SOAR! gives $24,000 in grants to nuns

SAN ANTONIO — The president of SOAR! — Support Our Aging Religious, Inc. — was at the archdiocesan chancery March 25 to deliver grant checks for $24,000 to the Congregation of Divine Providence and Josefina Sisters to help them with urgent eldercare related needs.
Archbishop Patrick Flores and Sister Charlene Wedelich, CDP, vicar for religious for the archdiocese, were on hand to welcome Tim Hamer, who presented checks to Sister Antoinette Billeaud, CDP, superior general of the Sisters of Divine Providence, and Sister Paulina Barba, HJ, regional delegate for the Josefina Sisters.
“Today is a very happy day for us,” said Sister Wedelich, who noted that since 1988 a second collection is taken each December to help support aging and retired religious.

ANTICIPATION — Sister Paulina Barba, HJ, accepts a check from Tim Hamer, president of SOAR!, March 25. (Photo by Jordan McMorrough)

    Hamer also announced the details of a plan to establish a San Antonio branch as part of the first phase of a 12-city expansion of his organization over the next two years. “San Antonio was selected because of San Antonio Catholics’ demonstrated support for related efforts and its historical significance to the American church,” said Hamer. “We welcome San Antonio to the SOAR! family and challenge local leaders to match the investment SOAR! has made and continues to make in support of religious communities in the San Antonio area.”
    SOAR! has dispensed over $200,000 in support over the last 16 years to congregations of religious sisters, brothers and priests around the Alamo City.
    Nationally, religious are confronted with the challenge posed by the $6.4 billion shortfall in funds available to meet the pressing eldercare and related needs of their rapidly aging members. SOAR!, a nonprofit organization with its headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., was founded in 1986 to augment the efforts of the institutional church in meeting congregations’ needs.

    The organization raises and distributes funds to assist nuns, brothers and priests facing critical — often emergency — medical, safety and security needs. SOAR! also works to educate the public about the scope of the crisis facing the nation’s growing population of aging and frail religious.
According to Hamer, the average age of a woman religious in the United States is 67, while that number for religious males is 65. In addition, the unfunded liability per religious is $102,000. While the average Social Security payout for retirees is about $9,000 per year, religious only receive, on average, about $3,000, due to the low stipends most were paid while teaching and ministering in the 1950s and 1960s, with examples cited of $50 to $60 a month.
    Hamer will seek volunteers for a new local steering committee in San Antonio who will work to build local activities to raise awareness and dollars. “After all that the religious have given us through Catholic schools and colleges, hospitals, social ministries and parish work, it is time for us to give back to them now —when they need us most,” he said.
    In his concluding remarks, Archbishop Flores welcomed SOAR! to San Antonio, and he listed some of the numerous contributions that religious congregations have made in this area to medical care, education and social services.