“Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” – James 5:4
It would be difficult to argue that there has ever in history been a greater emphasis on matters of social justice within the Church. Pope Francis has made economic conditions — particularly those that lead to youth unemployment — one of the principle concerns of his pontificate, as has been seen in many of his personal statements, along with his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
But if the light is being shown on inequality and poverty in a particularly focused way in the 21st century, it hardly begins and ends there. The Church has long taught that defrauding a worker of his wages is one of the four sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance (CCC 1867). In his landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII echoed the words of St. James:
Doubtless, before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered; but wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this – that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven. “Behold, the hire of the laborers… which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” Lastly, the rich must religiously refrain from cutting down the workmen’s earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing; and with all the greater reason because the laboring man is, as a rule, weak and unprotected, and because his slender means should in proportion to their scantiness be accounted sacred. Were these precepts carefully obeyed and followed out, would they not be sufficient of themselves to keep under all strife and all its causes?
Again, Pope Pius XI took up the cause in Quadragesimo Anno. He made an important distinction, however, when it came to those businesses which themselves were deprived of enough revenue to pay their workers justly:
[I]f the business in question is not making enough money to pay the workers an equitable wage because it is being crushed by unjust burdens or forced to sell its product at less than a just price, those who are thus the cause of the injury are guilty of grave wrong, for they deprive workers of their just wage and force them under the pinch of necessity to accept a wage less than fair.
While these moral and theological examinations of justice in wages are most often seen as a critique of large companies or of wealthy individuals in whose employ workers may suffer from scarce earnings due to greed, there are, in the modern world, some additional perpetrators often encountered by the Catholic who attempts to engage in industrious commerce.
First, there is the problem of working for the Church herself. There is no surer path to financial insolvency than for a hard worker to direct their energies towards some form of full-time Catholic apostolate, or to slave away for long hours as a Director of Religious Education, or to teach at a Catholic school. I have known not a few teachers who have received scandalously low wages for their efforts – wages so low that they could no doubt earn more flipping burgers. I have seen DREs forced to live on less than subsistence wages, relying instead indefinitely on government welfare programs to shore up their income so that they may feed and (usually insufficiently) house their dependents. This becomes a particular problem if they embody the Catholic ethos of “oppenness to life” and have a large family.
I suspect few individuals have ever had aspirations of becoming wealthy while working for the Church, but by the Church’s own teaching, the worker in a Catholic apostolate or school should expect to “be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family.” (QA 71) It is inexcusably hypocritical that the same clergy who wield the Church’s social teaching as a weapon against the titans of industry — often claiming that this is a non-negotiable moral imperative — often fail so completely when it comes to applying this standard to those under their own employ.
What a scandal it is to see dioceses paying out millions of dollars in abuse lawsuits, all while their own staff have been chronically underpaid – and often poorly treated. Just ask the young teacher I know, a father of four, who moved across the country to take his first job — underpaid, with no benefits — at a Catholic school a few years ago. He was summarily fired just a few days before Christmas, after the completion of only one semester. Why? Not because he wasn’t working diligently, but because his inexperience — a known factor when he was hired — had caused some complaints from parents over the difficulty of the tests he administered to his students. This was a problem the school administration decided it would be easier to deal with by removing him from his position rather than coaching him through. He was left stranded in an unfamiliar city without a support network, unable to pay his rent, or feed his family.
How’s that for social justice?
The median household income in America is roughly $52,000 a year. Contrast that against most teachers at private Catholic schools, who often make less than $30,000 a year. These jobs once belonged to priests and nuns who were not paid for their work, but that era is gone. With religious vocations chronically diminished, laymen are going to have to keep filling the void. And well they should.
But how can they if they can’t keep food on the table?
Second, there is the problem of Catholics doing business with other Catholics. It is an all-too-frequent occurrence that when Catholic business owners find occasion to work with fellow Catholics — be it from their parish, or referrals from family or friends — there is a presumption that any products or services they offer should be given at a deeply discounted rate, if not entirely for free.
