In 1965, William Restivo, a former priest and African missionary, initiated an organization to provide financial assistance and other kinds of support to individuals who had left the religious vocation. At that time men and women who had lived within the structure of religious life frequently found themselves unable to cope with the demands of secular life. Finding meaningful work was a problem for many.
The organization was incorporated as Bearings for Secular Re-establishment, Inc., on May l3, l966 with Restivo as president and Richard Butler as executive director. In order to prevent conflict with the Catholic Church, Restivo and the board described themselves as a service not a movement, and they slowly set about setting up an office, forming an organization, and raising funds. By l967 the organization had changed its name to Bearings For Re-establishment, Inc. and had started to serve clients.
In 1968 Patricia Allen Roy replaced Butler as national director and a new board was formed with Malcolm Pennington as president. These two steps had a stabilizing effect on the group so that clients could be more adequately served. Difficulty in raising sufficient funds through direct mailings during 1969 and 1970 led to the formation of a subsidiary corporation, Opportunities for Professional Transition, a for-profit placement service and employment agency. OPT became a profitable entity within a year, and it contributed measurably to the operation of BFR. In l972 the board set up a separate entity, the Manhattan Career Development Center, to provide full service career counseling and planning for priests and nuns still in the church.
Because of continued financial problems, Bearings formally terminated its operations at the end of 1973, declaring it had largely fulfilled the mission for which it had been created. A small volunteer operation was maintained for employment assistance due to occasional requests that came into the office during 1974 and 1975.
During its existence Bearings operated offices in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Austin, as well as twelve referral centers around the country. During this period it served a total of 5500 clergy, 70% of whom were Catholic and 50% of whom were priests.
