Eight communities get grants

In July the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations (NFCRV) awarded eight religious communities grants to pay the educational debt of 10 candidates to religious life. The fund grew out of NRVC's 2012 "Study on Educational Debt and Vocations to Religious Life," which found that student debt has become a serious obstacle to accepting new members.

Eight of the 10 grant recipients. Top row, left to right: Ana with Dominican Sisters of Peace; Boram with Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians; Christina with Congregation of Divine Providence; Eilis with the  Sisters of the Humility of Mary. Bottom row: Josefina with Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Katherine with Adrian Dominican Sisters; Regina with Felician Sisters of America; and Lauren with Felician Sisters of North America.

"It is notable that these first grants are being awarded during the Year of Consecrated Life, as established by Pope Francis," said Cardinal Seán O'Malley, O.F.M.,Cap., honorary chair of the NFCRV board. "This initiative will support the work of celebrating, renewing, and promoting the gift of consecrated life and help the people of God to gain a greater appreciation for this important vocation and ministry. We are grateful for the vision and initiative of the National Religious Vocation Conference and the financial support of the Conrad N. Hilton and GHR foundations."

"Our challenge and my goal," says fund director Mark J. Teresi, CFRE, "is to fully endow this fund, through soliciting major gifts, to solve this obstacle to vocations permanently for women's and men's religious institutes."

The following women's religious communities are the 2015 recipients of NFCRV grants. (For 2015 the terms of the Hilton seed money for the fund limits the grants to women.)

Adrian Dominican Sisters
The Congregation of Divine Providence
Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
Dominican Sisters of Peace
Felician Sisters of North America
Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sisters of the Humility of Mary
Sisters of Christian Charity

The funds awarded this year totaled $213,000. Payments will be made to grantees each year until the candidate with educational debt makes final vows and becomes a fully professed member of the community or the student loan is paid off, whichever comes first.

The fund will send out grant applications to religious communities that belong to NRVC, the founding organization of the NFCRV, in January 2016 with the NFCRV Board approving the year's recipients at a May board meeting. Grantees will be notified of their application status in June.

For more information on the terms of the grant, applying for a grant, or donating to the fund, please go to NFCRV.org, or contact Mark J. Teresi, CFRE at 773-595-4028 or mjteresi@nfcrv.org.