MADISON, Wis. — The recall contests in Wisconsin this summer set a national record — an indication of how deep feelings run in the state.
The last recall elections ended Aug. 16 with Republicans still holding the state Legislature. But the partisan battle over the fate of pensions, benefits and collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions created painful divisions even among Catholics — and that still needs pastoral and catechetical attention.
Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops say it’s time to set aside the political divisions that have divided parish communities and even some families.
Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison has invited his flock to reconcile their differences. But he also suggested that the lingering tensions marked an unsettling truth: For many of the faithful, partisan loyalties trump Catholic teaching.
“This is a profound pastoral problem,” he said. “When the objective truth of faith is subordinated to political concerns, I am not free to teach the faith and instead get categorized as a Republican or a Democrat.”
While “the bishops of Wisconsin took a neutral position on the issue, Archbishop [Jerome] Listecki of Milwaukee rightly chose to emphasize workers’ rights in his own statement, while I chose to emphasize the principle of fairness. The media and local politicians decided he was pro-union and I was anti-union,” recalled Bishop Morlino. “In other words, politics wins the day.”
But the internal Church debate has been complicated by dueling judgments regarding the legitimacy of public-sector unions and their tangled relationship with political leaders, who negotiate their contracts and then may expect their support during re-election.
Many social-justice advocates contend that public and private-sector unions are equally worthy of Catholic support. That position has provoked skepticism in tough economic times, when public employees may receive more generous benefits than other workers.
Once faithful allies of the nation’s trade-union movement, the bishops have turned their attention to immigration reform as a top priority, in part, because Hispanic Catholics have moved to the mainstream of the Church, while public-sector unions often back policy positions antithetical to Catholic teaching, from abortion rights to same-sex unions.
Given the Church’s legacy of strong support for workers’ rights, some public-union activists looked to the Wisconsin Catholic Conference for an endorsement.
Archbishop Listecki, president of the Wisconsin Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a carefully worded statement that affirmed the rights of workers but included a caveat: “It does not follow from this that every claim made by workers or their representatives is valid.”
“Every union, like every other economic actor, is called to work for the common good, to make sacrifices when required, and to adjust to new economic realities,” said Archbishop Listecki in a statement that was widely reported in the news media and liberal blogs as an endorsement of the public-sector unions battling Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
Archbishop Listecki was travelling this week. But Julie Wolf, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, confirmed that the archbishop had taken no position in the contest between the public-sector unions and Walker.
‘Making News Wasn’t Helpful’
Bishop Morlino, for his part, suggested that the tendency of partisan activists to embrace a religious leader as a political ally reflected the politicization of high-stakes social issues among Wisconsin Catholics.
“If I teach the truth and they are Republican and they like what I say, they accept my teaching. If they are Democrats and they don’t like it, I’m labeled a ‘Republican.’ In fact, I am simply trying to teach the faith,” said Bishop Morlino, who added that he decided to “say nothing more because making news was not helpful.”
While the statement issued by the Wisconsin Catholic bishops reaffirmed Church support for the rights of workers to organize, it did not specifically address the more recent phenomenon of public-sector unions gaining collective bargaining rights in some states.
“At the very beginning of the Church’s support for labor unions, public-sector unions were not envisioned. We are still committed to the rights of workers and advocating for private-sector unions, because the same dynamics are still operative. If workers demand too much, the employer can be put out of business and the workers could be put out of a job,” said Bishop Morlino.
Bishop Morlino suggested that the advent of public-sector unions upended that equation and created “complications.”
“Employees are paying their union dues, and those dues are contributed to politicians, and those politicians are indebted to the unions for their re-election. That dynamic was not envisioned” when the Church first began to articulate a defense of workers’ rights, he said.
While he expressed frustration that many Wisconsin Catholics viewed the Church’s support for labor rights as a partisan stance, Bishop Morlino noted that he still sought to help the faithful seriously engage with the requirements of social justice.
“The role of truth in social justice is in the principles of Catholic social teaching — the principle that all people have a right to economic justice is an absolute. People of good will can disagree on the best means of achieving this principle, but they can’t disagree with the principle that everyone has a right to economic justice,” he said.
Jesuit Father G. Simon Harak, director of Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking, articulates a different interpretation of Catholic teaching.
“The Church’s teaching on any subject always rests on the dignity of the human person. Therefore, the Church’s teaching on unions applies, whether the individual is working in the private or public sector,” said Father Harak.
Call to Reconcile
And in the aftermath of Walker’s ultimately successful effort to restrain the public-sector unions, he has “learned how easy it is for moneyed interests to reframe the economic issue and to redirect focus away from our larger economic problems and shift the blame onto working people — and how easy it is to convince the larger public with that strategy.”
