An organization dedicated to caring for elderly religious will honor two area women at its annual dinner on September 13. 

SOAR! — Support Our Aging Religious — will recognize Fordham President Tania Tatlow with their 2023 Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Award, and Sister Eileen McCann, CSJ, of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, with the 2023 Father Victor Yanitelli, SJ Award. 

Tatlow is being cited for her “commitment to Catholic education, as the first layperson to be president of Fordham,” said Sister Kathleen Lunsmann, IHM, president of SOAR!, in a Zoom interview with The Good Newsroom.

Of Sister Eileen McCann, Sister Kathleen said, “She is amazing. She was a teacher and a principal. In the early 1960s, she went to law school and realized that people needed more professional help than the sisters could provide.” Even in retirement, Sister Eileen still works four days per week at an immigration legal clinic on Long Island, Sister Kathleen said.

SOAR! offers support in the form of grants to orders of up to $50,000. Those emergency needs can include a boiler that breaks in the middle of December, a roof that needs repair, or even such basic needs as buying food, Sister Kathleen said.

Because of the low wages that religious received during their working lives, their average Social Security benefit is only $6,800 per year, whereas the average layperson receives $18,000. 

“[The aging religious] are people that we don’t always think of, we think the Church is taking care of them, but we are the Church. Each order is charged with caring for their own retired and elderly,” Sister Kathleen said.

SOAR! was founded by laypeople in 1986, and most of its board members are laypeople, Sister Kathleen said.

Tickets for the September 13 awards dinner at The New York Athletic Club, along with opportunities to donate to SOAR!, are available here.