To give one example that hits close to home: because we have a large family and are unable to get by on a single income, my wife works as a real estate agent and broker, which allows her to work mostly from home. While her fees are negotiable, she has a set percentage that she typically charges for a long list of services that she provides. This includes not just an enormous investment of her time, but also of money. If she’s selling a house for a client, she pays up front and out of her own pocket for professional photography, marketing materials, custom websites, telephone answering services, showing services, interior staging consultations, food and drink for open houses, and the distribution of listing information or marketing materials to thousands of websites and other agents. She pays thousands of dollars a year in dues and continuing education to maintain her license and access to the Multiple Listing Service. Additionally, I’ve watched her act as a general contractor, completely designing and overseeing remodeling projects — sometimes lasting weeks — just to help her clients get every dollar they can out of their home sale.
For this, she receives not one penny until the home is sold.
As a buyer’s agent, she drives people to dozens of homes at her own expense, writes countless carefully-constructed contracts, negotiates every detail in her client’s favor, and often walks the less-experienced agent on the other side of the deal through the process. She sometimes works with these clients for as long as a year before they find the right home. She works mornings, nights, and weekends — sometimes even while pregnant — and almost always takes calls unless she’s sleeping, at dinner, or in Mass. She works very, very hard.
And again, she does not get paid until a closing happens, no matter how long it takes or how much money she’s put in.
But she’s lost tens of thousands of dollars in fees over the years by working with Catholic clients who for various reasons say they can’t — or won’t — pay her for services rendered, often after they have already agreed to do so. Others will only enter into an agreement with her if she is willing to work for a fraction of her usual rate on the basis, ostensibly, of our shared faith. She is expected to understand why she is being asked to work for almost nothing. After all, we’re all in this together, aren’t we? We all know what it’s like to have not a lot of extra money and a lot of extra kids, right?
Yes. We do. Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, why it’s so important that we get paid for the work we do. I know very few people who show up at their office job week in and week out and are OK with not receiving a paycheck on time – or at all. Why should this be any different?
My wife has a big heart. I’ve seen her agree time and again — against her better judgment — to help out a Catholic family in need. We do know what it’s like for things to be financially difficult. We live it every day. But this almost always requires more work than usual, due not only to the challenges presented by the client’s financial constraints, but also because for some reason despite their insistence on paying pennies on the dollar, these same clients are often unreasonably demanding. At the end of these transactions, we not only earn less, but often, nothing at all. In some cases, these same clients have ignored the professional advice they’ve hired my wife to give them, have consequently gotten upset when they didn’t get the results they wanted, and then handed their business to someone else (who always promises to do it even cheaper) after she has already invested months of time, money, and effort.
Yes, there are agreements in place. Yes, they are legally enforceable. But why should that even be an option? Why should a Catholic business owner be forced to consider litigation against a Catholic client to receive fair pay for services rendered? Should not fairness and justice and virtue rule the day? Shouldn’t Catholics be, if we believe what we say we believe, a pleasure to do business with? Should we not always be able to trust each other to act in good faith, with honesty and integrity?
Curious if it was just our experience, I reached out to others. Each respondent said they had had similar experiences. None contradicted it. One put it succinctly:
When I was in the private sector, I made it a policy to avoid doing business with faithful Catholics. If they were my customer, they expected me to do everything for free; if I was their customer, they thought they could do half-ass work and I would not complain because we were both practicing Catholics. Ugh.
Do we really believe that our shared faith in Christ and His Church entitles us to handouts? To unearned charity? To being not frugal, but cheap? Should we not be the upstanding members of our own communities, practicing ethics in all of our business affairs, paying agreed-upon prices fairly, and ensuring, to the extent that we are able, that we pay our legitimate debts? Certainly, there are hard times that all of us fall upon. Certainly, there are real situations where charity is required, and where pro bono work is needed. But these situations should be clearly understood up front, and voluntarily entered into – not considered the status quo and simply expected.
While it is true that we have encountered Catholic clients over the years who are a joy to work with, and true examples of justice and fairness, it is unfortunately the case that they are in the minority. It is a shame when Catholics are less virtuous in their business dealings than those members of society who reject our Christian values, but nonetheless understand that a fair day’s work should be met with a fair day’s pay.
As Catholics, we should demand more of ourselves, and of our our brethren in Christ.
I perform all of my parish work gratis. They could never afford me.
