Religious aspirants get help with student loan debt
David Jesse, Detroit Free Press 11:44 a.m. EDT July 20, 2014
DETROIT — 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 last 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.
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