On behalf of more than 33,000 senior Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests who benefit from the Retirement Fund for Religious, please accept my prayerful thanks for your diocese's tremendous support of the 2014 collection. The Diocese of Charlotte donated $310,075.52, its highest total ever. Since the collection was launched in 1988, total diocesan contributions have amounted to $5,027,952.96.
Your generosity, combined with that of Catholics across the nation, enables our office to distribute critical funding to help religious communities meet the day-to-day needs of senior members. It also enables us to provide education, resources, and consultative support to help religious communities plan for long-term retirement expenses. The good we are able to do is in direct measure to the good we have been given. For this, we offer abundant thanks. May our loving God bless you.
— Sister Janice Bader, avowed with the Sisters of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, is the executive director of the National Religious Retirement Office.