Church fails to walk the talk with labor issues - Catholic Church as employer - Column

National Catholic Reporter, August 29, 1997 by Richard P. McBrien

The Teamsters' strike at United Parcel Service, centering as it does on job security, pensions and the alleged exploitation of part-time employees -- issues far broader the the UPS situation itself -- makes Labor Day 1997 an especially apt moment to consider the fate of working men and women. For Catholics, this spotlight on labor should stimulate an examination of conscience regarding the way the Catholic church treats its own employees, in parishes, schools, diocesan offices, hospitals and other institutions and agencies.

Do we provide a just wage and adequate health care benefits for all our Catholic school teachers, parish ministers, nurses, diocesan staff and so forth?

Do we guarantee job security through written contracts that are designed to protect the employee's rights, especially with regard to arbitrary dismissal, which too often happens after a new bishop, pastor, principal or hospital administrator appears on the scene?

Are these contracts enforceable in civil court? If not, are the employees informed at the time they sign that their contracts are not enforceable?

When church employees who believe that they were unjustly dismissed from their jobs seek relief in the civil courts, do we routinely appeal to the First Amendment, arguing that the separation of church and state immunizes us from standards of equity and fairness, which comparable institutions are required to meet with their own employees?

Worse still, do we attempt to smirch the reputations of those who bring legal action against us and even try to prevent them from securing employment elsewhere?

Do we penalize in any way, either through dismissal or some other negative remedy, those who attempt to form a union in our schools and hospitals or a diocesan-wide association of religious educators, for example?

Do we employ hard-nosed law firms in order to intimidate and punish not only the alleged victims of injustice but their supporters and sometimes even their families as well?

The remarkable pastoral letter issued by them U.S. Catholic bishops in 1986 ("Economic Justice for All") established standards of justice for church employees that are still not being universally honored in our dioceses, parishes and ecclesiastical institutions.

"All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor or," the pastoral letter declared in italics, "apply to the church and its agencies and institutions; indeed the church should be exemplary."

The bishops drew support for their teaching from the 1971 World Synod of Bishops' document "Justice in the World," which said, "While the church is bound to give witness to justice, it recognizes that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the modes of acting and of the possessions and lifestyle found within the church itself."

The U.S. bishops thereupon pledged themselves to fulfill the principle that those who serve the church "should receive a sufficient livelihood and the social benefits provided by responsible employers in our nation."

Indeed, the bishops challenged church institutions, in light of the "new creative models of collaboration between labor and management" (described earlier in the pastoral letter.), "to adopt new, fruitful modes of cooperation."

And in seeking greater justice in wages and benefits, the bishops urged that church employers be "particularly alert to the continuing discrimination against women throughout church and society, especially reflected in both the inequities of salaries between women and men and in the concentration of women in jobs at the lower end of the wage scale."

There are hundreds, more likely thousands, of Catholic school teachers who would not agree that these standards are being met in the parish schools and diocesan high schools where they work, with regard to wages, benefits and job security.

There are also several hundred, and possibly many more, parish directors of religious education and other lay ministers who would not agree that these standards are being met in the parishes where they serve, especially with regard to job security, as well as wages and benefits.

There are also several hundred, and perhaps many more, employees of Catholic hospitals who would not agree that these standards are being met, especially with regard to the right to unionize, as well as wages, benefits, and job security.

The 1971 World Synod insisted that the church must be exemplary in applying the virtue of justice to its own employees.

Therefore, it is never permissible to say that working for the church requires people to accept less than what is just. Nor can the church excuse itself by claiming that it is no worse than some other employers in the area.

The church is always called to a higher standard, which is the gospel itself.