Same. The priests at my parish also know that my skills (and those of other parishioners) are valuable, and don’t take advantage. When they ask me to do something, I do it if I can fit it into my schedule, which is most of the time.
But yeah, I’d never offer a discounted rate. The second I charge a single penny, even if by hourly rate I’d make more at McDonald’s, whoever I’m doing the favor gets entitled.
My parish doesn’t want my time. They want my money. They take my time because if they didn’t, they suspect I wouldn’t give them my money. 😉
I think that people need to be wary of becoming “professional Catholics,” by which I mean drawing an income from your Faith. (Of course, I exempt from this those who have taken actual vows as religious.) I’ve come across far too many people who think that if they found an apostolate, people should contribute enough in donations to make that apostolate a paying job. Most teachers in Catholic schools also receive free or deeply discounted tuition for their children. It’s also important to remember that no one forces you to work for a church or a Catholic school. You enter into a contract to work for the amount offered. You always have the option to walk away from the bargaining table and find a higher-paying offer. Paid staff members for Churches are a very recent development. (I remember parishes having only one secretary, possibly a housekeeper, and everything else being handled by volunteers.) Yes, in the absence of an adequate number of priests and nuns, someone has to do the labor. But, just as teaching was not really designed to be a profession which could support a family, being a DRE or paid ministry leader is probably not the way to go if you are the breadwinner for your family. My husband might like to be in a position within a parish (that would be far less stressful, require much less travel, and not demand 24/7 availability), but that is not about to sustain our large family. Any labor the Church receives from us is volunteer, in addition to our contributions.
I have to agree about the Professional Catholics.
Many an empty nester has found her “call to ministry” in filling a need. However, once the need is met, suddenly she is making “needs” to perpetuate her ministry and now is begging everyone to “prayerfully consider opening your heart”, which is code for wallet.
For the other workers in a parish, one must remember basically we pay our own salary.
I spent a whole lot of years volunteering at my parish while more and more select people began to be paid. While the youth leader was padding her paycheck with “Bible Study” at the coffee shop near her house, all the CCD teachers and DREs were still volunteer. Most of us just thought our reward came after this life.
What a silly thing to say. So work is less valuable as its content becomes more essential?
I work more hours running 1P5 and do more jobs than I ever did even when I was an association executive. I believe in producing a quality product, and I spare no effort in pursuit of that end.
Should I not be able to do this full time because it can be considered an apostolate? Should I not treat it as a business?
If you want good work done by talented people, you can’t expect it will be done for free. When it comes to the Church, we’re especially in need of good work right now.
Steve, there is a difference between 1P5 and a mom in a parish who thinks we should all send undergarments to the poor kids in Romania. When she wants everyone to support her and her ministry. You are filling a need, the mom is making a need.
I think that is who Jude (and for sure I) was talking about.
There is a difference, but I didn’t see that distinction in the comment.
I can’t see any way around the idea that right now, I am a “professional Catholic.” But considering the state of affairs in the Church, being a professional Catholic seems needed to me. Someone has to be the grownup in the room.
You can still be the grownup in the room without getting paid for it. And the second you start expecting to get paid for being the Catholic grownup in the room is when the bitterness sets in that other people aren’t paying you for it. Give with a joyful heart.
Sorry, I’m not going to feel guilty for trying to earn a living. This is my job. I’m happy to compare my workload to anyone. There’s no way you can run a publication that delivers significant value in your spare time.
Why is my work worth less than anyone else’s just because its aim is the propagate the faith? Did scripture say that a workman is only worth his wages if he engages in secular pursuits? If a carpenter builds an altar, or a stonemason builds a chapel, or a goldsmith fashions a chalice, should they not be paid?
If I can’t make it doing this, I’ll do something else. But I’m not going to back down from the fact that it’s perfectly legitimate to do this for a living. Would you say the same if I were writing about sports or technology instead of the faith? What makes this effort less worthwhile than others?
You have stated that there is no surer path to financial insolvency. There is a difference between the value of your work and what you can earn doing that work. A whole lot of stay at home moms are making nothing. That doesn’t mean their work is without value or their efforts less worthwhile.
