By Dana Clark Felty, Savannah Morning News
A typical day for Sister Bernarda Loncon starts with 7 a.m. Mass at St. James Catholic Church.

After that, it's off to Notre Dame Academy to help in the classroom. Then, on some days, she visits the elderly and infirm at homes, hospitals and nursing facilities.

The schedule makes for a typical 40-plus-hour workweek for many nuns, even many of those like Loncon who retired 20 years ago.

"You might say I'm retired other than from Sunday to Sunday," Loncon said after a dancing exercise with Notre Dame kindergartners.

That's what being one of the 69,000 members of a Catholic religious order in the U.S. is all about, says Sister Camille Collini, the Diocese's Vicar for Religious.

"They go until they can't go anymore," Collini said.

What happens to them after that is currently a major concern for the Catholic Church.

Caring for the retired

As membership declines - and life expectancy increases - the church's religious orders face a crisis of how to care for an increasingly older population.

Most religious institutions pool their income. But, with few younger people earning money, orders are forced to turn elsewhere to make sure their members have their basic needs and health coverage after retirement.

The Retirement Fund for the Religious, an organization launched by the church in 1986, estimates that retirement funds for religious communities could be depleted and facing a $20 billion shortfall by 2023.

Around that year, the organization predicts the population of nuns and religious sisters and brothers could drop to 30,000, down from 75,000 in 2003.

Two-thirds will likely be ages 75 and older.

Already the median age of the Sisters of Mercy is 78, said Sister Margaret Beatty.

However, her order is better off than some, said Beatty, a former board member for the Retirement Fund for the Religious, which distributes donations to institutions.

Smaller communities and those involved in low-paying work, may not have put enough aside to adequately cover the needs of retired members.

"Some of our sisters would tell stories of really not having enough to eat because the parish was poor," said Beatty, vice president of missions at St. Joseph's/Candler.

Larger institutions, like the Sisters of Mercy, were able to save money made through work in the health care system and through enrolling in Social Security in the 1970s.

"That really has helped us," Beatty said. "Even if you don't have a lot of financial resources in the community you can still get some Social Security."

However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Religious Retirement Office estimates the average Social Security benefit for religious women and men to be roughly $4,402, a third of the payment to the average beneficiary.

Making matters worse is the economy.

"We think we're OK for the present time, but you just don't know," Beatty said. "Who knows what's going to happen into the future?"

Catholic leaders are calling on parishioners to help.

The Diocese of Savannah issues a call for donations this time of year to the Retirement Fund for the Religious.

It's one of the most popular Catholic causes within the Diocese of Savannah, said diocese spokeswoman Barbara King. Donations increased 10 percent in 2007, totalling more than $129,000, despite a stagnant economy.

"They give to it because they have those warm feelings for nuns they've known in their lives," King said.

Beatty urges not just Catholics, but all those who have been helped by a nun, either at a school, hospital or through a social service agency, to help make sure they're cared for in retirement.

"I think the reason people should do it is because of the services rendered by these sisters for all of these years," she said.

"We just keep going and do whatever we can."