Caring for Those Who Always Cared for Us

Anniversaries are a time for reflection. On the 25th anniversary of The Shepherds’ Trust, Marisa Rogucki is thinking of all the retired priests who she had the pleasure of knowing and caring for during her 16 years as the Coordinator of Retired Priests for the Archdiocese of Toronto.

“Working with The Shepherds’ Trust allowed me to see the human side of each priest. The human side and the vulnerable side,” said Rogucki, who herself retired in March. “The face they didn’t want to show the public because they were the pastor.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic many of us learned how our seniors can find themselves in vulnerable situations, especially when they don’t have access to money or a support network. Every day the clergy of the Archdiocese of Toronto work to make life better for those who need help. However, it was not always certain that the priests of the archdiocese would receive the help they need in their retired years.

The 25th anniversary of the Shepherds’ Trust is a time to look back on how so many members of the Archdiocese of Toronto offered their time, talent and treasure to ensure our priests could retire knowing they would receive the loving care that they always offered others.

BEFORE THE SHEPHERDS’ TRUST

Before The Shepherds’ Trust, there had been other programs to support the archdiocese’s retired priests, but by the mid-1990s, they were being strained by two big social trends.

First, Canadians were living much longer in the post-war era. As priests lived longer, it became clear that the archdiocese needed to change its policies. Mandatory retirement for clergy at age 75 was introduced in 1966. Before then, priests could ask to retire, but many chose to minister to the faithful until they physically could not continue. A mandatory retirement age and longer lifespans were great gifts, but they also meant there were more retired priests who were living longer into retirement.

The second social trend is still top-of-mind for us today: rising housing costs. Once retired, priests must find their own accommodations, which was becoming unaffordable for these men as rental prices – and cost of living, in general – started to rise quickly across the Greater Toronto Area in the 1990s.

Retired priests were facing an increasingly difficult financial situations and the archdiocesan programs that were meant to help them were unable to keep up with the demand. Even those priests who were still in active ministry could do little to save for the coming budgetary crunch. As Fr. Brian Clough, an original board member of The Shepherds’ Trust who is now retired himself, put it: “No one becomes a priest to get rich.”

Bill McDonnell was one of four lay people who saw the problems retired priests were facing and decided to take action. McDonnell, then-Senior Vice-President of Marketing for a division of BMO while he was also offering his professional talents to ShareLife, was eager to help the priests because of a family connection.

“My uncle, Fr. Kenneth McDonnell (1909-1958), was a priest of the archdiocese, namely at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Scarborough,” said McDonnell. “He was near and dear to my memories and I wanted to do something for the ordained priests within the Archdiocese of Toronto.”

This group of lay people (which also included Neil Conway, Brian MacKinnon and Bernie Wilson) started meeting with clergy and staff of the Archdiocese of Toronto to discuss possible solutions to this challenge of providing support to retired priests. Soon work on what became The Shepherds’ Trust commenced with the blessing of Aloysius Ambrozic, then-archbishop of Toronto.

CLOSING THE GAP

The priests of the archdiocese were aware of their looming need for support in their old age, but it wasn’t their priority. Fr. Tim Hanley, currently pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Mississauga, was 33 years old when there started to be talk of a new clergy retirement support plan. He had been ordained three years earlier after a lay career that saw him become designated as a Certified Professional Accountant (CPA).

“Retirement isn’t the reason why any of us go into the ministry,” said Fr. Tim. “So I hadn’t really thought about a plan to support retired priests who were in need, even though I am a CPA.”

With his accounting background, Fr. Tim became the first chair of the Board of Trustees of The Shepherds’ Trust, a position he held for six years. From the beginning, the board saw there was a need to improve the living conditions of the priests.

“Retired priests lose the benefit of room and board. They must find somewhere to live and they must furnish it,” explained Fr. Tim. “So their expenses increase in retirement rather than decrease, which is difficult to deal with. We were wanting to maintain a standard of living for priests in retirement that was modest, but comfortable.”

A trust fund could provide that modest standard of living as well as medical and other support, but when the board started designing The Shepherds’ Trust, they saw a stark situation. They looked at the demographics of diocesan priests and then created a list of guidelines that would govern the trust (i.e. age of retirement, required years of service, amount of financial support required based on individual need and so on). Based on this information, a study found a $20 million gap between expected payments to retired priests and available funds – a gap that would get larger every year.

There was an urgent need to close that shortfall. Catholic Cemeteries, as it was then called, provided a generous gift for initial funding for The Shepherds’ Trust. And parishes would pay an annual assessment per priest to help the fund. However, these measures wouldn’t be enough to close the funding gap; the trust needed the help of the laity.

