PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change
Commentary by Susan Matthews
In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, parishes are separate and distinct entities . The pastor is the ultimate decision-maker for the parish and parish school. However, those pastors take a vow of obedience to their Bishop. It’s confusing and very convenient for Archdiocesan finances, their legal team and the Office for Catholic Education.
Parishes and their schools are completely separate from one another and the archdiocese if you’re an elementary school teacher and you want to seek unionization. They are also separate if you’d like to hold the archdiocese accountable for negligence of its elementary school students in regard to child sex abuse.
But if you’re a pastor or a teacher whose school is closing, you must follow the rules of the Archdiocesan Office for Catholic education. Not so separate now. Hmm. See if you can figure it out based on the communications below:
1) “In all of the newly formed elementary schools the pastors will still be the employers, not the Archdiocese. That arrangement does not change even if we’re talking about a regional school that involves a number of parishes. The ultimate decision-making regarding employment would be done by the pastors. The governance model for each regional school is to be decided upon by all of the pastors involved. It would ultimately be their decision in each unique school as to how hiring takes place. The pastors would also identify who is responsible for making hiring decisions at the local level.” – statement from the Archdiocesan Office for Communication.
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