MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
Thursday, March 19, 2015
By: Erin Smith
The Archdiocese of Boston is facing another mounting financial crisis, with a staggering $74 million in unfunded pensions for priests — and a growing number of aging clergy heading into retirement, the Herald has learned.
The archdiocese currently has enough funds on hand to cover only about 37 percent of its more than $117 million in retirement obligations for priests, according to its fiscal 2014 financial filings for priest retirement benefits in the Clergy Health and Retirement Trust.
“It’s not a looming crisis. It’s happening right now,” said Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University.
“The numbers jump out at you in Boston because they’re so large, but most dioceses are struggling with this,” Zech said. “Priests are living longer than anticipated, and they haven’t been as smart in investing as they should have been. The church investments haven’t been keeping up.”
In the past decade, the percentage of so-called “senior” priests receiving retirement payments from the archdiocese has jumped from 28 to 38 percent of the total clergy in the archdiocese, according to the trust.
In fiscal 2014, the average age of active priests in Boston was 58, and church officials estimated that 134 of the 392 active priests would reach retirement age within the next decade.
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