Student debt almost prevented Sister Ann Dominique Mahowald from pursuing her vocation with the Dominicans.
When one becomes religious, one receives no income, making it impossible to maintain student loan payments that last for decades. The Fund for Vocations offers a solution.
Founded by Corey and Katherine Huber in 2004, the organization now offers two programs: the long-running St. Joseph Grant Program, which covers student loan debt, and the recently launched “DAD Fund” (Discretionary Anti-Depressant Fund).
While the St. Joseph program handles monthly tuition payments, the DAD Fund picks up smaller discretionary costs—which Fund for Vocations spokesperson Anne Ryland describes as “hidden financial barriers to religious vocations.” The DAD Fund provides grants of $5,000 or $10,000 directly to religious communities to support conscripts.
Two grant recipients, Sister Helen Therese of the Alhambra Carmelites and Sister Magdalene Grace, pose together for a photo. | Credit: Elizabeth Latham/Fund for Vocations
Sister Mary Agnes, a 2011 grant recipient and monastic nun of the Poor Clares of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, meets guests in the parlor after making her first profession. | Credit: Business Fund
Mary Radford, Executive Director of the Fund for Vocations, and Father Malachy Napier of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR), a grant recipient. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Mary Radford/Fund for Vocations
Grant recipient Father Andrew Panzer, a priest of the St. John Cantius Society, lights the altar during Mass. Credit: Canons Regular of St. John Cantius
Sister Maria Julia, grantee of the Eucharist, OP, makes her first profession of vows at the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey. It is a monastic community of Dominican nuns. | Credit: Dominican Sisters of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary
Mother Ann Marie Karlovic takes the vows of Sister Ann Dominique Mahowald at the Mass for Profession at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
For example, Mahowald, now a board member of the Fund for Vocations, told the group that when she was sane she had to ask her parish to sponsor her airfare to go to Nashville Dominicans.
“We asked ourselves, ‘How many young people are getting stuck in that stage of sanity? Not being able to fly to the sanity retreat and quietly giving up?'” Ryland told EWTN News.
“Expenses such as travel for ‘come and see’ visits, psychological evaluations, or temporary health insurance can total several thousand dollars, and this is all before candidates even enter the novitiate,” Ryland said.
According to Ryland, eleven religious communities have already reached out to the Fund for Vocations “to support new discerners.”
Ryland added, “The goal of the DAD Fund is to ensure that these small financial obstacles do not delay or discourage the men and women who are already showing great courage in seeking vocations in earnest.”
renovation work
In recent years, the Catholic Church has seen worldwide decline In the number of priests and seminarians. The number of religious sisters has been in decline since 1965, with an 82% decline over the past 60 years.
But religious and priests are vital to the life of the Church.
“Each vocation is a gift to the church,” Mary Radford, executive director of the Fund for Vocations, said in a press release shared with EWTN News. “We want to ensure that practical concerns, whether travel costs, required assessments, or basic admissions expenses, never cause anyone to hesitate in taking the next step.”
Ryland said, “Every religious vocation means a life dedicated to prayer and service for Christ’s Church.” “Religious people serve in parishes, in schools, in medical clinics, on the streets with the homeless and suffering. They are living witnesses of the power of the Gospel.”
“Religious also serve to remind us all of our heavenly goal. When young people see devout, joy-filled priests and sisters, they get a glimpse of the power of God’s love and are shown that the Catholic faith is worth living and dying for,” Ryland said. “And of course, we all need the sacraments, so the call to the priesthood is especially important for the salvation of souls.”
Ryland said, “By removing the financial obstacles that stand in the way of a business, we can play a small role in the great work of renewal and hope that God is stirring up in His church today.”
In the past few weeks since the launch of the new fund, Ryland said that “the response has been overwhelmingly grateful and positive.”
Ryland said, “Vocation directors seem to be most excited about being able to assist with travel expenses for candidates who want to participate in the Come and See weekend but cannot afford the travel expenses alone.”
‘A late profession’
Steven Allison, a seminarian of the Discalced Carmelite Order, describes himself as “late called”. Raised in a devout Protestant family, Ellison joined the Catholic Church in 2022 at the age of 30.
