— Ed Sabol, founder of NFL Films
The Catholic United Financial story is one that we retell often in the pages of our publications and on this website. We are a member-owned, not-for-profit financial services company, connecting people of faith, protecting their future and generously impacting parishes, schools and communities.
The Catholic United story begins 145 years ago and is a true “slice of life” story of society and culture in the latter years of the 19th century. On a cold January 8th in 1878, 14 men came together to Assumption Parish in St. Paul, Minn., described as the “German Catholic Cathedral of Minnesota”. They were German Catholics whose families had left the valleys of the Rhine River, fed by melting snow from the Swiss Alps, to settle the valleys and flood plains of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix Rivers. The men all called Minnesota home (the state itself had only been established 20 years before) and came from different regions: the industrial centers of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the farming community of Hastings, and the river towns of Winona and Wabasha.
Protected from the cold winds of early January in Assumption Hall, these men represented ten different benefit societies formed for the express purpose of helping the women and children left destitute by the deaths husbands and fathers. Connected by the German language and culture — distinct from the state and nation they had adopted as their own — they came together to combine their efforts under one banner. They formed the Mutual Life Insurance Association of the German Roman Catholic Benevolent Societies of Minnesota. Research gleaned from the early records of the Association show these leaders acted with four values as touchstones: accountability, Catholicism, financial security and the care of the members of the society.
As the men left the parish to begin the cold trek home by horse-drawn carriage, on horseback, or by train, could they have hoped or imagined that the organization they established and the values they enshrined would endure 145 years later?
The origin story of Catholic United Financial is OUR story, and it is part of a story that we create every day our work as volunteers, members, employees and clergy supporters. Many of our Member Advisors have current stories about times when their work embodied those four values codified back in 1878.
• We share the story about the Catholic United life insurance policy benefit that paid an outstanding debt to help keep a farm within the family that had been working it for generations.
• We tell the story of helping a married couple make an estate plan to express their charitable wishes, and then witnessing the gratefulness of the surviving spouse as that plan was seamlessly enacted without confusion, stress or haste.
• And we love sharing the stories of families who have four or five living generations of members, from newborn daughter to great-great-grandmother, who are all protected with Catholic United life insurance policies.
Like many companies, Catholic United Financial is hiring Member Advisors during one of the most competitive and challenging job markets in recent memory. We believe that the Catholic United Financial story sets us apart from other financial employers and careers. (To confirm that claim, Catholic United Financial was certified as a Great Place to Work® in 2023!) Our company culture — centered around our mission to connect and protect — supports the capabilities of our Member Advisors as they create effective solutions to our members’ financial needs.
As our Advisors engage those founding values of accountability, Catholicism, financial security and care in their work, they create new narratives that will become part of the Catholic United story. Those narratives will fill the pages of our Association magazine, be shared across the table as friends enjoy a cup of coffee together, or maybe even be communicated 145 years into the future as the history of this member-owned, not-for-profit financial services company is retold to new generations.
It’s been said that stories are “the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful and meaningful experience.” We encourage interested professionals to become part of our story as Member Advisors and help us create the stories that will be told and retold in years to come.
