Using " Faith " as a Weapon !

The Roman Catholic Church has fired a warning shot across the bow of the coming postal vote on same sex marriage.   The Archbishop of Melbourne has warned that if the legislation becomes legal in Australia  the church might dismiss employees who enter into marriages that run counter to church teachings.

This is obviously a scare tactic to try and influence the 180,000  Australians directly employed by the church to record a " no " vote in this postal plebiscite.  It is a thinly veiled inducement to vote in the interests of the church and its dogma or face job insecurity.  The main avenues of Catholic lay employment in Australia are in education and health.

The Archbishop went on to say that Catholic schools and parishes exist to teach the Catholic view of marriage and any words or actions that work contrary to that end would  be viewed  very seriously. This seems to be run contrary to the experience in overseas countries where same sex marriage is legal and employment is unchanged in Catholic institutions.

In its original form, Catholic schools and hospitals were staffed with Nuns and Priests who did not draw salaries.  Rapid expansion overwhelmed this source of labour and the church began employing members of the public - with preference for practising Catholics.  The sheer job volume and the need for qualified people has diluted the incidence of Catholics in that workforce and now many non Catholics serve in all levels of the command structure.

If same sex marriage advances to a parliamentary vote the form it will take is yet to be decided, and what exemptions may apply are as yet unknown, but it is certain that they will run in tandem with stringent anti discrimination rulings.  This Catholic workforce already includes homosexuals and many couples cohabitating without the vows of marriage and such lifestyles are discreetly ignored by the church.

There is probably an existing preferential promotional bias in Catholic employment.  In situations where two people are nominated for a higher posting - and one is Catholic and the other not - and their qualifications are similar, it is likely that preference will be given to the Catholic contender.
That may be exacerbated where a same sex couple hold a very public and media covered wedding and one is a prominent position holder in a Catholic institution.   Discretion may be wise so as to not offend the Catholic viewpoint.

It is unlikely that the Archbishops warning will cut much ice with many Catholics. The attitude of the church has been more conciliatory in recent times as it struggles to cope with a hard line attitude emerging in Africa and Asia and a sharp moderation of the dogma acceptable in western countries.  It has not changed its viewpoint, but it has learned to live with changing attitudes and ignore lifestyle changes that differ from its teachings.

The fact that this issue is coming to a public vote means the Catholic church must publicly voice its opposition to what is a fundamental rejection of its teachings.  Once that legislation becomes law it will still be opposed, but with a weary resignation that goes along with so much other lifestyle that runs contrary to its views.   After all, same sex marriage is only affixing an official name on what has been openly practised for many decades.