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Religion and the Labor movement – not living up to the standard

Two cases, highlighted below, where individuals, institutions, and a whole diocese have fallen short of the Church’s teaching on Labor.

From IWJ: Healthcare workers in Michigan–and across the country–need our support!

In his recent Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly speaks of the “grave dangers for the rights of workers” that today imperil so many of our friends and neighbors who struggle daily to provide security for their families. It is imperative that people of faith stand with those workers hoping to secure wages and benefits consistent with their dignity as children of God.

Ascension Health is the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, comprised of 37 health systems or centers in 20 states, totaling over 570 hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, labs, and other facilities. The employees of Genesys Health System, a member of Ascension Health, provide health care services in the Flint, Michigan area.

The management of Genesys is proposing severe wage, benefit, and pension cuts for several hundred of its employees. These healthcare workers are men and women committed to serving the health and welfare of the members of their communities.

On Friday, March 12, Genesys workers and their supporters traveled to the Ascension headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. to protest these wage and benefit cuts. Workers also gathered at Ascension centers in seven cities across the country – Washington, D.C., Buffalo, N.Y., Tucson, Ariz, Detroit, Flint, Mich. and Kansas City, Mo. – and held vigils before the management of Ascension and its subsidiary, Genesys Health System.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reminds us that “among the elements of a just and fair workplace [in medical and health care centers] are: fair wages, adequate benefits, safe and decent working conditions…” (See A Fair and Just Workplace: Principles and Practices for Catholic Health Care.) These things are indispensible if we hope to assure quality care for patients and dignity for working people.

As has been seen in several Labor issues over the past few years, the message often does not translate into action. While the R.C. Church is not unique in pushing out Unions, or resisting employee efforts to unionize, it should hold itself to a higher standard, especially in light of Encyclicals exhorting fair treatment of workers going back to Leo XIII.

From the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit via BNA: Ninth Circuit Nixes Seminarian’s Wage Claim, Says Exception Applies to Priest-in-Training

The First Amendment’s “ministerial exception” barred a Catholic seminarian from bringing his claim for unpaid overtime compensation against the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle under the Washington Minimum Wage Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled March 16 (Rosas v. Corp. of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, 9th Cir., No. 09-35003, 3/16/10 [pdf]).

Judge Robert R. Beezer wrote for the unanimous panel that the “ministerial exception helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here.” “The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars [Cesar] Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings,” Beezer wrote.

In affirming the lower court, Beezer found that the interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses carves out an exception to otherwise applicable statutes if enforcing them would interfere with religious organizations’ employment decisions about their ministers.

Seminarian in Ministry Training Program

Rosas was a Mexican seminarian who was required to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Wash., located in Snohomish County, as part of the ordination process for the Catholic priesthood.

Rosas and another Mexican seminarian, Jesus Alcazar, worked under the supervision of St. Mary’s parish priest, Horatio Yanez, performing some pastoral duties and doing maintenance work for the church in 2002.

In February 2006 both Rosas and Alcazar filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese alleging Yanez had sexually harassed Alcazar and that the Archdiocese fired them in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for complaining and reporting the conduct. The two men also claimed the Archdiocese had failed to pay them overtime compensation in violation of the Washington Minimum Wage Act.

Trial Court Dismisses Wage Claims

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed Rosas’s harassment claim because he had not indicated that he had been sexually harassed but allowed Alcazar’s sexual harassment claim to proceed (4 DLR A-10, 1/8/07).

Alcazar subsequently settled his sexual harassment claim against the Archdiocese and was dismissed from the lawsuit.

The district court dismissed all other claims on the pleadings as barred by the First Amendment’s ministerial exception. “This exception prohibits a court from inquiring into the decisions of a religious organization concerning the hiring, firing, promotion, rate of pay, placement or any other employment related decision concerning ministers and other non-secular employees,” the trial court said.

Ministerial Exception Applies to State Law Claims

Rosas argued on appeal that the district court had erred in dismissing his state law claim without first determining if requiring the church to pay overtime wages actually burdened the church’s religious beliefs. Second, Rosas argued that requiring the church to pay overtime wages did not implicate a protected employment decision. Finally, he claimed that the district court erred in determining on the pleadings that he was a “minister” to whom the exception applied.

