“Everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest -- always the priest. And if that soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again, the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.”
— St. John Mary Vianney
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The Diocese of San Carlos is truly blessed by faithful men who dedicate their lives to heed the call to the priesthood. In their journey as the continuation of Christ’s mission on earth, they had become part of our lives. From Eucharistic celebration, baptism, wedding, housewarming, in sickness, and even as we prepare our loved ones on their final journey to eternal life, our priests are front & center in their dispensation of blessings and the sacraments of the church. Throughout their productive years, they dedicate their lives with generosity and fervor even as they face undue hardship and sacrifice in the performance of their godly vows as men-of-the-cloths.
Like us, they will need medical care, and we cannot deny that they are also thinking about providing for themselves after many years of church service. But with meager monthly stipends that were never meant to provide more than the basics, priests are forced to stretch their income to support their needs. Because of inadequate health insurance coverage, many priests depend on home remedies in lieu of professional treatment.
When priests retire from regular church activities, have you ever wondered where they go? Who takes care of them? If their regular income that was not enough to begin with come to the point of trickles, what happens then?
With healthcare and retirement costs continues to rise, more than ever, our priests need our support.
Your generosity to the Clergy Healthcare & Retirement Fund will ensure the well-being of our priests as they continue to serve in our churches. And when time comes for the clergies begin the later chapter of their journey, we will be there for them to provide care and comfort, as they were with us and our family, unselfishly, providing our spiritual nourishments.
Bless those who blessed us by showing our gratitude to our priests.
Support the Clergy Healthcare & Retirement Fund.
DONATENOW!
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PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS:
- Priest Retirement Fund
- Health and Life Insurance
- Retirement Facility Assistance
- Care for Elderly and Sick Priests
- Follow Up Pension Plans and Benefits
Prayer for PriestsGracious and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our
priests. Help our priests to be strong in their vocation. Grant them the wisdom, understanding, and strength they need to
follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Give them the words they need to spread the Gospel. Help them to become instruments of your divine grace. We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest. Amen. — Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops |
On November 4, 2021, Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, Bishop of the Diocese of San Carlos, launched a year-long fundraising campaign in commemoration of the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo (at the Cathedral that bears the same name), and the continuing celebration of the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines.
The GIFTED TO GIVE theme of the birth of Christianity in the country highlights the role of Filipino Catholics to GO FORTH, to keep the flames of faith burning, and to become good stewards of God’s gift.
“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied graces.”
— 1 Peter 4:10
The Stewardship and Philanthropic Development Office [SPDO] of the Diocese of San Carlos, in partnership with Global Reach Crowdfunding has set up an online global fundraising platform to support its various advocacies and to help the diocese reach out to its supporters and donor base beyond the San Carlos community, across the United States, and around the globe.
Crowdfunding is a process of raising small amounts of money from the global community, resulting in a big financial impact. It is a community-driven online fundraising that activates friends and family members globally, turning them into an army of personal fundraisers to support the diocese.
Crowdfunding also provides an opportunity to CONNECT the Diocese of San Carlos to the world. By reaching out to your friends and family members overseas, you are allowing them, to not only celebrate with us, but also serve the community by supporting the works of our Church.
Using PayPal, one of the most secured and recognized global payment processor, the platform accepts donations from anywhere in the world, from all major credit cards like Visa and Mastercard. You do not need a PayPal account to make a donation.
“The strength of this platform is in its openness to small people, that’s why it’s called crowdfunding, because, then you are able to reach to as many people through online means and even if they give small amounts, but because of the numbers it can reach millions,” Bishop Gerry said during the program launch.
From raising funds for the completion of the St. John Vianney Seminary building, to developing programs to help the community attain meaningful relationship with Christ, to fighting the evil threatening family life, and supporting the healthcare and retirement funds of our priests, our diocese is actively engaging the local and global communities to support our programs.
See below for complete list of advocacies.
“Brothers and sisters, we are all part of this endeavor for we all belong to the Church, the one family of God. We all share responsibility for the Church. Thus, we encourage all the baptized to regularly, wholeheartedly, and generously contribute to the Church so that we can fulfill our common mission of spreading the Good News, of serving humanity and caring for the whole of creation.”
— Archbishop of Davao ROMULO G. VALLES, D.D. Pastoral Statement on Stewardship, January 28, 2021
Please support our advocacies and help us CONNECT the Diocese of San Carlos to the world.
Be safe and God bless.
Highlights
See all activity3Bless a Priest!
Pension for some retired priests almost ‘symbolic’
How can a retired, sickly and old priest live with P1,300 worth of monthly pension money?
