No response from diocese prompts priest to write public letter to Martino

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19335543&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=15

BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL
STAFF WRITER
02/27/2008
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After the rejection of several requests to speak with Bishop Joseph F. Martino and other Diocese of Scranton officials, King’s College professor, the Rev. Patrick J. Sullivan, C.S.C., Ph.D., is speaking out against the bishop’s rejection of the teachers union.

* Read the letter: http://www.wbcitizensvoice.com/pdfs/kings_letter.pdf


“The Church has already suffered from too many losses and scandals. May we not add more pain and shame,” Sullivan wrote in a letter directed to Martino, sent to Times-Shamrock Newspapers on Tuesday.

Last month, the diocese announced the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers would not be recognized as a collective bargaining unit, and instead the diocese is implementing an employee relations program.

On Tuesday, Sullivan, who has been a priest for more than 50 years, said he had been reluctant to write to the bishop publicly, and did so only after he received no response from the diocese.

“I feel that I have something to say,” he said.

In his academic research, Sullivan has studied the church’s teachings on labor and its involvement in labor-management controversies.


FULL story at link.

[rpannier]

1. The Diocese of Gary is probably the worst...

They include in their diocesan pledge a commitment to unions and the members of the Diocese who are working and in unions.

But, that pledge does not extend to their own employees

[LibDemAlways]

2. I taught at a Catholic high school in the Los Angeles

area back in the 1980's. The church fiercely fought what amounted to a futile effort to unionize the teachers. They also opposed gravediggers unionizing years ago, but I think they lost that battle. They tend to be big on workers' rights except for their own workers.