The Commissioned Report on Retirement Benefits after reviewing applicable canons and surveying a representative sample of 22 dioceses and eparchies found with regard to resigned priests that in principle that while the priest was in the active ministry, payments were made into the pension fund as part of his remuneration (pg. 23). Diocesan pension programs should allow for early vesting and portability (pg.22).
As a vested member of the pension program he should be entitled to pension payment upon retirement, however small that amount may be (pg.23). The Report continues "survey results strongly suggest that many of the obligations of justice regarding retirement benefits of Church workers are being currently satisfied..."Nontetheless, survey results also indicate that slightly more than half of the obligations are not being addressed. The areas most often not addressed at the present are three." These are: priest preparation for retirement, just Family Wage for lay employees, and vesting/portability of retirement benefits. Forty-eight percent (48%) of the sample have no such provisions for priests who have left the active ministry prior to retirement. The Report concludes, "A final concern raised in this survey is that of the rights regarding vesting and portability issues for a priest who leaves active ministry prior to retirement... As a vested member of a pension program, the priest should be entitled to a pension payment upon retirement, however small that amount may be." (pg. 45).
The current Code of Canon Law states in Canon 281:
Section 1: "When clerics dedicate themselves to the ecclesiastical ministry they deserve a remuneration which is consistent with their condition in accord with the nature of their responsibilities and with the conditions of time and place; this remuneration should enable them to provide for the needs of their own life and for the equitable payment of those whose services they need."
Section 2: "Provision is likewise to be made so that they possess that social assistance by which their needs are suitably provided for if they suffer from illness, incapacity or old age."
The 1971 Synod of Bishops, Document on Justice in the World states: "While the Church is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the modes of acting and of the possessions and life style found within the Church itself. (#40) "Within the Church rights must be preserved. No one should be deprived of his ordinary rights because he is associated with the Church in one way or another. Those who serve the Church by their labor, including priests and religious, should receive a sufficient livelihood and enjoy that social security which is customary in their region." (#41)
In 1986 the United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the United States Economy. The bishops declared that fundamental personal rights be they civil, politiacal, social or economoic are essential to human dignity. These rights are thus moral issues. To deny these rights harms persons. It destroys solidarity among persons and wounds the human community (section 80). The bishops recognized the rights of those employed by the Church in various capacities and stated: "We bishops commit ourselves to the principle that those who serve the Church- laity, clerg~c and religious-should receive a sufficient livelihood and the social benefits provided by responsible employers in our nation (section 351)."
This pension recovery movement is about the payment of benefits honestly earned during prior employment with the Church. These previously earned, employment related benefits constitute a rightful continuing possession and claim which must be respected now under principles oi distributive justice. To claim that they are not payable because th~ canonical status of the priest or religious has changed flies in the face of common sense, contravenes the clear intent of Canon 281 stated above and constitutes an unlawful taking of what belongs to another. It constitutes, intentionally or not, elder abuse.