He characterized the public statements of Wisconsin’s bishops as “fair and balanced. However, I thought that more attention should have been paid to the Church’s preferential option for the poor in their statements.”
Father Harak suggested that Catholic leaders in the state might have provided broader context for evaluating the escalating confrontation at the statehouse. The bishops’ statements might have addressed “the growing gap between rich and poor in Wisconsin and in the United States and our profligate and immoral spending on war and killing, instead of on the needs for social uplift,” he said.
Earlier this year, when Democratic lawmakers left the state to delay votes on legislation limiting the benefits and rights of public-sector unions, Father Harak helped some of the Democrats find shelter out of state.
As the effort to recall both Republican and Democratic legislators draws to a close, Bishop Morlino has called for reconciliation among various factions — including some spouses. “Catholic marriages have ended up with divisions, as well,” he said.
John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, agreed that it would take time to overcome the breach created by months of unresolved conflict.
“People do feel strongly,” said Huebscher. “The state is still divided. If you read comments and editorials, it reflects the intense feeling around the state. People aren’t breaking windows, but in small town newspapers, people say they are choosing not to talk about it because they have such strong feelings.”
This week, on the feast of the Assumption, Bishop Morlino asked the faithful to pray for healing and reconciliation. “The conflict really has to be healed, in part,” he said, “because it has contributed to the deepening of divisions in the Church.”
Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond writes from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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If it wasn’t for the unions the parasite crony capitalists would have us and our children working for 50 cents and hour and telling us it’s Gods will.
So the first comment posted on the call to reconcile is a vicious slur against private business owners (aka parasite crony capitalists)? How nice. Just like the unions here in Wisconsin, who have sued the state and the governor on multiple fronts, and at the same time firing their own non-union staff members (WEAC lays off 40% of it’s office staff this week alone). Where are those person’s rights? What about the rights of citizens not to have the policy makers of the state enjoin against those same citizans with the very people who help get them elected (i.e. the unions)? Millions of dollars were spent this summer on a failed attempt to gain control of the state senate. Money that could have been spent providing for the welfare of the members of the unions instead. This wasn’t about economic justice for these public employee unions; it was all about power. Too many double standards from them for the average citizen to take. Time for fairness, as Bishop Morlino has said.
Yay for Father Harak!! I am very disappointed in the bishops. They do not give a balanced response. When they talk about public employees receiving more generous benefits than private employees, why are they not commenting on corporations that are reaping huge profits and in many cases paying little to no taxes. Their profits are not benefiting their employees! Why are the bishops not talking about that? My oldest daughter is one of those public employees making very generous salaries and benefits-NOT. She is a teacher. She loves what she does but her salary is less than $37,000. As a teacher with a bachelor’s degree, she is going for her masters degree, a necessary step in order to stay in education. College costs are huge today. These are costs that she pays out of her own pocket.
This article states that the bishops have turned their attention to immigration reform. I don’t believe they have. When AZ had sb1070 the silence from the bishop for the Diocese of Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, was deafening. You could hear crickets.
Many of the church’s social justice positions go back to the days when unions were at a great disadvantage to companies. That is not true today. Most unions are very powerfull and have huge war chests which they use to influence elections to give themselves even more power. The politicians they elect are then beholden to them. The church needs to adjust to this new reality. However, they need to be very careful to be non partisan. If they simply repeat verbatim the talking points of one party or the other they will be indentified as a partisan. Catholic social activists tend to be Democratic, harking back to the conditions of many years ago. People can read it easily when they are just being politically partisan and turn them off.
David that is absolute nonsense. There are many companies that have no unions and pay livable wages with great benefits. My husband works for one! It allows me to be a stay at home mom and not go on medicaid for all my chronic medical conditions. We live in Texas by the way. There is a more problematic issue with undocumented workers. They are being taken advantage of horribly. By allowing them to enter freely into the “parasite crony capitalist” system we have in the US their opportunities for a better life for themselves and their families would increast exponentially and we and our country would be better off for it.
What a sight folks fighting over crumbs and scraps of jobs as the once vibrant American Middle Class dissolves into a distant memory. In their 3,600 and counting position papers the Bishops have many many many times reminded us that “there can be no Peace unless there is Justice”.
Ok then “Justice” demands that the Bishops call on Mr. Obama to fire his “Jobs Czar” Jeffery Immelt for closing the 115 year old GE Wisconsin X-Ray Division, which also designed MRI machines, and moving it along with $2 Billion Dollars to China where he will train their Engineers and pay them peanuts and hire their workers there are NO Unions, or Medicare or Medicaid; you know the same China that just slapped the Pope in the face by consecrating illicit Bishops.