Alison said, “When the Lord first lifted the veil from my eyes and allowed me to see for the first time the beauty of His Church, I realized in a passing moment of clarity my vocation to the Discalced Carmelite Order and to the priesthood.”
He chose St. Teresa of Avila as his confirmation sponsor, but it would take some years for his vocation to be fully clarified.
When he began doing business with the Carmelites, he faced the burden of student loans.
Ellison said, “When discerning religious life with its vow of poverty, all personal debts must either be repaid or assumed by a third party so that the aspiring religious may be free from financial entanglements.”
He remembered thinking: “If the Lord would remove these obstacles and open all the doors of Carmel to me then I would enter through every open door so that I could do His will.”
Despite being an older candidate, at 34, the Carmelites said it wouldn’t be a hindrance – but they would still have student loans.
“That’s where the Fund for Vocations and their donors became a pathway to God’s grace for me,” Ellison said. “In their acceptance of my student loans, and in their pledge to support me during my formation, the final doors of entry to Carmel were opened and I was able to walk through them with faith in the Lord because of the faithfulness of their church.”
Ellison said, “The Fund for Vocations became a reflection of the goodness of the church to me.”
He said of the vocation program, “By now the fruits have been innumerable, and I have become accustomed to refer to those fruits as treasures – treasures because these gifts of the Lord seem both hidden and indestructible.”
‘Given a life’
Mahowald was “seriously considering a religious vocation,” but she had a 30-year payment plan for more than $100,000 in student loans.
Mahowald said, “I was stunned by the simple fact that my Catholic education was the cause of my deep love for Jesus and that the debt I had accrued was a hindrance to following Jesus in the religious life.”
Debt can become a barrier to involvement in religious life, especially student loans that are designed to be repaid over decades.
Mahowald said, “My debt was too large for the sisters to understand, so I knew I could not attend until the financial difficulty was resolved.”
Mahowald said, “There were moments of real sadness and confusion when I didn’t know how God would answer this dilemma.” “The Fund for Vocations was the miracle that allowed me to enter religious life at 24 instead of 54.”
“I applied for a grant and was eligible to enter religious life, while the Fund for Vocations paid my monthly loan payments,” Mahowald said. “The genius behind this model is that it gave me the freedom to understand.”
“The Fund for Vocations is set up to make monthly loan payments while a candidate is in formation,” Mahowald said. “If the candidate thinks of quitting, he takes the next loan payment. If the candidate makes the final pledge the loan is completely taken care of.”
Ryland described the Fund for Vocations as a “family” and “a beautiful microcosm of the generosity and love of the entire body of Christ.”
Ryland added, “We love to see the relationships of love and prayer that develop between our supporters and our grantees.” “Supporters are like spiritual godmothers and godfathers to these young men and women. Many tell us they think of them as spiritual children.”
Mahowald found the same in his experience.
“One of the rewards of being a grant recipient is that I have been adopted into a big family,” Mahowald said. “Katherine and Corey Huber, founders of the Fund for Vocations, keep in touch with me and came to celebrate both my first and last vows. Other philanthropists were placed in my life with whom I still stay in touch today.”
“Knowing that Fund for Vocations donors were supporting me in my vocational journey taught me that my gift of ‘yes’ to God was not just for me but for the edification of the church,” Mahowald said.
‘I walk the halls with the saints’
Mahowald now serves as assistant principal of Student Life and Discipline St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School In Virginia – the same school where she taught before becoming a religious sister.
“My position allows me to oversee and shape the social development of our young students,” Mahowald said. “We care deeply about the formation of the whole person and want our graduates to become disciples of Christ.”
“I joke with students that my job is to plan parties and keep everyone safe. While I say this with a smile, that’s not a bad summary of my service,” Mahowald said.
Mahowald said, “Working with high school students brings daily thrills, and I’m sure I’ll be walking in the halls with the Saints.” “God is preparing many young people who are sincerely eager to know, love and serve Him.”
“I hope for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life and so I am very grateful that the Fund for Vocations exists so that anyone facing financial obstacles in religious life will not be discouraged, but will have hope and support to be able to leave everything and follow Christ,” Mahowald said.