I have contributed to your site, because I don’t mind supporting your efforts and the content. Do I think this is likely to be an endeavor that supports a family? No, I don’t. In both the case of Catholic content and undergarments for Romanians, someone sees a need. And others can choose to support that need or not. In doing so does that mean they need to also support it to the extent that it becomes a paying job? Should the person who decides that Romanians need undergarments expect people to not only supply the undergarments but also a salary for her to make this her profession? I don’t think such an obligation exists.
And I don’t think for a second that my comment was “silly.” I know a lot of Catholics starting ministries or businesses that they see as a ministry who become bitter because other Catholics aren’t supporting their ministry to the extent that it can be a paid profession for them. Meanwhile the majority of Catholics are working at jobs and professions completely unrelated to their faith and giving of their time and talents to the Church for free. And yes, they do just as much good work without presenting a bill at the end.
“And yes, they do just as much good work without presenting a bill at the end.”
No, they don’t. They do different work, but they don’t do just as much.
I work at least 60-80 hours a week. It’s hard to tell, perhaps, but that’s because I am doing the jobs of three or four people. My time, my talent, my efforts – these are worth money. Why should I give it all to a business that not only does not represent our values, but actively undermines them?
And yet, that’s the alternative. My particular set of skills are well honed for what I do: writing, graphic design, web administration, audio/video production, etc.
I look at jobs in my field. Many, if not most, are for organizations that are actively working against the Church. Organizations like Planned Parenthood – which survives in part on donations, since it’s a 501(c)(4).
We live in a world that needs some professional Catholics. Priests have parishes to attend to. They can’t run publications like ours. And rarely do they have the skills needed to do this kind of work. Nor should they.
I stand by the fact that your comment is silly – or at least unrealistic. There is not a single Catholic publication out there doing a damn bit of good that doesn’t have to pay its full time staff to make it happen. There is nothing inherently contradictory about working on behalf of the faith and making a living for doing so. The Church used to be the greatest patron of the arts. Should they also not have been paid?
I can’t expect X number of donations. I’m not going to be bitter if I don’t receive enough personal generosity from others to make ends meet. But I certainly can expect that just like any business, if I deliver enough value, I should be able to obtain enough revenue to not only live on, but to pay others to help me grow.
If you want everyone with the ability to articulate and spread the faith according to the means of the new online paradigm to have to go and give the majority of their time and effort to other industries, don’t be surprised when all you (and the Church) get are the leftovers.
Wow, that is a very narrow view. The people I know giving of themselves to the Church (even online) aren’t giving their “leftovers.” They supply all kinds of needs to parishes that couldn’t possibly afford to pay for their skills. I know people in sidewalk apologetics that earn not a penny for their efforts that they are contributing on their own time while they hold down jobs to support their families. Should they ask for compensation for time spent praying outside of abortion clinics or teaching Catechism or any other volunteer work? Not drawing a paycheck doesn’t mean they are giving leftovers.
It’s not a narrow view, it’s a quantitative view. I can’t possibly give as much in five hours a week as I can in fifty.
I am not diminishing volunteer efforts. They are absolutely important. Depending on who they reach, they might be more important than anything I could do here.
But you seem to think volunteer efforts should diminish professional ones. Your logic dictates that since some people do valuable work for the Church for free, all people should do valuable work for the Church for free.
But this is a non-sequitur. There is absolutely no reason why anyone providing value to Catholics through their full-time work offering Catholic information or services should not be compensated justly for their time. My time is worth money. I can spend it here, or I can work for someone else. If I work for someone else, I’m not spending it here. It’s that simple.
The financial incentive for me to do this work is perhaps not commensurate with the moral imperative to do the work, but that does not mean there should be no financial incentive. I have to choose where to allocate the time I have. If I can’t pay bills doing this, I need to go sell sausages or pick up trash or do paperwork. And that means this doesn’t get done.
Why is this a problem for you?
I didn’t state that all people should do work for the church for free. Should every position at a church pay enough to support a family? This is just like the argument over minimum wage. Are all jobs supposed to pay enough to support a family?
I don’t have a problem with your decision to try to support your family with a website. That is your decision. But selling sausages or picking up trash or doing paperwork would not be any less noble. There is dignity in all honest labor, and your primary vocation is to be a husband and father.
