Retired religious get a boost

National Catholic Reporter, August 3, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A $300,000 bequest allowed Support Our Aging Religious to award $850,000 in grants to 50 religious orders in 43 states and Puerto Rico this year. SOAR, founded by the U.S. bishops in 1986, makes grants to help religious orders meet the retirement needs of their members. To date more than $7 million has been given out.

This year, SOAR money helped pay for hospital beds for the Cistercian Nuns of the Strict Observance in Wrentham, Mass., and for an elevator in the retirement facility of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Manchester, N.H.

The $850,000 is the largest amount of money distributed in one year. The $302,750 bequest, from H. Farrell Gilmore of Palm Springs, Calif., is the largest single gift to SOAR in its 21-year history.