The appellate panel disagreed. Beezer first clarified that although the district court had relied on precedent involving only Title VII cases, the exception also applied to state law claims.

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

“Our previous cases focus on Title VII, but our analysis in those cases compels the conclusion that the ministerial exception analysis applies to Washington’s Minimum Wage Act as well,” Beezer wrote. “Because the ministerial exception is constitutionally compelled, it applies as a matter of law across statutes, both state and federal, that would interfere with the church-minister relationship.”

Next, Beezer disposed of Rosas’s assertion that the trial court should have considered if the law “actually” burdened the church. “The [ministerial] exception was created because government interference with the church-minister relationship inherently burdens religion.”

Overtime Claim Triggers Exception

In addition, Beezer said that Rosas had misinterpreted Ninth Circuit precedent in arguing that the payment of overtime wages was not a protected employment decision that would trigger the exception.

Beezer said that Rosas admitted that his case involved the training and selection of the Catholic Church’s priests-issues the Ninth Circuit had expressly addressed in Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F. 3d 940, 81 FEP Cases 660 (9th Cir. 1999); (232 DLR AA-1, 12/3/99).

“This case thus quintessentially follows Bollard’s explanation,” Beezer wrote. “Rosas interprets our case law too narrowly. Bollard refers not only to the selection of ministers but more broadly to ’employment decisions regarding … ministers,’ ”

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception therefore encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

Finally, Beezer rejected Rosas’s argument that the district court erred in ruling on the pleadings that the exception applied because Rosas claimed that his primary duties at the church primarily involved maintenance rather than ministerial duties…

Here is some text from Judge Beezer’s decision (emphasis mine and discussed below):

“The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 18 (1947). The interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses creates an exception to an otherwise fully applicable statute if the statute would interfere with a religious organization’s employment decisions regarding its ministers. Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F.3d 940, 944, 946-47 (9th Cir. 1999). This “ministerial exception” helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here. In this case, plaintiff Cesar Rosas seeks pay for the overtime hours he worked as a seminarian in a Catholic church in Washington. The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 1 and we affirm.

…

Cesar Rosas and Jesus Alcazar were Catholic seminarians in Mexico. The Catholic Church required them to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Washington as their next step in becoming ordained priests. At St. Mary, Rosas and Alcazar allegedly suffered retaliation for claiming that Father YanezCurrently Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Seattle, WA. sexually harassed Alcazar, and they eventually sued Father Yanez and the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle (“defendants”) under Title VII. 2 In addition, Rosas and Alcazar sued under supplemental jurisdiction for violations of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act for failure to pay overtime wages. See Wash. Rev. Code § 49.46.130. The district court dismissed the overtime wage claims on the pleadings, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), and Rosas’s overtime wage claim is the only issue on appeal.

…

Because the judgment was on the pleadings, the pleadings alone must be sufficient to support the district court’s judgment. We thus base our decision on the very few allegations in Rosas’s complaint. Rosas alleges as follows:

1.3 … The Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle hosted [Rosas] as [a] participant[ ] in a training/pastoral ministry program for the priesthood.
. . . .
2.2 Cesar Rosas entered the seminary to become a Catholic priest in 1995 in Mexico.
2.3 As part of [his] preparation for ordination into the priesthood, the Catholic Church required [Rosas] to engage in a ministerial placement outside [his] diocese, under the supervision of a pastor of the parish into which [he was] placed. The Archdiocese of Seattle sends seminarians to Mexico and has Mexican seminarians come to its parishes. [Rosas was] placed in St. Mary Parish in Marysville, Washington under the supervision of defendant Fr. Horatio Yanez.
. . . .
2.10 … [Rosas] was hired to do maintenance of the church and also assisted with Mass. He … worked many overtime hours he was not compensated for.

First, I think the Court erred in defining exactly what a minister is. Is a seminarian a minister of the R.C. Church? It could be argued that in the Roman Church, prior to Vatican II, most seminarians were ministers of the Church since they were likely tonsured and deemed clerics entitled to beneficences (the civil benefits then enjoyed by clerics)This is still the case in the PNCC, where seminarians enter the clerical state via tonsure..