No, but you did imply it.
You say you don’t have a problem with my decision, but you started this discussion by saying:
“I think that people need to be wary of becoming “professional Catholics,” by which I mean drawing an income from your Faith. (Of course, I exempt from this those who have taken actual vows as religious.) I’ve come across far too many people who think that if they found an apostolate, people should contribute enough in donations to make that apostolate a paying job.”
You’re insinuating that people who think they should make an apostolate into a paying job are wrong. You have not yet, as far as I can tell, explained why.
You also said:
“Selling sausages or picking up trash or doing paperwork would not be any less noble. There is dignity in all honest labor, and your primary vocation is to be a husband and father.”
I didn’t realize we were discussing the nobility of work, or of various professions.
There is a reality, however, that certain skill sets (and I would include mine among them) are most valued in industries that are not compatible with our values. I’ve had those jobs. Do they exist elsewhere? I certainly hope so. I’ve personally had a hard time finding them.
And as a husband and father, I have an obligation to provide. Yes, I could sell sausages, but I will most likely never make as much doing that as I would using my abilities to their fullest.
The parable of the talents applies. I’ve been trying to figure out how to synthesize digital media and communications with evangelization for almost two decades. This is what I’m best at, and if I can put those skills in God’s service, all the better. So I want to know why you believe it shouldn’t be the way I (or anyone like me – for heaven’s sake, Church Militant is going to reach 70 staff members by this summer, and I’m just one guy) make my living — not whether it’s my choice, because obviously it is — but why you think I shouldn’t expect to be paid a living wage for it.
Is there some inherent conflict between propagating the faith and making a living?
With the massive decline of religious vocations, it’s up to the laity to pick up the slack, and volunteer/work on-the-side efforts are insufficient. Especially since many of the volunteers are older–we need more of the under-fifty set out there! So some professional catholics are needed (I hope no Pathos bloggers see this :-). Speaking for myself, my job IS evangelization (street evangelization, writing a book). I can only do these full time because we live frugally and inherited some money. If I had a regular job, I’d rarely be out on the streets evangelizing and the book wouldn’t get done since I also have small children. There are only so many hours in the day. Either we have some professional catholics or God finds some creative way for every full time catholic to have independent means. The latter is not gonna happen.
Regardless of what you inferred, it was not implied. Is there some conflict between propagating the Faith and having a separate job? Is there a long history within the Church of laypersons making a living by propagating the Faith? You can absolutely choose to propagate the Faith as a job, and you can charge whatever the market will bear. Many people are probably not in their dream jobs, because their dream jobs won’t support a family. I knew a lot of philosophy majors who, although they might love to be philosophy professors, realized they were going to need to go into another field or make very little in the way of financial compensation. So the person who really, really wants to be a DRE or a youth ministry coordinator may have to accept that these are not positions for which a Church can afford to pay wages which compete with the private sector.
“Is there some conflict between propagating the Faith and having a separate job?”
No inherent conflict, just a practical one. I did this very thing for over ten years. But I recognized that there was no time I could do the kind of time-consuming work required unless it was also the way I made my living. Between my commute, my day job, and my family, there simply wasn’t enough time left to write, let alone to bring so many other worthy (and often unknown) writers to bear on these topics. And I certainly didn’t have time to podcast, or expand into other offerings.
The difference in increased effort is noticeable. While my hobby efforts reached a few thousand people, 1P5 reaches hundreds of thousands. We’ve had almost a million pageviews in the last 90 days. If you believe that the work we’re doing is worthwhile, then it only stands to reason that we should make the effort required to have it reach the largest audience possible.
Every Catholic publication does this. All have staff. This is common sense.
“Is there a long history within the Church of laypersons making a living by propagating the Faith?”
Obviously not. But we live in unprecedented times. Only by means of the laity and the various internet apostolates is the so-called “new evangelization” being accomplished. Bishop Schneider has commented again and again on how important this work is, and how the laity is where Church reform will begin.
On a pragmatic level, most religious are going to lack the education or experience in various forms of new media to make an impact in this realm. And even if they have the experience or knowledge, they lack the time because of their duties. It only makes sense that the laity do this work. Whether it’s a print magazine, a book, or a website, this is both a cause and a job.
