otm:
I don’t know that it makes the discernment process any more difficult. There seems to be some thought that one should “shoot striaght through”; but there is much that one could be invoilved in within the Church while working to take care of one’s debts.
I wish that some one advised me when I was contacting convents and looking at colleges to think about debt, but they didn’t. Every one said get education get work experience and then contact us again in five to ten years. Some of my education was paid for by scholarship, I worked the entire time while in school, and still had to recourse to student laons. I think I would have been okay, if I didn’t go to graduate school.
I also made a huge mistake in thinking that I should be doing some sort of worthwhile job, rather than something that paid the bills as quickly as posible. I was kind of trapped too, in that I had family members who needed assistance and I kind of fell into the role of family cash cow.
You are very, very wise to think about this now, because it seems that you hit maximum entrance age before you know it for many orders. Very few orders will consider you if you are not debt free. I have no credit card debt, but still my student loans are substantial. Some orders I have spoken to have told me that if you have student debt it must be a sign from God that religious life is not for you. I don’t fully believe that, but I jsut thought I’d warn you that this type of atitude exists.
I don’t know if I’ll get my student loans paid off before I hit maximum age to enter, but if you are male, then orders might be more flexible than what the are for females. Things got really bad for me, when I caught a freak illness that entailed many medical astronomical bills and no insurance, and blindness for a period of time.
When you are having dialouges with particular orders now, make sure you bring up this concern. Talk to priests if you are looking into the priesthood or nuns if you are looking into convents. One problem I have found is that there is such a huge age difference, that back when they went to school, most people could afford college.
Student loans seem to be a fairly recent obstacle, but people are finding creative solutions, and hopefully more options will be available in the future, as tuition costs sky rocket ever more out of the reach of normal families. I remember seeing a web site that a woman created who wanted to enter a Dominican contemplative order in Nashville, through which she was able to raise money to pay her student detbs. The Labore Foundation can help you if you lived in one place for a long time. They create accounts for people, and help solicit money from family, friends, acquaintances and organizations to help you pay off your student debts. You contibute to the account too.
