The annual special collection benefiting the Retirement Fund for Archdiocesan Priests will take place at all parish Masses May 17-18. The fund helps support 149 retired archdiocesan priests during their twilight years after decades of parish ministry.

The fund supplements retired priests' social security payments, which are typically much lower than benefits received by lay retirees because the payment amount is based on past wages. Since the average annual salary made by priests in the 1950s was approximately $900, social security benefits for retired priests are significantly less than half those received by retired lay people.

Last year, the Retirement Fund special collection, which started in 2001, raised $1,007,129. In addition to the money collected each year from parishes, an anonymous donor contributes a $500,000 matching grant. Since 2001, the total collected for the fund amounts to $9,957,090, not including the matching half-million-dollar donation.

The Retirement Fund provides financial support to priests wherever they reside, either in parish rectories, in private residences or in retirement homes. In 1987, Cardinal Roger Mahony shifted the retired priests' funding source from local parishes to the archdiocese, because some parishes were supporting two or more retired priests.

"Since each of our retired priests have served in many parishes of the archdiocese, not only in the parish of his retirement, it was reasonable that the archdiocese would look to their retirement needs as it does for its lay employees," said Cardinal Mahony.

In 1993, the archdiocese established a priests' pension plan which received a financial boost in 2000 when an anonymous donor offered the $500,000 matching grant, renewable annually for ten years with the condition that a special collection benefiting retired priests be held each year. By 2012, according to archdiocesan officials, nearly 300 priests will reach retirement age; by 2018, 358 priests will be eligible to retire based on age.

"Once again, I invite you to show your appreciation for your pastors and associates by generously supporting this archdiocesan collection," said Cardinal Mahony in a bilingual English/Spanish statement appearing in an insert of this week's Tidings.