NACST Newsletter

Volume XXVII No. 2 - January 2006

This is my tenth year as President of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers. I followed in the footsteps of two exceptional Presidents, John Reilly, our founding President, and Bruno Scuglia. Needless to say, 10 years have gone by rather quickly. For that matter, the twenty-seven years that NACST has been in existence have gone by rather quickly.

There has been very little time to look back over all the years I have been involved. I've been much too busy dealing with the present and strategizing about the future. The National's defining phrase Justice and Dignity for Catholic School Teachers is really what it is about. As we all know, achieving these is far from easy.

What makes the acquisition of Justice and Dignity so problematic is the schizophrenia of the employer Church. We constantly are presented with Church documents which speak in glowing terms of how the employer Church is supposed to act in the area of social justice. The operative words here are "supposed to."

Two new documents that deal with social justice were released in 2005, one from the US Bishops and one from the Vatican.

Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millenium, was recently released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The statement refers back to the bishops' 1990 statement In Support of Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools. For the past 15 years, according to our bishops, one of the goals to which they have "unequivocally committed" themselves is that "Catholic schools... be staffed by highly qualified administrators and teachers who would receive just wages and benefits, as we expressed in our pastoral letter, 'Economic Justice for All.'"

If we go back to the Economic Pastoral, we will see that just wages and benefits are only part of the picture. If it were just about money, that would be much less of a problem. The Church always finds the money for its priorities. However, it's not just about the money; it's all about the power. It's about teacher empowerment, and that's what the Bishops don't want to deal with. It's about just treatment as well as just wages; it's about job security and due process which are also teacher benefits. Having a say and being protected from unilateral "my way or the highway" employers is what teachers need, not being the recipients of benevolence or, worse yet, having their future employment dependent upon the whims of the principal or pastor.

The Economic Pastoral also states the "While the church is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes."

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE...

"All church institutions must also fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the institution through whatever association or organization they freely choose."

The second document is the result of a request from the late Pope John Paul II for a compilation of a "concise but complete overview of the Church's social teaching." It is The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Loosely translated that means a Compendium of more empty words and broken promises.

I'm sure the 255 pages of text will play well with unions and activists groups trying to get "justice for janitors" or medical benefits for mushroom workers. For these underpaid and undervalued employees, the Church stands as a shining beacon of light. However, for the underpaid and undervalued Church employees, the porch light is out and nobody's home.

In Section VIa. , for example: Solidarity Among Workers - The Importance of Unions, we are told that "The Magisterium recognized the fundamental role played by labor unions, whose existence is connected with the right to form associations or unions to defend the vital interests of workers employed in the various professions."

Unions are seen as "a positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensable element of social life."

Section 301, in speaking about the dignity of workers and the respect for their rights, emphasizes that "These rights are often infringed, as is confirmed by the sad fact of workers who are underpaid, without protection or adequate representation."

If proof is needed of this infringement, just ask high school teachers in Boston or elementary teachers in St. Louis, to name but two, in a growing number of unions that have had their rights trampled on or ignored.

As we come together here in solidarity, we also need to return to our local unions with renewed fervor to continue the fight. And, we need to look ahead.

There is vital work to be done. The importance of strong local unions and a growing and increasingly powerful National Association cannot be stressed enough. I spoke last year about the employer Church attempting to pick off local unions of teachers one by one. We absolutely cannot allow this to happen. We, in the Catholic Teacher Movement, must keep our contract language intact and our members strong; we must reach out to other Catholic teachers in surrounding schools and dioceses and help them achieve recognition and collective bargaining. We must be true to the mission of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers and work tirelessly to attain it - Justice and Dignity for Catholic School Teachers.