Father Francis Li Jianlin has been looking for investment opportunities and health insurance in his spare time, spurred on by a feeling of responsibility for the priests and nuns in his Catholic diocese in Xinxiang, Henan province.
Although the idea of retirement has barely crossed the mind of many of the clergy, Li, 41, as the most senior priest in the diocese under the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, said he must plan for the future well-being of the district's 12 priests and 10 nuns.
"The diocese has no fixed income, and funding has always been a problem. But on top of all those issues, I need to find a solution for them before they become old and without care," he said. "The issue has been all over my mind recently."
The most pressing matter, he said, is to purchase health insurance, as the cost increases with the applicant's age. The investment plans would also help hedge his diocese's finances against the risks of inflation.
"I need to find the best solution with very limited financial resources," he said.
Clergy ill-prepared for retirement and lacking of health insurance is a problem in all five major religions in China, including Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, according to a June report by Renmin University of China.
According to the China Religious Survey, more than 40 percent of religious institutions in China have not purchased pension plans for their clergy and more than 26 percent have not bought medical insurance. The survey polled 4,383 religious venues in 243 counties or districts across the country over the past 18 months.
In China, 360,000 people are classified as clergy, according to a white paper issued by the State Council Information Office in 2013.
According to the Renmin University report, Taoism has the lowest percentage of social security coverage, as less than 63 percent of religious venues have purchase such plans for their clergy.
Zhang Fenglin, vice-president and secretary-general of the Taoist Association of China, said the idea of retirement has never occurred to many Tao clergymen, especially those in the Quanzhen School.
The situation varies widely between regions. Taoist temples in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, for example, have health and pension plans for their clergy, while some Taoist temples cannot even afford meager allowances for their priests.
The pervasive view toward retirement has long been that if a priest committed his life to religious service, the temple should be take care of him in old age, Zhang said.
However, it is now recognized that social insurance plans are needed to avert a potential crisis among aging clergy, he said.
"In the future, the burden would be huge for the Taoist temples nationwide if young people keep joining and we also have to take care of the aged priests," Zhang said.
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.
Coping with a crisis
Many clergymen said the support of local authorities is crucial to averting a potential social security crisis. In some areas, such as Beijing, Chongqing and the Tibet autonomous region, local authorities have offered to cover all fees required for the clergy to join the country's social security system.
Since 2012, all monks and nuns in the Tibet autonomous region have pension and medical insurance policies, which are aimed at extending their service to religious sites. According to the regional government, Tibet invested more than 1.3 million yuan in the new policies.
"In the past, if I needed to see doctors, I paid a majority of the cost and the monastery paid some. Now I pay very little, and medical insurance and the monastery cover most costs," said Gelek Gyatso, a monk master and the lead chanter at Lingbu Monastery.
The monastery in Xigaze, Gyangze, is small with one living Buddha and 16 monks.
One 41-year-old monk who suffered renal failure received a kidney transplant that cost around 300,000 yuan for the surgery and follow-up treatment, Gelek said. Insurance covered about 45 percent of the cost, the monastery paid 40 percent and the local government provided 10 percent. The monk paid about 5 percent.
In Henan province, local authorities have offered the clergy a retirement plan that is similar to that provided to enterprise employees. It requires recipients to pay 8 percent of the pension plan, and the church to pay more than 30 percent.
"We did a calculation and the church must pay about 280,000 yuan as a whole before a priest can claim pensions. That is way too expensive for us," said Li, the leader in the Xinxiang diocese.
As for health insurance, local authorities offered a new rural cooperative medical care system that requires priests to obtain medical care at hospitals where their household registration, or hukou, is located.
"However, most priests were dispatched to areas where they were needed. It would be very inconvenient for them to go back to their hometowns to receive treatment when an illness strikes," he said.
Li said he is considering commercial health insurance, even though it requires thousands of yuan per year for each person.
"We need to be prepared for the worst scenario. To cure a critical illness could cost all the possessions of a church," he said.
A majority of the clergy agree the social security problem must be solved sooner rather than later, while acknowledging it could not be resolved comprehensively without help from local authorities.
"In some temples, priests are given a monthly allowance of about 120 yuan. Can you imagine any way either the priest or the temple can afford the social insurance bills?" Zhang asked.
Luo Wangshu contributed to reporting from Gyangze county, Tibet autonomous region.
