The annual collection benefiting the Retirement Fund for Archdiocesan Priests will be held in all parishes of the archdiocese this weekend, May 15-16. Currently, the fund helps support 155 retired priests from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Last year, the Retirement Fund raised a net $1,250,783, which includes a $500,000 anonymous matching gift. Since the first year of the collection (2000), the Retirement Fund has gained just under $5 million in donations, including the annual $500,000 matching gift, which is added to the Priests Pension Fund of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The Office of Development, which coordinates the annual collection, hopes to exceed last year's collection, which represented a significant increase from 2002, to help close the fund's projected shortfall of $21 million. As of June 30, 2003, the fund had an actuarially determined projected obligation of $37 million, while plan assets registered $16.3 million.

Retirement planning for diocesan priests is a relatively new development; the Priests Pension Fund was begun only in 1993. As of March 15, the archdiocese had 413 active priests enrolled in the plan, and over the next decade, 213 more priests will reach retirement age.

This year's projected obligation of $37 million represents an increase of $5.4 million since June 30, 2002. Parishioners are asked to be as generous as possible in support of the Retirement Fund for Archdiocesan Priests.