Equitable benefits for employees at Catholic schools?

Given the pendulum's swing back toward orthodoxy in the Catholic Church these days, one might assume that trying to get domestic partner benefits at a Catholic school would be an exercise in futility. But the University of San Francisco has developed a policy that other schools can use as a model for how to do it.

What's particularly interesting is that in developing the policy, USF took its lead from the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Under the auspices of Cardinal William Levada, who is now the Prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the same office that Pope Benedict XVI headed before becoming pope and the watchdog of orthodoxy), Levada reframed the issue of partner benefits as one of social justice rather than sexual identity. Earlier, the Archdiocese had created a special category of benefits that don't contradict the Church's teachings on morality yet fully support members of the LGBTQ community.

Peter Novak, associate dean for arts and humanities at USF, shared how the school got a similar form of domestic partner benefits with the blessings of the local Catholic church. He presented information on the school's policy at Out There: The Second National Conference of Scholars and Student Affairs Personnel Involved in LGBTQ Issues on Catholic Campuses conference held at Chicago's DePaul University in October.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

'Legally domiciled adults'

In 2003, the state of California passed Bill AB-205 requiring employers to extend the same rights and benefits to domestic partners registered with the State of California as are currently being provided to spouses of employees.

But the Jesuit-run USF was ahead of the curve, extending benefits even before the state passed the law. With 8,000 students, the school was also the first Catholic institution to offer the benefits and the only Jesuit-run one to have done so. Since the law was passed, USF's Catholic peers in California have had to develop their own responses to the issue.