The Corpus Resigned Priests' Pensions Campaign

 

Since 1999 The Emmaus Institute, Inc. in cooperation with CORPUS, A National Association fo. an Inclusive Priesthood, has conducted the CORPUS Resigned Priests, Pensions Advocacy Campaign as a pastoral initiative assisted financially in part by the Trinitas Foundation and the Jewish Community Foundation of the North Shore, Massachusetts. The Emmaus Institute, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit, tax exempt organization. 

 

A National Movement for Justice and Fairness
According to the Rev. Donald J. Wolf; past President of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, "the issue of just compensation is not separated by whether you're still in the ministry or not." Father Wolf was quoted in a Religion News Service article by Holly J. Lebowitz on the national movement to obtain pension benefits for priests who have resigned their canonical ministries to marry or to pursue other honorable interests. This article was carried nationwide by newspapers from Boston to Chapel Hill to Seattle and followed on the heels of stories in the Associated Press and Mother Jones. 

 

The movement began in 1994 in Boston when Paul Francis McGreevy, a San Diego attorney, a resigned priest of the Archdiocese of Boston ordained in 1956, took up the petition of a brother married priest of the Archdiocese. The petitioner was being told he had no rights to any benefits even though he had served as a priest of the Archdiocese for over 29 years and had contributed into a clergy retirement fund once it was established and into its predecessor Clergy Fund. It became readily apparent that this was a moral as well as a legal issue. 

 

To view or download our Powerpoint Presentation, click here.