Many young men and women are called to religious lift but are prevented or delayed because of student debt.
OPENING THE DOORS TO VOCATIONS
The Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations exists for one purpose: to support vocations to the priesthood and religious life by removing the obstacle of student debt. The cost of a college education has become prohibitively expensive for many families today: the per-person average for student loan debt now exceeds $35,000. It’s becoming harder every year to go to college without taking on debt-but young Catholics cannot pursue vocations to the priesthood or religious life unless they are debt-free.
The Fund for Vocations is the solution to this problem. Since we were founded in 2007, the Fund for Vocations has made more than $5 million in grants to more than 240 recipients. Our supporters, in other words, have helped to give the Church hundreds of vocations that would otherwise have been delayed indefinitely or lost altogether.
In prior years, the Fund was only able to fund fewer than half the qualified candidates who came to us wishing to enter religious life. In this critical moment of the life of the Church, we cannot afford to lose a single vocation to a solvable problem like student debt. Thanks to our benefactors, recently we funded 100 percent.