In the wake of its controversial decision to withhold health benefits for spouses of all new employees, Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington took another step that will inevitably alienate potential hires. The Washington Post reports that
Shortly after imposing limits on spousal health benefits for employees, Catholic Charities of Washington has begun requiring new employees to promise they will not ‘violate the principles or tenets’ of the church. That language was added March 3 to a hiring letter that new employees are required to sign, according to spokesman Erik Salmi.
Salmi says that the new language has nothing to do with the same-sex marriage controversy, but the timing certainly raises questions. He said that it is simply part of a broader conversation that Catholic Charities is having about what it means to be a Catholic organization. This is a good discussion to have, for Catholic non-profit organizations, schools and universities, and hospitals. But if the language is intended to be used as a sort of litmus test of who is eligible to work for a Catholic organization, then it is more troubling. As with the Denver Catholic schools controversy (covered well on this blog by Fr. Jim Martin), certain questions remain.
Will Catholic Charities employ divorced and remarried individuals? Those who donate to political candidates whom the church hierarchy opposes? What about a person who has expressed some private skepticism about a church teaching or practice? Is this a way to silence critics? These are not light questions, and Catholic Charities would do well to take additional time to examine the possible consequences of such language.
Michael O'Loughlin
New employees must promise that they will not "violate the principles or tenets" of the Church - well, if we're really going to go for it, let's go for it: don't hire anyone who sees justification as merely an imputation of Christ's righteousness rather than a real, habitual, infused righteousness that brings about an ontological change in the soul. And it's time to give the axe to any Catholic Charities employee who doesn't uphold Catholic teaching on the nature and grace disputes: listen, buddy, take your Baianism somewhere else; we here believe in the possibility of a state of pure nature and affirm the total gratuity of the supernatural order! And look out anyone who thinks that they can perform a salutary act without actual grace, or who thinks that it is not only physically but also morally possible for us to keep all of God's law all of the time without actual grace! And you over there, I've heard that you've tried to assert that Christ is the natural son of God according to His divinity but not according to His humanity, you 8th-century Adoptionist you! Get your child out of our Catholic school system!
I expect this all to blow over when AB Wuerl gets his red hat. I suspect he is currently under a microscope.
There is an update reported on the NCR web page. Apparently this really has nothing to do with the gay marriage issue. This relates to the incident in the Richmond Diocese when a young immigrant girl was taken by Charities staff to get an abortion, which Charities paid for.
I can kind of see their point and apologize for intimating that this was about the AB's desire for a red hat (although there probably are some watching him like a hawk - probably someone named Rigali).