New pastor fires unionized parish workers

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July 2003

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New pastor fires unionized parish workers
In a move with national implications, four of the first unionized Catholic Church parish employees in the United States were fired by a new pastor in his first day on the job in McAllen, Texas. The firing of the four women employees of Holy Spirit Parish on June 18 sparked massive protests by parishioners. The priest, Rev. Ruben Delgado, resigned the following week, but the workers were not reinstated.

Bishop Raymundo Peña of the Diocese of Brownsville announced Delgado's resignation at a press conference. Delgado had not been seen at Holy Spirit since June 18, his first day on the job.

"His resignation is Holy Spirit Parish’s great loss," Peña read from a statement. "To help him recover his energy and tranquility, I have granted him a period of extended rest until he receives a new assignment."

Delgado will remain at the diocese and be reassigned to a different position after he recovers from the current stress of the situation, Peña said.

A local paper reported that Holy Spirit parishioners and several priests speculated that Delgado fired the four union workers under the bishop’s orders. When asked for reaction to calls for his resignation, Peña said he had nothing to do with the issue at hand.

"I haven't done anything," Peña said. "All I've done is try to bring peace to the situation. All I did is appoint a pastor."

The Rev. Jerry Frank, the priest who served at Holy Spirit from 1993 until mid-June, has publicly accused the bishop of lying and forcing Delgado to do his "dirty work for him" by firing the workers. Frank and the Rev. Amador Garza of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Rio Grande City are among those who have called for the bishop to resign.

Court proceedings underway may establish a national precedent that could provide Catholic parish employees job security that have never had. In an ironic twist, the women are being defended by the United Farmworkers Union, which received significant support from the Catholic bishops when Cesar Chavez founded it in the 1960s.

The union filed a temporary restraining order and Hidalgo County District Judge Aida Salinas ordered that the workers be reinstated immediately. On Friday, June 20, the church placed the employees on paid administrative leave. A court hearing is set for July 8.

The arbitrary firings of parish employees by priests is common in the Catholic church, where eighty-two percent of church employees at parish level are now women, according to Call to Action, a national Catholic reform group. As the number of priests declines due to age and the clergy sex abuse scandal, more women are taking up paid employment in parishes to keep their communities functioning.

The first four parishes in the U.S. to sign union contracts with their employees announced this historic move in July 2002. About 30 workers, mostly women, signed contracts with the United Farm Workers Union after the Brownsville Diocese bishop terminated their pension fund and out of fear that they would be summarily fired like workers at a nearby parish.

The new Rio Grande chapter of Call To Action is taking a lead in organizing for the reinstatement of the fired employees. More than 300 people crowded into a CTA meeting on Monday, June 22, to protest the firings and monitor the diocesan response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

For more information:
CTA's support page for the Brownsville workers

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