UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Nicole Sotelo | May. 19, 2014 Young Voices
Meet Trish Vanni, a Catholic mother of three from Minnesota. She has worked for the church, holds a doctorate in theology, and carries nearly $100,000 in educational debt. She recently began an online campaign through GoFundMe to heighten awareness about Catholic women’s ministerial debt and to raise funds to help pay her loans. When I heard her story, I made a contribution toward her campaign then began to investigate.
Why do so many lay ministers struggle financially? I know there is a wage gap in society, but is there a wage gap in the church? Is there a gap between lay ministers who are predominantly women and the clergy, who are solely men? Here is what I discovered.
Approximately 38,000 Catholics, the majority of whom are women, currently serve as parish lay ministers, according to a 2012 CARA study. Their median ministerial salary is $31,000 per year.
For lay workers like Trish who hold a doctorate, the median salary rises to only $40,000, clearly not enough to pay off educational loan debt, let alone raise a family.
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