Retired priests, especially those assigned in Metro Manila have Church-run retirement homes that are readily available and affordable given that a relatively high pension money is given to them monthly.
Sadly, some priests cannot afford such care and simply fade quietly, said UST sacred theology professor Msgr. Sabino Vengco, Jr.
Vengco, who dedicated more than 50 years of priestly life looking after the welfare of elderly and sick Filipino priests nationwide, said many dioceses around the country, like those in Samar and Leyte, have inadequate pension plans and retirement care for old and sickly priests.
In Palo, Leyte, for example, aging priests rely on private donations for the maintenance of their retirement home. Other towns are simply too poor to extend such assistance.
Vengco, who founded Kadiwa sa Pagkapari Foundation Inc., an organization looking after such priests, said the retirees under the care of the Archdiocese of Manila were far more fortunate compared with those based in the provinces.
“Their monthly pensions are symbolic, in a sense that it is not realistic. How can you live with P1,300 per month?” Vengco told the Varsitarian.
Fr. Edgar Macalalag, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Pension Plan Committee, explained that all parishes have pension plans, but the amount of money received by retired priests vary nationwide, depending on the resources of a diocese.
“There is no uniform, national pension plan, rather, ‘kaniya-kaniya,’ according to the resources of every local church or diocese,” he told the Varsitarian in an e-mail.
The CBCP established a pension plan in 1975. It is handled by the CBCP Pension Plan Committee.
Diocesan priests contribute a sum of money each month to the pension plan, which will eventually become their pension.
Macalalag noted that one out of every five priests are not members of the pension plan.
Eligible members of the plan include all bishops and diocesan priests nationwide who are in good and regular standing and not 55 years old, and those to be ordained and incardinated to an archdiocese.
The Code of Canon Law states that priests may retire upon the directive of their bishop at the age of 75, or earlier if they are have serious health issues.
A 2014 census of retirement ministry Kadiwa sa Pagkapari Foundation Inc. (Kadiwa), founded by Vengco, showed that there were 300 retirees among 5,000 clergymen across the country.
As reported by the Archdiocese of Manila in 2017, there are at least 9,000 ordained priests in the Philippines.
Retirement homes
Vengco said sending a priest to a retirement home is not easy.
“Priests first have to learn learn to accept and make the best of old age, and to assist them in a peer group and in their get-togethers with priests in the whole country,” he said, adding that forcing priests to go to retirement homes is not an obligation of the Church.
For 90-year-old Msgr. Vicente Dacuycuy, who decided to live the remainder of his priestly life in the Cardinal Sin Welcome Home (CSWH), aging is a weakness that he has learned to accept upon receiving care from the retirement home.
Dacuycuy is the oldest of the 19 retired clergymen staying at the CSWH.
His last assignment as a parish priest was the Christ the King Parish in Las Piñas, from 1994 until his retirement in December 2002, when served as the CSWH director.
Located inside the compound of Our Lady of Loreto Parish Church in Sampaloc, Manila, the five-story retirement home has 40 rooms, two elevators, a chapel, a reading room, and a gym. It has 35 staff members, 14 caregivers, and nine in-house nurses.
The late Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin funded the establishment of the retirement facility in 2002 to provide medical attention and nursing care, maintenance medicines, free food, lodging, and leisure activities.
Dacuycuy said the Archdiocese of Manila had provided more than enough emotional and spiritual care to the residents of CSWH. He said he had long forgone his worries of aging.
“Hindi ko na iniintindi kung ano ang aking kakainin, kung maysakit ako, hindi na. Inaalagaan kami rito. Ang Archdiocese ng Maynila ang namamahala sa aming kalagayan. Hindi na nain iniintindi ang aing tirahan, pagkain, pati health,” he told the Varsitarian.
Canonically, each ecclesiastical jurisdiction is autonomous from another, hence the healthcare plan of clergy members will depend on whether there is a church-run hospital in the archdiocese or none.
In the Archdiocese of Manila, there are five hospitals where priests can go in case of emergency, but in parishes in the provinces and remote areas, hardly a clinic can be found, said Vengco.
Vengco, however, said dioceses around the country, like the Diocese of Cubao, which started building the Casa de Silencio renewal center, are starting to build their own retirement homes.
He hopes the faithful will start giving help to priests in provinces who may not afford these retirement homes.
“For years, Kadiwa has been trying to convince, prick the conscience of lay people to send help not only in Metro Manila but also in provinces like these,” he said.
The Varsitarian
Marem A. de Jemel
July 21, 2018
Source: https://varsitarian.net/witness/20180721/pension-for-some-retired-priests-almost-symbolic
