Supporting Our Clergy

For generations, our diocese has been blessed with men who have given the entirety of their lives to serve in Christ’s name.

Energized and well-formed priests and seminarians are crucial to the ministry and operations of all parishes and offices in our diocese. It is our obligation to care for these men from the beginning of their formation through their active ministry and retirement.

Caring for Active and Retired Priests / $8,000,000

There is no question that active and retired priests have played, and continue to play, a vital role in each of our lives. Priests are there for our families during our happiest moments, as well as our most difficult moments. To ensure that our priests can maintain the well-being necessary to continue to serve our communities, it is our responsibility to care for them.

Today, we have 64 retired priests living within our diocese. The cost to provide benefits, health care, and a pension for one retired priest is approximately $40,000 annually. At present, the diocese utilizes a parish assessment, equal to 3% of offertory contributions, to provide for our retired priests. An additional $6 million toward the existing Priest Retirement Fund will work to reduce this assessment in the future.

Additionally, an endowment of $2 million will allow priests to receive the well-rounded care they currently need to maintain their ongoing education, retreats, and ministry to best serve communities. In total, 191 priests currently serve our diocese. The Living Christ campaign will fund a full-time Minister to Priests to offer enhanced care to fellow clergy. The Minister to Priests will provide support and mentorship, so our priests can maintain the well-being they need to exercise their ministry fruitfully.

Providing for Seminary Formation / $8,000,000

By the grace of God and through the good work of our Vocations Office, many men are answering the call to discern the priesthood in the Diocese of Toledo. Currently, the Diocese of Toledo has 14 men in formation. These ordinary men are extraordinary in their steadfast discernment to serve Christ and His people in Holy Orders.

The Diocese of Toledo’s seminarians are currently educated at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West (Cincinnati, OH), Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI), and the Pontifical North American College (Rome, Italy). The cost for one seminarian’s annual education averages in excess of $50,000, including tuition, room and board, health care, and travel. Due to our number of seminarians, the annual cost to educate them is approximately $800,000. The work of our Vocations Office, aided by continued prayer for vocations to the priesthood, will be essential in bolstering these numbers even further.

The Living Christ campaign seeks to raise $8 million to bolster the endowment that subsidizes a portion of the annual costs of educating our current seminarians in formation, securing necessary funding to support the annual costs of forming our future priests.