Advocacy

The Second Vatican Council led to significant changes and consequently many disputes and conflicts in the Catholic Church. One such dispute has to do with the loss of retirement benefits by priests who decide for reasons of conscience to resign their public ministry to pursue other honorable interests including, for most, marriage. 

In 1999 The Emmaus Institute, Inc. took up this cause of the loss of earned retirement benefits in cooperation with CORPUS, A National Association for Inclusive Priesthood, by agreeing to conduct the CORPUS Resigned Priests’ Pensions Advocacy Campaign. It is estimated that currently at least 6,000 resigned priests are eligible on the basis of their years of service for retirement benefits from their former church employers. This has led to a national dispute resolution program involving some 70% of the Church’s dioceses in the United States, collaboration with the Association for a Decent Pension in France, and outreach to the resigned priest communities in the Philippines, Australia and Canada. 

Information about the Pension Advocacy Campaign may be obtained at corpuspensions@juno.com

St. Thomas Fund

In cooperation with the International Society of the Apostles, Sts. Peter and Thomas, the Institute provides educational assistance to families of married priests in India and Sri Lanka.

Global Ministries University

In cooperation with the Federation of Christian Ministries, the Institute serves as the Northeast United States Pastoral Counseling Training Center in graduate studies for the cyber-university Global Ministries University.