Poor management.

The March cover story ("Does it pay to work for the church?") by Robert J. McClory only begins to highlight the self-imposed deficiencies in Catholic lay employees' payroll and benefits.

As was reported, more and more lay members are having to take positions that were once filled by clergy and religious at significantly increased costs though very likely below market rates. This is a function of the church's inability to attract people into the ordained and religious vocations.

Catholic schools and other ministries are closing in neighborhoods with increasing numbers of Catholic families with school-aged children. This is a function of the church's inability to reduce organizational infighting.

Finally, the church as a whole can spend millions of dollars on collegiate athletic programs, hospital intensive-care facilities, and secular initiatives, but the same orders will turn away families that cannot pay the full tuition and fees for an elementary or secondary education for their children.

As a consultant to private schools, I can say there is no process to effectively advise and support the priests, brothers, and sisters who manage and lead these financially strapped parishes, schools, and ministries on how to generate sufficient cash flow to remain fully functional and then to expand.

When the priest, brother, or sister is reassigned because of the organization's financial failure and the lay ministers and employees are fired, those Catholics that were once served now have to seek those services elsewhere.

Juan Ramirez III

San Antonio, Texas 

I read McClory's article and was impressed with the similarities between the American scene and that in Australia for those laypersons who work for the institutional church.

The rewards and the difficulties are similar. Now in retirement after teaching many years in Catholic schools before transferring to the public education system, I can speak from personal experience of the insecurity I felt as a lay teacher.

My wife, on the other hand, taught for years in Catholic schools enjoying the contribution she felt she was making to Christian education and bearing the difficulties mentioned in McClory's article as the price for her mission.

The point we would most agree on is the statement that the church as employer needs to practice the social justice principles it exhorts others to follow.

Brian Monro

Adelaide, South Australia 

McClory's article is a wake-up call for those of us who are used to the "sisters" subsidizing our meager Sunday contributions. As the number of priests and sisters declines, we have to face up to our responsibility to provide a just wage, including health and retirement benefits for lay ministers who are keeping our church alive.

Jim Orgren

via e-mail