The first special collection for The Shepherds’ Trust happened 25 years ago this fall and while time has shown it to be one of the most popular collections in the archdiocese, its success was not guaranteed in those early days. One of the biggest stumbling blocks was the priests themselves.

“The priests themselves were very reluctant to talk about The Shepherds’ Trust at first, because they felt that that was not the focus of their ministry,” said Fr. Tim. “Their ministry was being a shepherd to the flock now. Retirement and their need for support as they aged was something that they knew was coming, but it wasn’t a focus for them.”

To overcome the priests’ hesitancy to ask for help, lay people were enlisted to present short announcements during Mass about the need for the trust. These lay people were given information on the trust and what it was trying to achieve. Many had strong personal connections to retired priests and they quickly became some of the trust’s best ambassadors.

That first collection was a huge success.

Thanks to the financial support of the laity and their professional stewardship of the trust’s investments over the past 25 years, The Shepherds’ Trust funding gap remains, but it has closed significantly.

MORE THAN MONEY

Because of the laity’s support over the past 25 years, almost 230 priests who served the Archdiocese of Toronto have been able to retire with dignity, including Cardinal Ambrozic who helped establish the trust. About 140 of those priests have returned home to the Lord.

And while ensuring that retired priests have enough money to find modest housing and attend to their basic needs, The Shepherds’ Trust provides them with so much more.

The financial stability provided by The Shepherds’ Trust allows many priests to continue serving the Church during retirement.

“I enjoy taking a regular turn preaching, celebrating Mass for the people and being available for confessions, baptism, weddings and funerals, which are moments of great importance for people,” said Fr. Brian describing his ongoing ministry during his retirement. “And there's a bunch of diocesan committees I help.”

Fr. Brian said a number of priests continue to serve the faithful in their retirement. He specifically noted one priest who is turning 80 years old and continues to help in a parish.

The Shepherds’ Trust staff work tireless to ensure retired priests are not isolated both emotionally and spiritually. They organize regular get-togethers for the retired clergy and pay for them to attend retreats and conferences.

Thanks to the work of Rogucki, dozens of retired priests were guided in their transition from being at the centre of parish life to settling into apartment life – an overwhelming change for many of the priests who spent decades being constantly at the service of others.

Rogucki was so committed to the wellbeing of these men that she would sit at their hospital bedside in their final hours if no one else could be with them. And she bulk ordered priestly vestments so these men would not be buried in the faded chasubles they wore decades before.

“My main driving point throughout my years was ensuring that the priests really and truly felt that the diocese would always be there for them,” Rogucki said. “That they were not forgotten.”

You can read more about Rogucki’s 16 years of caring for the retired priests here.

Thanks to the generosity of so many of you over the past 25 years, the retired priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto have not been forgotten. As an archdiocese we have cared for those who have always cared for us.

If you are able, your donation to The Shepherds’ Trust will allow our priests to continue to have happy, dignified lives in retirement.

Marisa Rogucki’s Story

“It was just an incredible, incredible journey. There were just so many of them that needed help on so many different levels that I had no clue,” Marisa Rogucki said, describing her time working with retired priests with The Shepherds’ Trust.

“Nobody would have any clue.”

Perhaps no person has done more for the retired priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto than Marisa Rogucki, the former coordinator of retired priests, who retired herself in March 2021 after working for the archdiocese for 32 years. Sixteen of those years were with The Shepherds’ Trust. Her work is a testament to the generous care that Catholics in this archdiocese have offered to retired priests ever since The Shepherds’ Trust was created 25 years ago.

A HELPING HAND

Retirement is a difficult transition for many people, but for a retiring priest, the life changes can be overwhelming. Many priests are able to navigate this process without much difficulty, but some struggle with the practical and emotional challenges that retirement brings.

“One day you’re on the altar and all these people are listening to you. And all these people are coming to you with their problems and you are giving them guidance,” Rogucki explained. “And then, all of a sudden, there’s nothing.”

Rogucki’s involvement with The Shepherds’ Trust grew over time. Originally an employee of the Archdiocese of Toronto’s accounting department, she started helping the newly founded trust by occasionally mailing cheques or doing other comparatively quick tasks. This evolved into her volunteering at, and then organizing, the trust’s fundraising golf tournament. She doesn’t golf herself, so some aspects of the tournament mystified her at first. Eventually she was helping to create the fundraising material for the trust.

