Church accused of workplace injustices - unfair labor practices sometimes stem from authoritarian structures - includes related articles

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 21, 1994 by Tim McCarthy

When she refused, she was asked to resign. Again she refused and the diocese scrambled for a reason to fire her. Finally they said she had combined a vacation with a family life convention in Providence, R.I., an inappropriate use of diocesan funds.

Giannini calculated that her vacation arrangements had cost the diocese about $32 more than the trip would have otherwise. She reimbursed the money. And she went to an attorney.

By the end of the year, apparently unsure of their ground and fearing a lawsuit, the diocese agreed to pay her a severance settlement.

Springfield-Cape Girardeau Bishop John Leibrecht would not comment on his reasons for firing Giannini because it was a "personal matter" and "very difficult for everyone." He said there were "serious reasons for Carol Ann not continuing here," but they had nothing to do with her course at Aquinas or with her newspaper column.

And the beat goes on:

Another family life minister in another heart-of-America diocese was one of four middle-aged women fired several years ago in yet another diocesan "house cleaning." She asked not to be identified, but said the church fails its lay employees. There is no grievance process, she said. You have no place to ten your story." The church tells us we are not part of the secular work force, she said. "They tell us we are not General Motors, but in some ways we'd be better off if we were General Motors."

* In Kansas City, Kan., Bernadette Hoyt worked for the archdiocese for about 18 years. It was never an easy or fair relationship, she said. The clergy "denigrated ideas from a woman."

At her last church job, she was director of volunteers at the St. Joseph Care Center. The nursing home director was a Christian Brother from Chicago. He fired her, ostensibly for budget reasons. She was told to pack up your things right now.' That was in 1983. I never got dose to the inner working of the church again," Hoyt said. "That's the damage it's done to me."

* In Florida last June, John Frank was summarily dismissed from his job as director of the St. Augustine diocese retreat center called Mayrwood. Frank, 43, had diredted the center since 1988, arriving there when the facility was still under consturction. He shaped its vision and developed its programs, molded Marywood into what many thought was one of the top 10 reatret facilities in the country.

But Frank's vision reflected a spirituality that was holistic and developmental and many people in the diocese had serious reservations about that broadly progressive approach. Some of those same people remained unconvinced that a layperson should be directing the retreat center to begin with. Controversy developed. There were conflicts with some of Frank's staff members. Marywood became a political liability for St. Augustine Bishop John Snyder. He fired Frank without notice and with no written reason, although he did offer him generous severance terms.

Repeated attempts to obtain a comment from the St. Augustine diocesan were unsuccessful. Last week, diocesan attorney and Marywood board member Dennis Guidi said Snyder was out of town, but that he would try to get a response from he bishop's office by press time. Guidi not return subsequent telephone calls.