October 2008
Website updated

We've revamped our website to provide better information to prospective applicants. We've also redesigned our application forms and they are now available through this page.

September 2008
Another newsletter

The second issue of our newsletter is now available as a pdf download.

August 2008
Summer awards

When our summer application open period ended, we had received 29 applications!! This is evidence of the vitality of religious life in the United States. We thank God that so many young men and women are offering their lives to His service.

The annual loan payments of those 29 applicants comes to a total of $121,500.00! Because our fundraising efforts are still in the early stages, our board of directors was able to authorize only $10,000 worth of grants.

So while we are proud to have squeezed 7 new grants out of the available funds, we are saddened by the necessity of turning away the other 22 applicants who are equally qualified and ready to begin religious life but for their student loans.

We are particularly pleased to have issued our first grant under our St. John Vianney grant program for future parish priests. You can download a PDF of our award press release for complete details.

May 2008
First newsletter mailed

Our first newsletter was mailed to our donor base in mid-May. You can download a copy.

Eligibility for St. John Vianney grants widened

In an effort to make more forms of religious life eligible for participation in the MEFV St. Joseph grant program, the MEFV has made a policy change concerning Societies of Apostolic Life. Aspirants to any Society of Apostolic Life whose members make a public commitment (vow, promise, pledge, etc.) to poverty are eligible to apply for a St. Joseph grant. Previously, the St. Joseph grant program was limited to religious institutes of vowed religious life. You can read the full policy ...

April 11, 2008
MEFV President interviewd on Relevant Radio

Corey Huber, the President of the MEFV, was interviewed on the Relevant Radio broadcast Morning Air on Friday, April 11, 2008. Mr. Huber will appeared in the last hour of Morning Air. You can download an mp3 of the interview here. (Requires a free user registration.)

February 4, 2007
MEFV issues seven St. Joseph Student Debt Relief grants for winter open period.

We are pleased to announce that the MEFV has awarded 7 new St. Joseph debt relief grants. These grants prevent the delay of the following vocations:

• Lorraine and Matille entering the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles
• Elizabeth Ann entering the Passionist Nuns of Ellisville, MO
• Krystyn entering the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin Matara
• Emilia entering the Salesian Sisters
• Lauren entering the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ
• Kevin entering the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius

A PDF of the press release is available here.

We are sorry to report than there were 18 applicants for the winter application open period. Thus, 11 individuals did not receive the help they need to pursue their vocations to religious life.

As more and more men and women generously respond to the call to live the evangelical counsels to strive for holiness and as a gift for Christ's Church, the problem of student debt is becoming a common road block. If you would like to help, please make a donation to the MEFV.

Please remember all the applicants in your prayers.

December 18, 2007
Fr. Brian Bashista joins the MEFV board of directors.

Rev. Bashista is the Director of the Office of Vocations for the Diocese of Arlington.

October 15, 2007
The MEFV issues the first grants under its St. Joseph Student Debt Relief Grant program.

We are pleased to announce that the MEFV has awarded 10 new St. Joseph debt relief grants. These grants prevent the delay of the following vocations:

• Richard entering the Discacled Carmelite Friars
• Karl entering the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate
• Brian entering the Benedictine Christ in the Desert Monastery
• Caroline entering the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne
• Joseph entering the Legionaries of Christ
• Joshua entering the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great
• Phi entering the Vietnamese Dominican Sisters
• Aurora entering the Religious Sisters of Mary, Alma Michigan
• Pamela entering Our Lady of Mt. Thabor Dominican Monastery
• Mike entering the Franciscan Brothers of Peace

A PDF of the press release is available here.

We congratulate each grant recipient and ask you to join with us in praying for their continuing discernment. May each come to full knowledge of his vocation and persevere in it.

Please also pray for the two applicants we denied due to lack of funds. May they persevere as God works His Will for them through other means.

July 26, 2007
The MEFV opens its St. Joseph Student Debt Relief Grant program.

Thanks to a generous gift of $10,000 from the Fraser Family Foundation, the MEFV is able to begin awarding grants this year. Applications for a St. Joseph grant will be accepted from August 1st through September 30th. The MEFV's application review board will meet in the first half of October and grant awards will be announced on October 15th.

The $10,000 will be used to pay the first years worth of loan payments required by the newly issued grants. Given the average size of student loans, the $10,000 gift will allow the MEFV to issue between two and five grants.

In 2004 the private Fraser Family Foundation began the grant program that has since been transferred to the MEFV as the St. Joseph Student Debt Relief Grant Program. Under the auspices of the Foundation, 31 grants were made to enable men and women to begin religious life and continue their vocational discernment. Twenty-two of these grantees have persevered to-date and their grants make it possible for them to continue their formation with their religious orders.

The Foundation continues to fund the grants it originally made with a yearly gift to the MEFV. As the MEFV is a public charity, all future grant-making will be done with monies raised from the public: the Catholic faithful. The Foundation is making this $10,000 gift available to tide over the MEFV until its fundraising activities begin to bear fruit.

To apply for a grant, please first read the pages that describe our program. Then go to our grant application page and follow the instructions you'll find there.

April 18, 2007
Timothy Drake joins the MEFV board of directors.

Mr. Drake is an award-winning journalist and author, well published in many Catholic newspapers and magazines. In February, he covered the Vocations and Debt conference organized by the Institute on Religious Life and wrote the article Debt, the Vocation Killer for the National Catholic Register. You can learn more about him at his website.