#catholicschoolsweek

“Catholic school graduates benefit from a quality education and an awareness that they are being called to a unique vocation,” – Ted “Mr. K” Kanelopoulos, Principal of La Salle High School of Yakima

Signs above the doors of La Salle High School display one of the schools’ mottos: “Enter to learn, leave to serve.” As the principal of La Salle High, LMU scholar Ted Kanelopoulos introduces students to experiences of service, service immersion and conversations about justice. For him, “Faith in action” is the Gospel being experienced in the lives of the young people he serves.

Student: *asks a stupid question*

In closing out Catholic Schools Week, we want to reshare Leah’s story about working for the church.

Catholic churches and schools tend to pay their employees less than a living wage.

Public school teachers make much more than their Catholic school teacher counterparts.

And we think that this needs to be talked about more.

For those of you that still work, or have ever worked for the church, our hearts are with you. And we wish a living wage upon you and your household.

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Negative $187.42. Fuck. A payment went through but my direct deposit didn’t, yet again. I go to text the director of the office that was supposed to pay me. They’re not sure what happened, yet again.

This side gig doing marketing work for the Church that laid me off during the pandemic was supposed to hold me over while I was doing my fellowship program in NYC. After the ten hour work day at the school I get home to my “free” apartment and log in some more hours, for a job that didn’t pay me, yet again.

I think back to when I was a teen, gushing over stories about my sweet youth minister serving in Micronesia after college. All my life I had heard, “When you give to God, God gives you more.” I was starting to think maybe that quote didn’t apply to a lower middle class girl from the Inland Empire.

Manhattan was no Micronesia. An island, yes, but Micronesia, no. The Jesuit high school that was offering us “experience” and a “way to serve” gave us a hard time about a grocery stipend but had no issue giving us tickets to Sunday’s Giants game that the board members didn’t want to go to. Was this the “more” God was giving me? My negative bank account wasn’t feeling loved by God.

In times like these, I think of the poor widow in the Gospel who gave her last few coins. She was praised. But did she have enough? The Gospel doesn’t tell us the rest of the story. Like girl, did you have to do that? Was she able to make it to the next meal? Did she have enough money to get herself a little treat? Was she, like me, wondering where her next everything bagel was coming from? Why did she have to give all that she had to live on?

For a Church that is supposed to be refuge for the poor, why must one give every ounce of their livelihood to show God love? According to the papal encyclicals, every worker is owed a living wage, yet every Catholic institution I have worked for has never paid me a living wage.