In this day and age a R.C. seminarian is no more a minister than your average lay person. They receive no beneficence from the Roman Church (health care, salary, stipend, room and board), nor are they entitled to carry out any ministry different than your average lay person (men and women both who may serve at the altar, distribute the Holy Eucharist – yuk, read the lessons, etc.). The average seminarian is just a student and a “civilian” with a vocational choice.

Next, seminaries are open to any lay person who may engage in a variety of ‘ministries’ or jobs in the Church. It is definitely no exclusive club and there is no real differentiation any longer. Any person may be in a training program related to their studies (an internship/externship) which makes the work these seminarians were doing no different from your average pew dweller. The Court, and likely the defendant’s lawyers, missed that point

Additionally, look at the work they were “hired” to do. The Archdiocese of Seattle took these university educated Mexicans, and in typically American fashion, made them maintenance men who also happened to serve as altar boys from time-to-time. It would only have been worse if the Archdiocese would have had them go out and pick crops. There is definitely something wrong here. If the ministerial teaching was to be about menial labor and humility, why not send them to a monastery?

Judge Beezer quoted the Fifth Circuit’s holding that if a person (1) is employed by a religious institution, (2) was chosen for the position based ‘largely on religious criteria,’ and (3) performs some religious duties … that person is a ‘minister’ for purposes of the ministerial exception,” What was missed was that the choice of these individuals for this service had very little to do with religious criteria and more to do with whether they had strong backs. Further, the religious duties portion of the test likely fails because the ministerial or religious portion of the training was so de minimis as to be almost non-existant.

So did the Court err in finding that these men were engaged in ministerial training? Absolutely! There was no ministerial training going on. These two young men were merely janitors, and the whole escapade a scam aimed at obtaining cheap labor. What happened here was wage theft, all disguised as “ministerial training;” another example of actions inconsistent with teaching.

As the Seattle Herald reported:

The two seminarians became disillusioned by the experience and have given up their quest to become priests…

“Both these young men had a lifelong dream of being priests,”… “It’s emotionally damaging when your lifelong dream and your spiritual vocation is shattered by the very people you entrusted that dream to.”

So much possibility wasted in a world plagued by a shortage of men willing to offer their lives for worship of God and service to His people. A sad case, and a case teetering on the edge of going the other way if all the facts had been established.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor

You can now pre-order Interfaith Worker Justice’s new book: A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor.

Next month Orbis Books is publishing A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor, an exciting anthology compiled by IWJ that will be a vital resource for seminaries, congregational study groups, social justice committees, labor unions, and beyond.

The book is organized into five parts:

  1. Crisis for U.S. Workers
  2. Religion-Labor History
  3. What Our Religious Traditions Say about Work
  4. Theology and the Ethics of Work
  5. The Religion-Labor Movement Today

I will be picking up a copy. I wonder if the role of the PNCC in Labor history will be included, as well as the role played by organizations like the Polish National Alliance (An interesting history, the PNA is generally non-sectarian and was a close ally of the PNCCMany PNCC Parishes had PNA Lodges, some more than one Lodge. The PNA and PNCC were united in their goals of organizing Poles in the United States for their own betterment, service to their homeland, and at the time independence for Poland. The PNA’s non-sectarian character (membership included Roman Catholics, PNC Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Poles of no denominational affiliation) led to accusations that it was communist, anti-clerical, engaged in organizing secret societies, and all sorts of other evils — generally from a cadre of Polish R.C. priests, most especially Rev. Wincenty Barzynski, a Resurrectionist priest in Chicago and co-founder of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. There were movements throughout the Alliance’s history to bar non-Roman Catholics from membership. They generally failed. As time has progressed, the Alliance while remaining non-sectarian, has assumed a more Roman Catholic identity. See Polish-American politics in Chicago, 1888-1940 By Edward R. Kantowicz, especially Chapter 3, ppg 28-37. in supporting Labor).

You can pre-order a copy online or by phone (call 800-258-5838 and use code WJR for FREE shipping) or through your local bookstore.

For suggestions on incorporating the Reader into your curriculum, contact Rev. April McGlothin-Eller, IWJ’s Student Programs Coordinator, at (773) 728-8400, ext. 21, or by E-mail.

Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

What’s wrong with this article?

PolishNews recently reprinted an article by Daniel Pogorzelski originally published in the July 2009 edition of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society’s Newsletter (see page 14). The article is quite interesting, and covers the history of Avondale and Chicago’s Polish Village.

