“When I was in first grade, we had a good Irish pastor. He would ask our class who wanted to be a sister, and all the girls would raise their hands,” says Sister Mary Sheila Fay, 84, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Thousand Oaks, California.

Recently, the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) distributed $25 million to 390 religious communities across the United States. The funding is provided by donations to the Retirement Fund for Religious collection.