When a “coordinator of retired priests” position became available, it just made sense for Rogucki to take it, as all this work had helped her become familiar with many of the retired priests.

Rogucki quickly learned in this position that different priests find themselves in very different situations upon retirement. Some had lots of social support, including from former parishioners. Others were quite alone. Some had savings and other didn’t.

To assess each person’s individual needs, Rogucki would start talking to priests up to eight months before their retirement date.

“It could be issues of loneliness; of isolation. It could be one of financial difficulty, because that particular priest wasn’t very good at handling his money,” Rogucki said of the stresses priests face at retirement. “It could be one of missing out on the Church as a whole. Or physical concerns: I need a doctor; I need an MRI; I need an x-ray.”

Fr. Brian Clough, an original board member of The Shepherds’ Trust who retired in 2018, pointed out that for a retiring priest who only served in large churches, leaving a parish for retirement brings many practical problems.

“When I was first ordained, I was in a parish with four priests and a full-time housekeeper,” Fr. Brian explained. “So, when someone who is used to that leaves the parish, well, that’s what we’re faced with. He's got to find some way to furnish his new place. At 75, he’s also got to figure out how to clean and cook and all that jazz.”

Their needs could be so varied and complex that Rogucki went back to school to study social work at Humber College. “I felt like I needed more to give them,” she explained.

THERE WHEN NEEDED

Housing was a common concern for those retiring priests. After decades of living in parish rectories, retiring priests need to find their own accommodations, as well as set-up the phone, internet and cable services that come with it. Not to mention buy the everyday items a home requires.

Rogucki created a checklist of all the items an apartment needs, so a priest wouldn’t overlook something when it came time to move. “You would give it to them and see the look on their face,” she chuckled.

“I had one priest, where my husband and I, we went to Walmart because he had nothing. He was leaving the parish and he had nothing,” Rogucki recalled. “We filled up two or three carts and inside we had dishes, silverware, pots and pans, tea towels, sheets, blankets, curtains, carpet, lamps! Everything he would need to set-up a home in his apartment.”

Besides hosting regular events so the retired priests could enjoy social connection, in most cases, Rogucki’s involvement with these men was scaled back once they were established in their new life. That is, until they became sick. Rogucki ensured they got the medical care they needed, including getting Personal Support Workers (PSWs) for those who would benefit from them.

And if a priest did not have friends and family at the end of his life, Rogucki made sure she was with him in his final hours.

“I made a vow that the priests would not be alone at death,” Rogucki said. “I’ve sat there for hours with an individual when we got to that point. I’ve sat with them, prayed with them. My main driving point throughout my years was ensuring that the priests really and truly felt that the diocese would always be there for them. That they were not forgotten.”

She bought priestly vestments in bulk, because by the time priests reached the age of 80 or 90 or 100, the fabrics from their days in active ministry had often become faded, yellowed or stained. Rogucki wanted to ensure these priests had dignity at their funeral Mass.

But one day this bulk ordering did give Rogucki an amusing thought.

“I sat back and thought: all the chasubles are the same. Once they get to heaven, they are going to look at each other and say, ‘we’re dressed the same; you’re from the Archdiocese of Toronto!’” Rogucki said with pride.

Caring for the retired priests is the responsibility of the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Office of Clergy Personnel, which is led by its director, Msgr. Thomas Kalarathil. Over the years, Msgr. Kalarathil got to see Rogucki’s passion for her work.

“Marisa is a compassionate and caring person who served our retired priests for almost two decades,” Msgr. Kalarathil said. “She was always there for them and reached out to them whenever they needed assistance. She enjoyed caring for them.”

Rogucki noted that the long hours she spent caring for the retired clergy would not have been possible without her family, who understood the importance of her work.

“I was fortunate to have a very supportive husband. I would get a phone call at nine o’clock at night to say that I have to go to the hospital. And my husband is already putting his jacket on to come with me,” Rogucki said. “My husband was very supportive, my daughters were very supportive.”

BLESSED TO SEE THEM FLOURISH

After years of service, Rogucki is proud of how she was able to make life better for the retired priests she worked with.

1. “I have been blessed to see them flourish,” Rogucki said. “When they can see their retired life as stress-free. And they can still see people and they can still go out and they can still see their brother priests and be connected to the Church.”

Marisa Rogucki’s work shows how for the past 25 years of its existence The Shepherds’ Trust has cared for retired priests and ensured they would not be alone in their senior years. We saw during the pandemic that material and emotional support is vital for our seniors to thrive. If you are able, please donate to The Shepherds’ Trust so the retired priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto can continue to live dignified lives.