Forgive us our debts: how some young people are paying off student loans to pursue a vocation

From The Detroit Free Press: 

After nearly two years of waiting, Melanie Bruss headed earlier this month to Minnesota to join the Consecrates of the Most Holy Savior, a Catholic religious order.

Bruss was accepted to the order in November 2012, but had been held up by a stumbling block — her student loans.

Like a growing number of people seeking full-time religious service — one study estimates about 4,200 people nationwide are in the same boat — Bruss had student loans, but the order she wanted to join required her to be debt free in order to get started.

The Study on Educational Debt and Vocations to Religious Life, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, found that seven in 10 religious communities surveyed turn away at least one person per year because of student loan debt. Of approximately 15,000 serious inquiries to men’s and women’s religious communities in the past 10 years, one in three (32%) involved a person with educational debt averaging $28,000, a figure slightly higher than the $25,000 national average.

Bruss had more than $140,000 in loans from her graduate degree in counseling from Ball State University. She’s been working to pay it off through an innovative program — started by a Catholic layperson — that uses fund-raising to help cover the payments. Bruss will be spending much of her time in missionary work among poor people in Mexico.

While Bruss’ situation is somewhat unusual, it’s becoming more common for recent college graduates to put their dreams on hold because of student debt.

…Bruss turned to the Labouré Society, a group based in Minnesota that helps aspirants discharge their student loan debt so they can enter full-time service. Bruss has raised more than $132,000 so far.

Cy Laurent founded the group to help those with debt — especially student loan debt — enter full-time Catholic service.

While the future nuns or priests are in training, the society covers their monthly payments. When they are ordained, the society pays off the entire loan. If they don’t make it to ordination, they resume paying for their own loan.

The society has helped more than 240 people since 2003 and has seen the number of people seeking help pick up each year.

Read the rest.

Read more about the Labouré Society.