Nestled between the stately Greystones of Logan Square and the weathered Victorians of Old Irving, Chicago’s Avondale community area, is filled with some of the Northwest Side’s most unique architecture with its characteristic mix of steeples, smokestacks and two-flats.

While today Avondale is chiefly associated with the famous “Polish Village” along Milwaukee Avenue centered around St. Hyacinth Basilica and St. Wenceslaus Church in the district’s western half, diverse ethnicities have contributed over time to the area’s rich narrative.

Avondale’s history begins as part of the quiet prairie area surrounding Chicago in what would be incorporated as Jefferson Township in 1850. Two of the old Native American trails through the area were planked, becoming the Upper and Lower Northwest Plank Roads, routes traversed largely by truck farmers en route to sell their goods at the Randolph Street Market. Known to us today as Milwaukee and Elston Avenues, these two diagonal thoroughfares break up the monotony of the city’s ever-present grid…

Well enough. Wondering what is wrong with the article? Here it is:

By 1894 St. Hyacinth’s Roman Catholic Parish was founded for Poles in an attempt to pre-empt the establishment of a schismatic parish by the Polish National Catholic Church.

While such a statement would be perfectly acceptable in a Roman Catholic publication, because it does represent the Roman Catholic point-of-view, it does not belong in a historical study or essay. What should a reader infer, especially in this day and age when fewer and fewer even understand the meaning of “schismatic?” This is, after all, supposed to be a history, not a discussion of Church politics, polity, or theology. Further, the article discusses other Parishes established in the area, including the Allen Church (an African-American congregation and the oldest church in the area) as well as German and Swedish Lutheran congregations. The article is conspicuous in not taking those congregations to task for the Reformation…

The article might have discussed the Kozlowski movement in Chicago, the fact that the Roman Catholic Church reacted to the PNCC by appointing the first native Pole as a Suffragen Bishop in Chicago in 1908, that in response to Bishop Hodur’s consecration in 1907, or any amount of historical data that might help a reader to understand the religious and political environment in the neighborhood.

From looking at the Historical Society’s mission statement, no where can I discern that this is a sectarian organization. As such, its newsletter and publications, if they are to reflect history, should be edited more carefully. In the alternative, articles should be labeled as personal opinion, or as biased sectarian histories.

The PNCC has had its role in the history of this neighborhood, and a proper historical exposition on the neighborhood should reflect balance while avoiding sectarian pejoratives.

Christian Witness, , ,

St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Second Annual 3K walk

From friend, Fr. Stepanos Doudoukjian, Director of Youth and Vocations for the Armenian Apostolic Church in the United States: The St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Second Annual 3K walk is just a few weeks away. The walk will take place on Sunday, April 11th following Badarak at 10am, a light lunch at noon, and the 3k walk beginning at 1pm.

The 3K walk has turned into a fun, healthy and spiritual way to raise money for St. Nersess Seminary which really needs your support right about now. There are 4 seminarians who will be graduating in May and who will be serving in parishes within the year. The seminary expects possibly four more new seminarians in the fall of 2010. It is an exciting time for St. Nersess and they could use your support.

If you wish to support the efforts of our friends at St. Nersess, please send your checks payable to St. Nersess and mail them to St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, 150 Stratton Road, New Rochelle, NY.

Current Events, , ,

Addressing the Needs of Diverse Learners Through the Arts

The VSA Institute is hosting a workshop: Addressing the Needs of Diverse Learners Through the Arts at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on Wednesday, March 24, from 9AM to 4:30PM.

This participatory workshop will explore the different ways in which students with (and without) disabilities learn through the arts. The goal is to give participants functional and realistic strategies that can be applied immediately in classroom and educational practices. Presenters will focus on more than one art form and curriculum connections, and the wisdom amongst the participants in the room will be honored.

The workshop facilitators are Ms. Jaehn Clare, Director of Artistic Development, VSA arts of Georgia and Mr. Russell Granet, Director, Arts Education Resource. For more information and to register, please visit the New York State Alliance for Arts Education website.

Current Events, Media, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , , , ,

From the Cosmopolitan Review (and exciting news)

From the December 2009 issue of the Cosmopolitan Review, published by the alumni of Poland in the Rockies, a biennial symposium in Polish studies held at Canmore, Alberta.

