The annual special collection benefiting the Retirement Fund for Archdiocesan Priests will take place in all parish Masses this weekend, May 16-17. Financial donations to the appeal help to support 149 retired archdiocesan priests, many of whom continue to minister in retirement.

"It's kind of a contradiction to call them 'retired' priests, since they're priests forever," said Joe Hindley, archdiocesan director of development/annual appeals. "The majority of those who are retired are still ministering. All they retired from was administration."

Msgr. Royale Vadakin, archdiocesan vicar general/moderator of the curia, pointed out that priests, like the general population, are living longer --- sometimes decades after retirement. Currently, archdiocesan retired priests include five in their sixties; 78 in their seventies; 59 in their eighties; and seven in their nineties.

"If we didn't have this fund," explained Msgr. Vadakin, "priests would simply have, in most cases, to continue to try to live in rectories beyond the time in which they are able. They get to a point where they need more care."

Pension fund administrators hope this year's appeal, with its theme, "I Have Called You Friends," will raise $1 million. Since the fund was started in 2001, more than $10 million has been raised, including almost $1 million last year, to supplement the priests' social security benefits.

As 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. The supplemental income from the Retirement Fund helps cover living expenses wherever priests reside, whether in parish rectories, in private residences or in retirement homes.

Parishes benefit because the Retirement Fund alleviates the financial burden of paying for a retired priest's room and board. Knowing that their retirement is financially secure also promotes priests' overall psychological health.

"Like the Good Shepherd, our priests, including those who are retired now, have given their lives motivated by their love for the flock," Hindley said. "They didn't do it for money. They devoted their lives in love and concern to people.

"We, as lay people --- the ones who are being ministered to --- need to recognize these retired priests [many of whom] are still helping out at parishes ministering the sacraments," he added.

At the annual luncheon for retired priests held May 11 at the Cathedral Conference Center, St. Mel pastor emeritus Msgr. Padraic Loftus told The Tidings that his post-retirement ministerial activities keep him quite active.

"I'm as busy as a bee, and I'm delighted," said Msgr. Loftus. Currently, he presides at two Sunday Masses each week at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Santa Clarita and is also a traveling preacher for Catholic Relief Services' Parish Homily Program.

Msgr. Ron Royer, who retired as pastor of St. Pancratius Church in Lakewood in 2002 at age 70 and now cares for his 98-year-old mother in a home they share in the Sierra Nevadas, helps out regularly as a sacramental minister at a nearby Fresno-area parish. He continues his astro-photography hobby in the dome observatory donated several years ago by a Caltech professor who knew of the priest's work acquainting youth with astronomy.

In the last few years, Msgr. Royer has heard from several former altar boys and parish youth who thanked the pastor for his mentoring and guidance. "They were very appreciative of what I did, introducing them to astronomy…The reason I think I'm hearing from them is they realize not all priests were bad (referring to the recent clergy sexual abuse crisis).

Servant of Mary Sister Carmen Arenas, who is the archdiocesan liaison to retired/ill priests, says most of the retirees she visits are continuing to help out in parishes as their health permits. About five retired priests are coping with serious illnesses.

"These priests have helped us to grow closer to God and to each other. They have celebrated the sacraments with us," said Sister Arenas. "We could never repay them, but we can show them we really value and appreciate what they have done for us."