now telling them that they have to go fund raising to pay for their retirement.

I thought that the idea of being a missionary was that you worked your whole life for others, forsaking all income, but that when you were old and sick the church would take care of you. 3 million euro seems like it would be a drop in the bucket for the catholic church. Why are the nuns being asked to now go fundraising in their old age, when they have already dedicated their lives to others?

Am I way off base, or is this a normal occurrence? I am not catholic, so I really am just unclear on why this is happening.

jimgoose

It's quite simple. Getting money out of the Catholic Church is like getting Uranium-235 out of a banana.

Donkey Oaty

TLDR: After a lifetime in a missionary position they are now being shafted up the ass.

jimgoose

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

TLDR: After a lifetime in a missionary position they are now being shafted up the ass.

Congratulations. You are today's winner of the Internet! :pac::pac::pac:

leeroybrown

The holy orders normally maximise what they can get out of their volunteers. In Africa they'll work them until they're no longer physically capable. In Ireland most trained as teachers so they're forced to retire once their full pension is available. The order then draws down the pension income and moves them to other community projects where all they spend all their time until they're no longer physically capable. I knew a few Mercy sisters in the past and the level of upset caused by forced retirement from what they loved doing is not to be underestimated. I'd have a pretty low opinion of how they treat those with "vocations" later in life.

kylith

They should have done like the Irish nuns and bought up property so that they could live off the rents.

seamus

LenaClaire wrote: »

I thought that the idea of being a missionary was that you worked your whole life for others, forsaking all income, but that when you were old and sick the church would take care of you.

Aw, bless. No, the catholic church has never cared about its clergy.
Traditionally orders would take money from their own members and use that to pay for the community - buildings, food, etc. Elderly members are then cared for by the younger members until they're so badly in need of care that they go to a nursing home.
The problem now is that young men and women have mostly seen that a celibate religious life is a waste of a life, so there are no younger clergy to earn money and care for the older ones.

3 million euro seems like it would be a drop in the bucket for the catholic church.

The Catholic Church is a corporation, not a charity. Corporations don't become mega-rich and set up their own micro nation states where they can do immoral things with impunity, by giving away all their money.

shruikan2553

The moral of the story is keep a percentage of baby sales and invest it into a decent pension or something.

kylith

seamus wrote: »

The problem now is that young men and women have mostly seen that a celibate religious life is a waste of a life, so there are no younger clergy to earn money and care for the older ones..

Or rather, the younger sons have realised that they have more options than being sent into orders after their older brother inherits the farm.

Cee-Jay-Cee

The Catholics churches no.1 priority is making money, to have to provide for their missionary workers is waaaay down the line of important things to do.

The Catholic Church is a backward and greedy religion, I have no time for it or it's archaic teachings even though I was brought up a catholic. Shame on them for turning their back on the very few people left that do their work. Thankfully in a few decades the Catholic Church will be extinct and we won't have to hear this kind of story again.

fleet_admiral

I wouldnt even call it a religion, its an evil, dangerous cult

Akrasia

you have to hand it to them though, it's a good scam

Hey teenage girls, how would you like to join us for a lifetime of unpaid labour where you get to live in an instutution and sacrifice all your personal freedom and independence?

What's in it for you?

You'll get in gods good books so when you die, you'll have a room with a view in heaven.

osarusan

My aunt is a nun (she is in her 70's herself) and lives in a house in an ordinary housing estate, which is mainly populated by elderly nuns she looks after, who are, in the words of Townes Van Zandt, 'waitin around to die'.