“Many people are probably not in their dream jobs, because their dream jobs won’t support a family.”
You’re absolutely correct. And if a publication, this one included, can’t find a workable business model, then they will fail. But that’s a different thing entirely than arguing in principle that being a “professional Catholic” is somehow problematic. Would you say the same about professors of theology? Where do you draw the distinction?
I should also make absolutely clear that this essay was in NO WAY about me or this apostolate. This is my business, and it fails or succeeds based on my own ability to give donors (and in the future, subscribers) enough value that they’re willing to support it. I have seen nothing but generosity from our readers and listeners. I am the weakest link. I am the content bottleneck. We have an amazing audience, and I’m so grateful for them.
The people who work for the Church are not so lucky. You can argue that it’s not a great career path — and I would agree — if you want to support a family. But there’s reason to believe that some are called to it, and there’s no reason why dioceses bringing in millions of dollars in collections (and paying out millions in lawsuits) shouldn’t seek to pay their employees fairly. If they don’t have enough religious to fill the roles and they have to hire laymen, they should pay them fairly. Especially when the positions require advanced degrees and knowledge.
As for Catholics being cheap, well, that’s another story. I completely understand having limited means and looking for bargains. That’s a far cry from expecting handouts, though.
“You’re insinuating that people who think they should make an apostolate
into a paying job are wrong. You have not yet, as far as I can tell,
explained why.”
I don’t think he is at all, and I think it might be wise to take a step back since this is such a personal topic for you. He is very right in saying that people should be wary of seeking to be or becoming professional Catholics. Mixing vocation with profession is tricky at best. Priests and religious have had millenia to work out the kinks, and it has been a rocky road. This is not to say that it is wrong to mix the two, just that we should be wary of it.
I think when it comes down to it, the Church needs to either have the labor done by volunteers or by justly compensated professionals and the two should not be mixed. You can expect volunteers to give a lot of unskilled labor or a little skilled labor, but not a lot of skilled labor. So, if the job is full-time and skilled, I think that the Church just needs to commit to paying a wage that can reasonably support a family.
To your original post, I have found that people who inject their faith into business dealings almost universally are using their faith to manipulate the business deal. I’ve dealt with a lot of Catholics in business and I like to do so, but from a pragmatic standpoint, the relationship has to be grounded in the business and not in the faith.
Steve, just want to say to you….YOU produce Truth, a help, an Oasis for those of us who are weary and weak . You help so many of us, please don’t EVER STOP or ever doubt the GIFT you’ve been given to share with us to strengthen us! I pray you never doubt the gift that was given to you. And I PRAY that God will Bless you always!!
Jude, for crying out loud…….do you honestly know any rich Catholics that are really Catholic anymore? Kind of an oxymoron..no?
Actually, yes, I do. They work in fields that are very high-paying. But they didn’t start out earning at that level. You can be wealthy and be Catholic. The two are not mutually exclusive. Wealthy Catholics do a lot of great things for the Church. I’ve been very impressed by their generosity, not only financially, but also with the time that they volunteer for their parishes.
Decide on a fair price for your services and don’t budge unless you make the choice yourself to do so. Each situation is different and if you ask the Lord for His guidance, make a decision and stick to it, things will work fine. Cheapskates will of course be upset but alas..they need to learn to treat others as they wish to be treated. Most cheapskates would expect to be given free services and turn right around and charge you full price a week later with no qualms about it.
Reminds of the story about the servant in the Bible:
But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest. And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt. Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee? And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.
Matthew 18: 26-35
I learned the hard way many times — never give discounts. Not to friends. Not to family. Not to fellow Catholics. Not to the Church. For the latter, you either charge full price or donate your time.
Any time you give a discounted rate you screw yourself. You are charging less than what you are worth, so people don’t think your time is valuable, and expect more. There are no more demanding clients than those who you are doing a favor.
This also goes for new business prospects. Never give a client a really good deal because you hope to get more work at your full rate later. If you do something for someone at $X/2, they’re not going to be happy when doing it again cost $X later.