Or how about some “Justice” for the Union members in the job starved Oakland Bay area where your “Progressive” Democrats who are always screaming Peace & Justice and who have dominated for decades purposely went around the “Buy American” rules and gave a massive $7 1/2 Billion Dollar Bridge fabrication contract to China because they could save a lousy 5%. Turns out the Chinese laborers fabricating the bridge work 12 hour days for 75 cents an hour. But what the heck there are no iron workers or welders or laborers needing employment in the Bay area; I am shocked that “Catholic” Abortion Champion Nancy Pelosi & hubby just happens to be a significant stock holder in the design firm; but look on the bright side some Americans workers will be allowed to pave the bridge.
One could give other labor “justice” examples.
The fact of the matter is we could still have plenty of jobs in this country if we could free ourselves from the truly evil way that the Environmental Movement is manipulated by these same forces. But the Bishops have married themselves to the lie of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Justice demands that they collectively repent of that sin.
Similarly the massive and now fully metastasized and cruel illegal immigration conundrum facing this country really began when the existing legal worker programs that had protected visiting workers from exploitation and borders from drug trafficking and which had worked well for decades were jettisoned to help Bobby Kennedy in his political run in California. Justice demands that this fact be acknowledged.
The American Middle Class is disappearing because it must now “compete” with the 75 cents per hour slave wages of China and India and Vietnam etc. etc. Unless and until that fact is changed by treaties or tariffs the Middle Class in America is finished. So to the Bishops; do not just read the position papers plopped in front of you to rubber stamp at every USCCB; do you claim an infallibility that your Winnipeg cohorts to the north denied the Holy Father? Stop and look around you at what is REALLY going on. It is long past time to smell the Roses; if you want Peace then renounce your defacto marriage to the Democrat Party. If you want Peace ask those youngsters from Notre Dame to write you up a position paper or two or three or even 3,600+ that renounce the unjust portions of NAFTA and so called “Free Trade” or else I guess I will see you in the other bread lines. No Justice, No Peace.
Let’s not forget that most Catholic school teachers are not unionized because the bishops refuse to let them. At-Will contracts allow teachers to work for an average of 25-30% less than their counterparts and administrators can get rid of anyone with or without cause at any time. Though the popes of the modern era (beginning with Leo XIII) have ALL stated that workers have a right to organize, the bishops have found yet another subject to ignore Rome with.
From the sidelines: There is a quote from Scipture that goes something like this: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Let’s not forget that these are public employee unions. They influence the election of the people who vote them the largess. Wisconsin and many other states no longer have the funds to continue paying them the generous pension benefits that were promised them.
The problem with the Bishops is that they lack credibility since they, themselves have sided primarily with the Democrats.
The headline is wrong, saying the bishops wanted to “heal divisions.” Bishop Morlino’s comments are completely against public sector unions and, as other comments have noted, reflects the views of bishops as employers, not workers.
I wish I could say this is the first I’ve heard Catholics arguing rigorously about money, economics, Church teachings, or the like. Unfortunately, I’ve heard these debates many times before.
During my teens—some time ago now—I heard about the virtues of unions, how they guaranteed workers’ rights. I can’t say I’ve ever had real confidence in that claim. We can assume that laborers and organizers have all the best intentions, but we must face some particular facts.
For a union to have any use, a laborer needs to have a job. For a laborer to have a job, an establishment must have business enough to require labor. If the business has too few customers, the business can’t pay the laborer, even if they want.
Unions have a bad habit of ignoring economic realities, but insisting that their laborers be paid a certain amount—no less—regardless of what the market does. Essentially, unions have a bad habit of exploiting the need for labor to justify abusing the business that supports them.
Bob, before you go howling about the alleged hypocrisy of bishops who refuse to allow unions for Catholic school teachers, you might remember one thing:
Catholic schools don’t normally receive any government funding. They don’t gain a penny from property taxes or any other local, state, or federal funding source. Catholic schools pretty well live or die on tuition, fundraising, and any donations they might receive from wealthy benefactors. That’s it.
I’m not aware of any state of the union that allows for any workable form of school vouchers. Some have been tried, but I don’t believe they’ve lasted more than a few years.
I generally believe that Catholic schools operate by means of a subtle, but important understanding: Shared sacrifice amongst all involved.
Parents understand they’ll be essentially be paying twice for educating their kids because they can’t cease paying property taxes. Educators understand they’ll be earning less than many of their peers because the school can’t afford to pay better salaries. (Alumni often understand they’ll need to support their old school any way they can.)
