Bad company....

The liberal group MoveOn.org asked its members to show their support for Wisconsin public employees on Facebook. Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Jerome Listecki is backing the unions, and Green Bay Catholic Bishop David Ricken signed on to his statement on Friday. Even President Barack Obama has said he opposes rolling back the rights of unions to negotiate collectively.

Fond du Lac Reporter

As expected the media continues to run with this. 

In case you missed it, leaders of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin are out in support of the moral right of labor to organize as Gov. Scott Walker leads a charge to dismantle collective bargaining rights for public workers.

Madison Diocese Bishop Robert Morlino "echoes" a statement by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki to members of the Joint Committee on Finance, according to a post Wednesday on the Madison Diocese website.

Listecki, president of the lobbying Wisconsin Catholic Conference, told legislators that it is "a mistake to marginalize or dismiss unions as impediments to economic growth." Despite economic hard times and the hard choices they demand.

Catholics United,[pro-abortion] a national social justice advocacy group, on Thursday called on Wisconsin legislators to suspend their "attacks on workers."

The archbishop in his message quotes Pope John Paul II, who wrote in 1981 that unions remain "a constructive factor of social order and solidarity" and are impossible to ignore. More recently, current Pope Benedict wrote that the traditional call within Catholic social doctrine for the promotion of workers' associations "must be honored today even more than in the past."

Listecki asked legislators to carefully consider the implications of Walker's budget repair bill provision on collective bargaining, and "evaluate it in terms of its impact on the common good."

He also appealed to lawmakers, citizens, workers and labor unions to move beyond divisiveness and work together towards a humane recovery from the economic crisis.

So, there's the Catholic Church's official stance on labor.

What does your faith — or your conscience — say about workers' rights?

Cap Times

If the Wisconsin Catholic Conference does not issue a clarification, then the statement was intended to be interpreted in this way.