And if you’re a programmer, lots of people want you to work thousands of hours for free and give them 75% for coming up with the idea when the profits materialize. Every programmer has friends, family, and random acquaintances lining up to build a new app they have an idea for. This idea is either already been done to death, completely and totally impossible, or just a bad idea. They also assume you can whip it up in the weekend because you’re such a computer whiz. They think that they are the one who brings the value to the table, you’re just the nerd that nerds things into existence. They don’t believe you when you say you’d need 1000 hours to do something, and think you’re just being a jerk. Pro tip: ideas are really easy. Making things is hard.
Giving a discount isn’t about being Catholic, or about the Church, it’s about YOU, who YOU are and what you want to do because of you and your love for Jesus- to follow Jesus ………and it’s about the poor, being poor and seriously and really knowing they need help. As Christians we can decipher who really needs help and who is taking advantage, can’t we? We don’t have to be stupid…but better to be fooled than not help a truly needy person for the love of Jesus Christ…no?
Notice he said that he donates his time. My husband does the same thing. It actually turns out to be less of a hassle that way.
This needs to be required reading in seminary.
Great article. The way parishes and Bishops have treated the hired help has always been a point of contention with me. I have a close personal friend who worked as a DRE or youth minister for ~6 different parishes over a 10 year span. Besides the lack of pay, he was treated in the most unchristian ways imaginable. He now works at a casina (for about 2 years). By far the casina has treated him with more decency and respect than all of his years working for the church.
Steve, you left out one critical point. In a lot of cases the Catholic worker got his/her college degree from a Catholic college. Catholic Colleges that constantly preach social justice and to not pursue profit, but have increased tution rates surprassing any other industry. Many of these graduates are leaving colleges with six figure debt only to try to pay it off with $30K job.
But just like the person who goes into debt to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts, what did they think the outcome was going to be? Did they really expect to find a job with a degree in theology that was going to pay off that debt?
That’s absolutely true.
Bravo! I needed to read this.
My dad hired a Catholic contractor to repair his chimney/roof once, gave him $1100.00 as a retainer and never heard from him again. He still lives in the area, attends Mass, etc..
I thought I was a jerk because I want so very badly to actually step in for my dad and ask the guy what happened. He seems to be a faithful Catholic (he has six kids). Maybe he forgot, maybe something else happened. But to simply go away, like that, with no explanation?
I come close to wrath just thinking about it, let me tell you. Especially when my dad tells me he sees the guy out smiling and jaunting around the neighbourhood bragging about his children’s progress at a local home schooling set-up.
You’ve helped me to remember that “turn the other cheek” does not mean “be a stupid doormat”.
We have to talk to this guy. It’d be a sin not to . . .
My father-in-law was a spec. homebuilder and he routinely had problems with contractors who wore their faith on their sleeve. They were protestants of one kind or another.
In North Carolina, a muslim cabbie picked me up from the airport, and we trailed another muslim cabbie who had lots of muslim bumperstickers/messages on his cab. My cabbie went on a funny rant about how the other cabbie was a total hypocrite: always stealing, lying and harassing pretty women.
You’ve kind of combined two great articles into one piece, though I wish you had separated them. The autobiographical stuff is a nightmare, and it makes me grateful that I don’t have any marketable skills. That was worth an article all it’s own.
I wish you had written more about the social justice hypocrisy/tension in the institutional church. The Catholic Church in it’s various entities is a huge employer in the US, and they reliably pay sub-standard wages (except at HQ in Boston where you might pull down an obscene sum). Why? Well, in part because people aren’t willing to pay more for what they “produce”–which is often a lousy product. (Perhaps the watered-down version of the faith is one reason Catholics are the stingiest givers among Christian denominations? Any one notice that TLMers donate more per person even though they have more children and fewer means?). An economist would say that the market has spoken, and the church can only support those (low) wages that are supportable from her ability to generate (low) revenues. If this holds for the various entities of the institutional church (diocese, parish, charity non-profits, education)–and most priests and bishops would say it does–then doesn’t it hold for the private sector as well? So whence the “capitalism” bashing? Something is stinky here, and you don’t have to be a “libertarian catholic” (definitely not my rocking horse) to smell it.
Finally, Catholics definitely need better media of all types, and so we need to find ways to fund talented writers, artists, and musicians (says the poor guy who resides near OCP). People are used to high production value media with talented contributors in the secular world, and then find a corny wasteland in Catholic media. It harms evangelization and the retention of young Catholics.