If you required Catholic school teachers to organize and demand better salaries in the manner you vaguely imply, I’ll suggest that most Catholic schools would close their doors within ten years.
Do you REALLY wish to see Catholics forced to undergo the usual secular education of public schools by default?
I hope not.
I’m afraid that the labor unions are showing their Communist colors time and time again. How very sad.
Bishops want to be big shots. I wish they’d keep their noses out of trying to influence legislation, and make sure their congregants are really going to Confession, reading the Bible, praying the rosary, attending Eucharistic adoration, visiting the sick, helping family life, etc. etc. I’d have made a good bishop! :-)))
John,
In St. Louis, Archbishop Burke squashed the fledgling elementary school union by simply stating in 2004 that, “Neither the Archdiocese nor individual parishes will recognize or bargain collectively with any organization as a representative of the teachers.”
Also in 2004, Archbishop Sean O’Malley decentralized Boston Catholic high schools and then refused to recognize The Boston Archdiocesan Teachers Association (BATA) that had been in existence for 36 years (from 1968-2004).
The former Bishop of Scranton followed the “scrip”: reorganized the school system and then refused to renew the agreement between the union and the diocese and put in place what used to be called “company unions” under the cognizance of the bishop’s office.
In a 2009 study, the superintendents of Catholic schools were asked whether their bishop would support a Catholic school union in their diocese: 38% stated “no” and another 34% stated that they “didn’t know” if their bishop would support a teacher’s union. Only 3% answered affirmatively, 15% gave no response and two respondents stated that their bishop possibly or probably would answer affirmatively.
When the laity see bishops spending money on new cathedrals, buying real estate and the like (especially when someone has to pull the children from a Catholic school because of the high tuition) then how “alleged” is the hypocrisy?
Bob,
I will readily agree that the architecture of some cathedrals leaves a great deal to be desired. I will not agree with the idea that unions provide the best or only means of ensuring justice for workers. If anything, I’m inclined to think the unions detract from worker rights; they don’t educate workers with regard to how money or economics work, nor do they demonstrate any particular concerns for setting goals and achieving the results individual laborers might seek. Instead, they tend to place every person in a large group and assume everyone needs the same things.
..And that doesn’t even address the abuses the various labor unions have inflicted….
I understand many disagree with me, but I don’t believe the bishops have inflicted harm by refusing teacher unions in Catholic schools. Especially considering the degree of genuine Catholic teaching and practice that too many schools DON’T live, I’m not inclined to encourage teachers to unionize.
Are we to discount over a century of authentic papal teachings on the subject? Do we allow bishops (or those charged under his authority) to do as they please without recourse (specifically At-Will contracts)?
I do know what you are saying about schools NOT doing what they are supposed to do, but often times it is because administrators hold all the cards: e.g., “...or else.” I’ve known some who are incredibly un-Catholic but have managed to rise to the top (the Peter Principle).
Perhaps unions aren’t the way to go, but something has got to change - the sooner the better.
I’m not aware of any teachings by popes that require teachers or others to develop unions. I believe they allow for such practices, but only insofar as those efforts uphold the rights of both laborer AND management. Instead, we’ve typically seen unions used most as a sort of band-aid to persuade everyone that the problem has been solved.
As far as administrations holding all the cards..that can be taken any number of ways. If a school conducts itself in a manner that’s unfitting for a Catholic school, there’re appropriate means of dealing with problems. Usually it would need to start with groups of parents gathering together to determine if changes need to happen, then arranging to meet with school administrators to discern how changes might occur.
If administrators aren’t interesting in changing anything, but remaining distinctly..unCatholic, there’s always a local bishop to whom they’d need to answer.
I get the impression these days that many people have a strong dislike for seeing a bishop (or priest) accomplish his job..in accordance with Catholic teaching and tradition. I’ve never understood that; I’ve typically felt that if a populace knows what their faith teaches, they’ll be quite interested in pursuing that life.
Otherwise, they’re not truthfully living a Catholic life in any real sense of the word.
They may even be placing their souls at risk.
Sad, but true.
In this economic climate, EVERYONE is hurting. What a wonderful bishop. I am a huge fan of Scott Walker and also vote Republican, so I have to admit my bias. I understand the cry of the unions, I truly do. We have many friends at our church who are union. But the union is just as imperfect as private sector. Why don’t the upset people try to reform the Democrats’ party into being Democratic again and kick out the big government, money-stealing, socialist-like morons? We’re trying to weed out the bad Republicans too.
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