Uninsured clergy face retirement crisis

Muslims worship at a mosque in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on Monday. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

An ill-prepared group

The religious clergy were to be included in the country's social security system according to a guideline issued by four central government departments. However, the plan did not provide mandatory inclusion.

Indeed, many clergy said the care of aged priests, who generally have neither family nor children to rely upon, remained a major problem.

The idea of retirement has been a vague one, and clergy members generally have worked until their health failed.

"There is no specific point when we are allowed to retire. Most priests work and work until they are too old or too frail to do so," said Ding Lingbin, a Catholic priest and acting bishop of the Changzhi diocese in Shanxi province.

The bishop of the Changzhi Diocese, Andrew Jin Daoyuan, 86, for example, still serves at the Nantiangong Church.

Even if priests are allowed to retire, they have nowhere to go as the diocese has no nursing homes to support them, Ding said. "We wanted to build a nursing home. We could not even afford the land acquisition."

Another major problem is medical care. Although the diocese has a clinic, it can only provide very basic medical services.

"So the problem is, when the priests or nuns become ill, they must pay their own medical bills. The diocese wanted to help, but we cannot because we are having difficulties making ends meet," Ding said.

Zhang, of the Taoist association, also noted that the medical fees of some priests have eclipsed the capacity of some temples to pay.

"Without medical insurance, it would cost tens of thousands yuan for the treatment of a severe illness," he said.

For one Taoist priest in Beijing who was diagnosed with kidney failure, the cost of treatment exceeded 1 million yuan ($157,900), Zhang said.

That was one of a number of cases of serious illness pushing an entire temple into financial difficulty, he said.