Archbishop Thomas Wenski, archbishop of Miami, has warned archdiocesan employees that any action in support of Florida’s now-legal same-sex marriage could cost them their jobs.
“Because of the Church’s particular function in society,” the archbishop wrote, “certain conduct, inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, could lead to disciplinary action, including termination, even if it occurs outside the normal working day and outside the strict confines of work performed by the employee for the Archdiocese.”
The policy extends to include posts (photos or comments) on social media sites.
Since I write on these topics, I thought I’d reiterate my position, which is a general one and not in response to Miami in particular, since I have no knowledge of that diocese:
- Catholics of good will are bound to adhere to the Church’s moral teaching concerning marriage, chastity, and everything else.
- Concerning how best to handle legal matters concerning Church employees, it is possible for our bishops to be both fully in line with Church teaching, and yet vary in how they carry out the details of their hiring processes.
- I want the Catholic faith, the fullness of the Catholic faith, lived and taught in every parish and diocese in the world. Period.
- We as a Church have utterly failed to do this. We continue to fail to do this. The gross ignorance and irresponsibility that typifies large swathes of the teaching arm of the Church is deplorable. Ninevah-esque.
- Mercy, charity, and truth are not in conflict with one another; they are three facets of the same Spirit.
We who wish to be orthodox find ourselves in the position of having to say to many employees, “We’ve really screwed up. When we hired you, and for the past decade, or decades, or more, we did nothing to teach you or inform you about the Catholic faith and the serious problems your opinions and lifestyle create in conflict with it. This is our fault. We hired you with an implicit understanding that what you are doing is AOK. And now, suddenly, we realize that we have sinned — against God, against you, and against our community. We now realize that we must find a way to repair the harm that we have done.”
One doesn’t repair harm by kicking out employees who have organized their lives and made career decisions in good faith, decisions based on our previously slack approach to Christianity.
What can we do:
- Begin to teach the truth clearly and consistently.
- Create an atmosphere of trust, in which employees can discuss their difficulties with the Catholic faith and look for ways to reconcile themselves to it. Conversion isn’t a half-hour process. No one, meanwhile, is fooled by our pretending that these difficulties don’t exist.
- Assist employees who cannot bring themselves to adhere to orthodoxy in finding employment elsewhere if necessary. I don’t mean token assistance. I mean real help, recognizing that it is our error that is threatening grave financial harm to longtime, hardworking employees, and we have an obligation to do all that we can to prevent that harm.
I think there is leeway for bishops, pastors, and administrators to distinguish, if they are explicit and intentional and public about how they are doing so, between employment that requires absolute orthodoxy, and certain functions in non-teaching or non-leadership roles where some level of non-Catholicism is acceptable. I say this as a person who runs a small educational apostolate, and has set just such a line among our volunteers. It isn’t complicated, it only requires clarity and honesty.
That said, I have no objection whatsoever to those who determine that from this day forward they will recruit only employees and volunteers who can pledge complete adherence to the Catholic faith. It is, after all, what we promise at baptism.
Related: Gay Marriage: Whose Yes, Whose No?
Artwork by Anatoly Shcherbak (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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