Bold claim: a $35 million shortfall in the St. Cloud Diocese pension plan is affecting nearly 1,400 people today, including both retirees and active staff, and the impact could ripple across the Catholic community for years.
The St. Cloud Diocese is facing a significant pension crisis that has community members worried about substantial cuts to their benefits. Retired teacher Jeffrey Kaster, who co-founded a group seeking answers, notes that a letter went out to pension participants last fall, followed by a parish-wide webinar.
Kaster estimates almost 1,400 retirees and current employees will be affected. He emphasizes that many Catholic school teachers, youth ministers, and pastoral associates—longtime contributors to the diocese—rely on this pension. On average, he says, benefits could drop by about 42 percent. He argues the diocese has the means to cover the shortfall and questions the necessity of cutting benefits.
The diocese has stated that the Christian Brothers pension plan is underwater by $35 million. Because this is a church organization, the plan isn’t covered by federal pension insurance, which means the deficit isn’t safeguarded by government guarantees. Kaster attributes the shortfall to poor investment decisions by Christian Brothers.
Participants first learned of the issue via a November letter, though Kaster suspects the diocese knew about the problem well before then. The diocese has repeatedly claimed they didn’t know, while Christian Brothers, which ran the program for about a decade, indicated that the pension was significantly underwater throughout that period.
The group has submitted four requests to the diocese: (1) a letter or video read aloud at Mass in all parishes, (2) representation for the group on the pension task force, (3) listening sessions with plan participants, and (4) a capital campaign aimed at fully meeting pension promises.
Kaster reports two conversations with Bishop Neary, but says progress has been limited since the issue surfaced in November.
WJON News reached out to the St. Cloud Diocese offices and was directed to a webpage with ongoing pension updates (https://stcdio.org/christian-brothers/). The latest update states the pension plan was frozen effective December 31, 2025, meaning new hires will not join the plan and current participants will stop accruing additional benefits. The plan’s funds are expected to transfer from Christian Brothers to a new dedicated account in summer 2026.
Implications extend beyond individual numbers: this situation highlights how pension plans tied to religious organizations operate outside federal insurance protections and what that can mean for retirees who counted on those funds. It also raises questions about governance, transparency, and accountability in managing long-term retirement promises within faith communities.
What’s your take on this approach to funding and protecting retirement benefits in church-affiliated plans? Should there be a different layer of oversight or a political solution to ensure beneficiaries aren’t left bearing the costs of investment risks? Share your thoughts in the comments.
