The USCCB is in hot water because it is holding it’s biannual meeting at a non-union hotel in Baltimore, according to Religion News Service.
For the next five years, the nation’s Catholic bishops will hold their fall meetings at a non-union hotel in Baltimore, a break from the church’s historic support for labor that has irritated some observers. The move from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington D.C. to the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront will save money, church officials say. But a centurylong trail of papal pronouncements and Catholic social teaching says people should be put before profits, according to the Rev. Edward Boyle, director of the Archdiocese of Boston’s Institute of Industrial Relations. The bishops’ decision to meet at a non-union hotel follows two high-profile labor disputes that have pitted Catholic-owned businesses against workers.
First, nothing in the Church’s social teachings requires Catholics to support pinky-ringed union thugs and there’s no evidence that just because a worker is not in a union that he is being exploited or denied his rights. It may be Democrat dogma, but it’s not Catholic dogma.
Second, how quickly will the US bishops cave in to the union demands? For extra credit, measure it against the speed with which it pays attention to orthodox Catholic concerns about liturgical abuses, the teaching of heresy, et al.
Third, here’s an easy solution. Rather than acting like their biannual gathering is a meeting of the regional managers of Initech by meeting in some hotel’s conference room, maybe a more retreat-like setting would be helpful, say a monastery or retreat house somewhere. Yes, it wouldn’t have all the conveniences of a major business hotel in a downtown setting like high-speed Internet and high-class restaurants nearby, but it would send a very interesting message to the rest of us.
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