Meet some of soon-to-be religious priests, brothers, and sisters NFCRV serves
NFCRV Grant recipient stories: Meet Cialinett Colon
Overview of NFCRV's mission
2012 study on educational debt's impact
on religious vocations
IN EARLY 2012 the NRVC released Educational Debt and Vocations to Religious Life, a national study done in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). The purpose of the study was to provide data to support the anecdotal evidence that rising educational debt is impeding vocations to the religious life. The research confirmed that student loans are discouraging, if not preventing, college graduates from pursuing a call to vowed life.
Read the Executive Summary or download the complete study here.
New membership affected by educational debt
Sister Michele Vincent Fisher, C.S.F.N., a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and current NFCRV Board Member, describes how the educational debt of prospective candidates has had a negative impact on her community's vocation recruitment efforts.
NFCRV Executive Director featured
in Global Sisters Report story on student debt
Phil Loftus, NFCRV Executive Director, was interviewed about the Fund in the Global Sisters Report story "Organizations take on new ways to erase student loan debt for women religious." As Phil explained the problem to reporter Dawn Araujo-Hawkins:
"What we're losing as a church is the energy and enthusiasm of young people, Their good work is being deferred due to this [debt] burden."
Take, for example, recent fund grantee Sr. Graciela Colon, a Sister of Christian Charity and immigration lawyer. Five hours a week, Colon provides pro bono legal services at an immigration resource center in Morristown, New Jersey. Loftus said it's unlikely she could afford to volunteer her time in that way if she still had a mountain of student debt to pay off.
NFCRV attends NCCW convention
Phil Loftus, NFCRV Executive Director, met with Maribeth Stewart Blogoslawski, President of the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) at the NCCW convention in Pittsburgh on Aug. 31, 2018. Phil offered his deep thanks to the NCCW members on behalf of the Vocation Fund and all of the grantees. NCCW has provided a generous annual contribution through their Vocation Purse collection.and continuous support for NFCRV.
More on NCCW's Vocation Purse to benefit NFCRV
The Catholic Globe, the Sioux City, Iowa diocesan paper, had a nice write up about NCCW's support of our vocation fund.
READ MORE.
NFCRV IN THE NEWS
Chicago Catholic, Dec. 7, 2017
Fund helps those with loan debt enter religious life
By Joyce Duriga, Editor and Michelle Martin, Staff Writer
When Christina Chavez knew God was calling her to join the Congregation of Divine Providence in San Antonio, Texas she faced one big hurdle: student loan debt. Fortunately her community found financial aid from the National Catholic Fund for Religious Vocations, which took over her student loan payments while she is in formation for religious life. READ MORE.
Update
Congratulations to Sister Christina Chavez, C.D.P.
on her First Profession Vows, June 30, 2018
Congratulations, Sr. Christina! We're delighted to have been part of your journey. Taking away the student debt problem is only one part of the process ... but it does take a church to nurture a vocation!
Sr. Eilis McCulloh, H.M., a 2015 NFCRV grant recipient, pictured with siblings from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who were helped by Sr. Eilis through her work in Migrant and Refugee Services (Photo by Eilis McCulloh.)
Sr. Eilis McCulloh, H.M., a 2015 NFCRV Grant Recipient Candidate, was featured in a Global Sister Report article on community charisms in action, where she descriibes the radical hospitality she feels called to provide as a Sister of the Humility of Mary.
THE CHALLENGE OF STUDENT DEBT