Before you can be ordained your debt must be resolved.Just wondering because I have a lot of student loan debt and another decent sized debt. I’m a teacher in a Catholic school and i’m wondering if I should even consider talking to either of the diocese’s i’m interested in (I just moved to a new diocese and am thinking of looking there as well as my former diocese where I lived until a few months ago)
Not true. One of the first things I did when I went into seminary (I entered straight out of college) was to sit down with the financial aid folks at the seminary and apply for a deferment on my student loans. I do not have to pay a cent until after I am ordained (and thus have a salary).Before you can be ordained your debt must be resolved.
Yes, you should certainly talk to the vocation director(s).Just wondering because I have a lot of student loan debt and another decent sized debt. I’m a teacher in a Catholic school and i’m wondering if I should even consider talking to either of the diocese’s i’m interested in (I just moved to a new diocese and am thinking of looking there as well as my former diocese where I lived until a few months ago)
My friend is a diocesan priest and his parents had to take out a second mortgage on their home to pay for his university because the diocese does not ordain priests with debt.Not true. One of the first things I did when I went into seminary (I entered straight out of college) was to sit down with the financial aid folks at the seminary and apply for a deferment on my student loans. I do not have to pay a cent until after I am ordained (and thus have a salary).
You’re probably thinking of religious orders, who oftentimes won’t accept candidates with significant amounts of debt. Even then, some congregations, particularly those which run universities or have other profitable work to support themselves, might make arrangements with a candidate with a moderate amount of debt for them to, say, teach in their university to pay down the debt. Mileage may vary. This is a question for the vocations director.
-ACEGC
While i dont doubt the truth to this at all, its apparently different from diocese to diocese. I have 20K in student loan debt and am in my seminary application process and its not an issue for me or my diocese at all. Now if you had like 100K in debt, maybe that would be different.My friend is a diocesan priest and his parents had to take out a second mortgage on their home to pay for his university because the diocese does not ordain priests with debt.
I was also talking to a priest who was admitted to seminary but held back from ordination for two years until someone finally paid off his debt for him.