I wish I could have done a more in-depth treatment of the Church aspect. To be honest, I just don’t have the personal experience. When I did work for the Church (college job doing groundskeeping and general admin) the priest I worked for paid me and treated me better than any other job I could find.
He was the rare exception.
I’ve seen many others work for the Church and be treated poorly. But their stories are not my own.
As for the rest, I completely agree with you. In 2001, my senior thesis was on Media, Society, and the New E-vangelization. It’s taken me 13 years to turn my theorizing into something more concrete. And the reason I spend so much time working on it is because I believe production values are incredibly important. Aesthetics are an important means of our movement towards God, as is pursuing truth and goodness. (Yes: the True, the Good, the Beautiful.)
There are too few out there willing to give up the living they can make in the secular world to do this. And that’s not unreasonable. We have mouths to feed.
My Italian great-grandfather built many churches around the Washington, D.C., area. But never a Catholic church. They always expected him to donate the stone. After all, he owned the quarries and thus got the stone “free”!
Besides his experience with Catholic pastors, he had another rule: “I never do business with a man who quotes the Bible.”
Unless that quote be 1 Timothy 5:18 “For the scripture saith: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn: and, The labourer is worthy of his reward.”
Steve — I believe everyone should be fairly compensated for what they do. Your publication is very valuable to me as someone who wants to know what’s really going on in the Church and how to be a better Catholic. Why shouldn’t everyone who reads 1P5 be willing to pay for it? I get a number of business publications and advisory letters which cost around $1500. per year. Why should I regard good Catholic information as just as valuable? I think it is something of a disgrace that you are having such difficulty making your budget each month of $10,000. Seems to me there should be 1000 Catholics out there willing to give $10. a month. They could consider this a long term investment service as it regards eternity. Let’s help Steve make his budget.
God bless you Michael. Thank you.
A word of wisdom for your wife, Steve – if you market your services primarily as discounted bargains – you will attract a higher percentage of cheapskates and weasels. Don’t work with sweaty palms and an apologetic attitude. Desperation smells far worse than perspiration. People can quickly detect it. And confidence = competence in sales. One of the most vital assets of financial profit in a service industry is the learned ability to say “no”. Specifically, the tactful way to say “no” based upon an honest, reasonable, and well rationalized premise. In other words – the ability to sell the position of “no” to the customer.
My wife is very good at what she does. She’s consistently a top producer in our very competitive market, and is a broker in two states as well as a Virginia-certified instructor for first-time homebuyers.
But because we are known as faithful Catholics, when she gets referrals through a parish or homeschool group, there’s often an expectation that she’ll work for peanuts to help out a fellow Catholic family. Those expecting these favors never seem to consider how they’re helping our Catholic family. We have to eat and pay the mortgage too.
Nobody wants to refuse to work with the members of their own religion because of experiential bias, but sometimes it seems like it’s the only sane course. After too many of these incidents, saying “no” at the first hint of trouble seems to be the only choice.
I’m sure your wife is very good at her job Steve, I never meant to imply anything less than that. But experiential bias should be a helpful learning guide for discernment as you already realize. I just hope and pray that she doesn’t beat herself up with too much guilt when the necessity to say “no” arises. I have seen more financial abuses between people of “faith” in parishes than I have in the secular world. A Catholic Convert friend of mine once observed: “I didn’t know how sh**ty people could be until I joined the Catholic Church”. Devout people often forget that there are plenty of wolves among the flock.
“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.” – Acts 20:29
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” – Matthew 10:16
The Peace of Christ be with you and your family Steve. And thank you for your faithful service to Christ’s Truth.
That is awful. It would never occur to me to even expect it. What kind of people do this???? I live in a small town and we all see how much our business people for the Church and for the truly needy, and admire them tremendously for that. I would never expect that for myself nor would I ask.
Yes! As a genetics professional I never felt as exploited as when I worked for a Catholic hospital. It wasn’t necessarily the pay. Their personnel policies were the worst. I felt like cattle, not a human being. It was like they had an attitude that I should be grateful that they were exploiting me because it was for a good cause.