The Archdiocese of St. Louis said Monday that it had eliminated 25 part-time and full-time positions late last week.All the layoffs came within the curia, the agencies and offices of the archdiocese that assist the archbishop in his pastoral and administrative duties.
The 25 positions represent 6 percent of the jobs within the archdiocese's administrative and educational offices, not including Catholic Charities.
"This was principally because of the downturn in the economy," said Frank Chauvin, the archdiocese's chief financial officer. "The curia relies quite heavily on investment income."
No education jobs were affected, but layoffs occurred in a broad array of the archdiocese's central administrative departments, including the finance office, the disability ministry, the office of apostolic services, the St. Louis Review, the office of communications, the office of worship and the diaconate office.
Chauvin said the archdiocese's human rights office will no longer exist as a stand-alone agency. Instead, its work will continue through offices such as the St. Charles Lwanga Center, the Hispanic Ministry Office and Catholic Charities.
Monsignor Vernon Gardin, who leads the curia, said all the employees laid off will receive "severance, job counseling and extended health care."
The archdiocese has been without a permanent leader since June when Pope Benedict XVI named former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to be the head of the Vatican's supreme court. Bishop Robert Hermann, Burke's auxiliary, is serving as the archdiocese's interim leader.
While a new St. Louis archbishop is rumored to be imminent, whoever is named will face difficult financial realities that mirror those in the economy.
In November, the archdiocese said its revenue dropped 37 percent in 2008 because of decreases in investment income and contributions. Those numbers reflected a fiscal year that ended June 30, a couple of months before the worst of the economic crisis hit.
The archdiocese has assembled "resource teams" to help 40 parishes that "are experiencing financial difficulties and need help balancing their budgets," Chauvin said. He said those parishes are spread throughout the archdiocese but are concentrated in the city and in rural areas.
"We have a group of people to help them figure out how to do things like balance their budgets, but if they can't, they might have to make tough decisions as we just did," Chauvin said.
Gardin said that while the layoffs "may seem dire at first," they were the result of archdiocesan officials "being prudent and proactive."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: STLT)