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| How You Can Help : How You Can Help | Planned Gifts | Endowment for the Sisters' Health & Care | Retirement Fund | Help the Sisters Help Others | Sponsor a Vocation | GIVE A GIFT ONLINE |
The Notre Dame Sisters in the first three-quarters of the 20th century worked mostly as teachers. They were paid skimpily or not at all, and received no pension benefits from Catholic school systems. In those days, often the only way a Catholic school could remain functioning was to staff it with Sisters whose free or low-cost labor made up the budget deficit.
When it became possible, the Notre Dame Community began to pay into Social Security on behalf of the Sisters who were working in non-paying ministries or were working within the support structure of the Community (cooking, housekeeping, bookkeeping, leadership roles.)
Realizing that Social Security alone would not be adequate, in the 1970’s the Notre Dame Community drew up a plan for saving for retirement. They named their savings, “Retirement Fund”, and allowed contributions from people other than Sisters, as well as from the Sisters themselves. From that day to this no monies, either principal or interest, have been used from the Retirement Fund.
The Retirement Fund was meant to be the resource that would allow the
Notre Dame Community to care for aging and dying Sisters within the Community
if possible. Once a woman has entered the Notre Dame Community, the Community
assumes the responsibility of making sure that she remains a functioning
part of the group and its spiritual life as long as possible.
“A Notre Dame Sister is an apostle to the last moment of her life.”
There is no age at which a Sister ceases to be a religious Sister. The
commitment from the Sister to the Community and from the Community to
the Sister is until death.
The current retirement age for Sisters, health permitting, is age 70—72. Some work longer than that. If all things were fair, their needs following retirement would have been covered by the Retirement Fund. The rise in health care costs and drop in value of investments have not been fair to anyone. With the help of the National Religious Retirement Office, the Notre Dame Community has determined that the retirement need of the Sisters is currently 25% funded.
