(ZENIT News / Los Angeles, 23.04.2024).- To enter Religious Orders and/or Seminaries, debts must first be paid, such as student debts, although some Communities are willing to help.
In 2021 Kendra Baker moved to Seattle after graduating from Western Washington University. She always lived her Catholic faith. Her father fell from the roof of their home and suffered wounds that put his life in danger. The family called a priest to pray with them. Hours later her father opened his eyes. “The doctors had told us to prepare ourselves for a funeral. He learned to walk again, to speak, to drive and can eat normally.” Kendra felt a “subtle impulse” to the religious life, motivated by something more than her father’s recovery. “It wasn’t a resounding voice of God saying: ‘Kendra, go to the convent now.’”
After much reflection and prayer, Kendra found a Religious Community aligned with her interest in contemplative spirituality and pastoral service. Initially, she was accepted as a candidate by the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Los Angeles, but afterwards there was an “impediment”: the debt of her student loan.
One who enters religious life in the Catholic tradition makes a vow of poverty, but it’s not right to charge debts to the Community on one’s arrival; in general, candidates pay their debts before. There are Communities with no income to attend to those payments. There are some 20% of Americans with University degrees that have student loan debts (namely, loans acquired during the period of studies to pay the University), and they have complications to follow their consecrated vocation once their studies have ended.
A Report of the United States National Conference of Religious Vocations warned in 2013 that “the educational debt has become a dissuasive element for many in discerning their religious vocation.” The average debt of student loans in the United States is around US$30,000.
Organizations have arisen that help candidates to Religious Orders with this problem, such as the Labouré Society, to which Kendra took recourse. Since 2003, this Society has supported 400 Catholics desirous of following the religious life.
The Labouré Society gives part of the necessary money and facilitates candidates to collect money in six months through telephone calls, writing of letters, and assisting at meetings with potential donors in their communities. Kendra thought she’d need between five and ten years to pay her debt with the Labouré Society’s system, but she achieved her objective in less than six months and will enter the Religious Community of her choice in Los Angeles this summer.
Kristen Chenoweth, a convert from Lutheranism to Catholicism, followed another path. At 30, she completed her degree in Family Ministry and a Master’s in the Administration of Non-Profit Organizations. She wished to enter the Community of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Illinois, but was burdened with a US$80,000 debt in student loans. Kristen paid her loans by working, living austerely, collecting funds in Grand Rapids, Michigan and selling Rosaries on Etsy. She collected US$5,000 from the sale of Rosaries and US$23,000 with the help of the Dominican Sisters and her GoFundMe program. Then she was given the news that the Catholic Fund for Vocations, which supports student loans, would pay the rest.
The Fund for Vocations doesn’t request aspirants to collect funds, but to make monthly payments for their student loans during their time of formation for the religious life. This Fund began its activity in the year 2000 and has grown considerably over the last years. It allocated 28 grants amounting to US$900,000 last year, for amounts between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars.
Some Religious Orders request aspirants to have University degrees to enter the Order, especially institutions that offer medical and educational services. Some aspirants commit themselves to pay their students debts, but might meet with difficulties when it comes to their perpetual vows, if they committed themselves to pay them before their religious profession.
Gianna Casino studied Biochemistry and graduated with a US$20,000 debt. Her family committed to pay it by making monthly payments. However, her parents met with financial difficulties and the payments ceased. It was the Fund for Vocations that liquidated the rest of the remaining loan.
Gianna has begun studies to be a mental health clinical adviser at the Divine Mercy University. She completed her mental health formation at Harvard’s School of Medicine.
The lack of vocations poses new challenges, such as freedom from financial limitations, which make difficult entrance in a Seminary or Religious Congregation. To be noted is the solidarity of the Church, where some members of the Mystical Body resolve the needs for the good of other members and of all the ecclesial community.
Thank you for reading our content. If you would like to receive ZENIT’s daily e-mail news, you can subscribe for free through this link.