Cosmopolitan Review Turns One

Work on this issue was in full swing before we suddenly realized that this is actually an anniversary issue. Cosmopolitan Review has turned one year old. Thanks for joining us on this adventure and stick around. It’s going to be a fun ride.

EXCITING NEWS: Poland in the Rockies Announces 2010 Symposium

Poland in the Rockies, the 10-day Polish studies symposium in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, is set for July 21-31, 2010. The slate of speakers is already posted on the website and it guarantees the liveliest exchange of ideas to be found anywhere between the Rockies and the Tatras.

FEATURE Americans in Warsaw

What can I say about Poland, after one month in Warsaw? That the Poles have become more American than the Americans? If not entirely accurate, like other facile observations, there’s a grain of truth here. Part of the reason is that Poles are doing well these days. By Wanda Urbanska.

REVIEWS The Polish Review

Someone once joked that the best thing about reading Reviews is that you can discuss the books at dinner parties without actually having to read them. Well, if you read the very best of the Reviews there is an element of truth in that, though do bear in mind that not all Reviews are created equal…

CONVERSATIONS A few questions for…Prof. Marek Suszko

As we reflect on the 20 years since the fall of communism in Europe and ponder what the future may hold, CR recently had a chance to ask a few questions of Professor Marek Suszko, who teaches at the Department of History at Loyola University in Chicago. He shared some insight about the positive developments that have taken place in Poland since 1989, the country’s role in the EU and its relationship with the United States.

HISTORY The Noble and Compassionate Heart of the Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijay Sinhi

Between August 1942 and November 1946, close to 1,000 Polish children and their guardians lived in idyllic settlements on the Kathiawar Peninsula in India not far from the summer residence of the Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijay Sinhi. They had come at the Maharaja’s invitation from orphanages in Ashkabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, and Samarkand … by Irene Tomaszewski.

FOOD for thought Google, Poland, cultural projections

Artist Ian Wojtowicz, a 2008 PitR alumnus, has put together an interactive animation inviting reflection about identity. TRY it (This is really cool!)

Op-Ed The Pole Position: be like Dexter and tap into your inner glee for success

Young professionals face a tough climb. They’re full of ambition, talent and determination, but the climb is often a tough one. The competition is plentiful and opportunities sparse. How than do you stand out from among the crowd? A hard work ethic and wisdom is important; but people also like working with those that they find interesting. By Filip Terlecki.

…and more.

Perspective, Political, , ,

IWJ sponsors Public Policy Training

Save the Date for Interfaith Worker Justice’s Public Policy Training!
March 14th-16th – Chicago

Learn from experts on the IWJ national staff and local organizational leaders. The trainers bring extensive experience in interfaith organizing, worker and union campaigns, and organizational development.

This Training is designed for:

  • Organizers with faith-based organizations or workers centers
  • Board members, leaders, or volunteers of interfaith organizations
  • Religious or community outreach staff of unions

Sessions covering…

  • How you can be involved in moving federal, state, and local legislation?
  • How to engage in multi-racial alliance building around policy issues?
  • How to engage labor and religious leaders in your policy goals?
  • The current status of Immigration, Jobs, and Wage Theft campaigns and legislation?

IWJ National Office
1020 W Bryn Mawr, 4th floor
Chicago, IL 60660

More information on registration and costs is available at the IWJ website.

Perspective, Political, , , , ,

Filibuster, how did that Liberum Veto work out for you?

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” — Edmund Burke

The current method of filibuster being used in the U.S. Senate reminds me of the corrupted version of the Liberum Veto as practiced during the periods in which the Polish Commonwealth was weakened.

From Wikipedia: Liberum veto (emphasis mine):

[The] Liberum Veto (Latin for I freely forbid) was a parliamentary device in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It allowed any member of the Sejm to force an immediate end to the current session and nullify all legislation already passed at it by shouting Nie pozwalam! (Polish: I do not allow!).

From the mid-sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, the Polish—“Lithuanian Commonwealth utilized the liberum veto, a form of unanimity voting rule, in its parliamentary deliberations. The “principle of liberum veto played an important role in [the] emergence of the unique Polish form of constitutionalism.” This constraint on the powers of the monarch were significant in making the “rule of law, religious tolerance and limited constitutional government … the norm in Poland in times when the rest of Europe was being devastated by religious hatred and despotism.”

This rule evolved from a unanimity principle (unanimous consent), and the latter from the federative character of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was essentially a federation of countries. Each deputy to a Sejm was elected at a local regional sejm (sejmik) and represented the entire region. He thus assumed responsibility to his sejmik for all decisions taken at the Sejm. A decision taken by a majority against the will of a minority (even if only a single sejmik) was considered a violation of the principle of political equality.

…

In the first half of the 18th century, it became increasingly common for Sejm sessions to be broken up by liberum veto, as the Commonwealth’s neighbours —” chiefly Russia and Prussia —” found this a useful tool to frustrate attempts at reforming and strengthening the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth deteriorated from a European power into a state of anarchy.

Many historians hold that a major cause of the Commonwealth’s downfall was the principle of liberum veto. Thus deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers, or simply content to believe they were living in some kind of “Golden Age”, for over a century paralysed the Commonwealth’s government, stemming any attempts at reform.

In the past, the U.S. Senate was governed by a high degree of decorum. It was the house of slow deliberation, and where disagreement arose, it arose in a gentlemanly form. As with the way the Liberum Veto was used as part of proper deliberation, the atmosphere of discourse and compromise had worked to strengthen the country.

In momemts of severe disagreement, a Senator could rise and invoke a filibuster (as everyone points to, recall Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). The Senator invoking the filibuster had to occupy the floor and continue deliberation, expounding on the reasons he was against the legislation or otherwise wasting time. It was a personal effort at blocking legislation.

Certainly, power and politics played a role in the past, but not to the extent to which it has over the past 20 years. We have moved from a proper system of checks and balances to the misuse of such, much as the Liberum Veto came to be misused. In this day, one Senator may simply state that he disagrees with some legislation, nomination, or treaty and retire to his golf game while that issue remains blocked indefinitely. Any issue may now become the hostage of any one man.

In order to move past the filibuster a super majority is required. In effect, most legislation now requires a super majority to get past the whim of any one Senator. Our government in general, and particularly any effort at substantive reform, may be brought to a grinding halt. As with the corruption of the Liberum Veto, a Senator’s objections are no longer personal, deeply held beliefs that a Senator was forced to defend in person. They are no longer part of the art of gentlemanly disagreement. The filibuster is a weapon in the hands of every Senator doing the bidding of his masters, i.e., the interest groups, lobbyists, and moneychangers.

The danger of the corrupted Liberum Veto lives on in the form of Senate filibusters under current Senate rules. While the filibuster does have a role in defending the opinion of the minority, it should not be used to permanently impede the will of the majority. That is not how the framers envisioned our system. More dangers lie ahead. The filibuster in the hands of a Senator kowtowing to a foreign power (Israel, China) will further speed the end of the American experiment. It is time to get this powerful tool back in check.

Perspective, Political, ,

Libertarian faith

From Christian Newswire: Lithuanian Priest and Free Market Advocate to Receive Acton Institute’s 2010 Novak Award

Lithuanian scholar and Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Kstutis Kevalas, is the winner of the Acton Institute’s 2010 Novak Award.

During the past nine years, Fr. Kstutis Kevalas has initiated a new debate in Lithuania, introducing the topic of free market economics to religious believers, and presenting a new set of hitherto unknown questions to economists. Fr. Kevalas is a respected figure and well known expert on Christian social ethics, the free market, and human dignity to the people of his home country. In addition to his active work as a speaker and pastor at national events, he serves as a lecturer on moral theology at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.

After studies at the Kaunas Priest Seminary and St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Md., Fr. Kevalas was ordained to the priesthood in 2000. In 2001, he received his Licentiate Degree in Theology writing the thesis “Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Development: A Case Study of Lithuania.” He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology with his thesis on “The Origins and Ends of the Free Economy as Portrayed in the Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus” in 2008.

Named after distinguished American theologian and social philosopher Michael Novak, the Novak Award rewards new outstanding research by scholars early in their academic careers who demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit in advancing the understanding of theology’s connection to human dignity, the importance of limited government, religious liberty, and economic freedom…

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