c. 1997 Religion News Service

SAN FRANCISCO _ A row over a two-month-old city ordinance _ requiring city contractors to provide job benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian workers _ has pitted San Francisco’s liberal City Hall against the Roman Catholic Church, posing the first serious leadership test for San Francisco’s conservative archbishop, William J. Levada.

Passed Nov. 4, the ordinance made San Francisco the first U.S. city to require companies contracting with city agencies to provide health and retirement benefits to their workers’ city-registered domestic partners.

Levada has asked for an exemption to the law, which, if not granted, will force Catholic Charities _ a non-profit corporation owned by the archdiocese _ to offer partnership benefits to its gay and lesbian employees.

Catholic Charities has a budget of $13.6 million, including $5.6 million in contracts with the city. The agency provides housing, health and food programs to thousands in the Bay Area.

However, church officials said they do not know how many of the organization’s 259 employees might be entitled to benefits under the new law.

In a Dec. 20 letter made public this week, Levada _ the president of Catholic Charities _ urged San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to support an exemption to the ordinance for religious groups.

Brown has refused to support the archbishop’s bid for an exemption.

If no such exemption is made, Levada said the church _”to maintain our sense of integrity”_ may be forced to sue the city under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Passed in 1993, RFRA requires government to show it has a”compelling”interest in any action that infringes religious liberties. ERISA is the centerpiece of federal law on employee benefits. Employers have often avoided state and local laws regulating their employee benefit plans by arguing in court that ERISA pre-empts all other laws.”While religiously affiliated organizations extend their services to any and all who are in need,”Levada wrote,”these organizations must also be permitted to maintain their operations (including employee benefit plans) in a manner that is consistent with their religious principles.” Using language taken directly from RFRA, Levada said the city had”no compelling state interest”in imposing the domestic partnership benefits requirements on”religiously affiliated contractors.””It may well be beyond the government’s power to ask an organization to contractually waive rights conferred by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First and 14th Amendments of the Federal Constitution and state constitutional provisions,”Levada added.

The fight over the domestic partner benefits ordinance is a defining moment for Levada and will test the political muscle he will be able to wield on behalf of the church in a city with one of the largest and most powerful gay communities in the nation.

Before taking office in San Francisco _ and before his years as archbishop of Portland, Ore., _ Levada spent six years on the staff of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the theological watchdog agency that has silenced many liberal Catholic theologians.

In his many jobs over the years, Levada has proven a staunch defender of church policies on abortion and birth control.

In a meeting with reporters just after Pope John Paul II appointed him to the San Francisco post in 1995, Levada offered only a lukewarm welcome to gay and lesbian members of the church. While acknowledging that”there are many Catholics who are gay,”Levada offered no plans to integrate them into the life of the church.

Levada has continued to alienate many in the gay community by retaining a policy of former Archbishop John Quinn barring the gay Catholic group Dignity from holding meetings in archdiocesan churches.

George Wesolek, the archdiocese’s director of public policy and social concerns, said the mayor has so far rebuffed Levada’s bid for direct talks on amending the ordinance.

Brown told the San Francisco Examiner on Wednesday (Jan. 29) that he supports the ordinance and the city should not fund any group”that doesn’t comply with city law.”If Catholic Charities doesn’t want to comply,”Brown said,”then it should relinquish the funding so that other non-profits can do their work.” The archbishop has scheduled a news conference of his own for Monday (Feb. 3).”The church’s position on the sanctity of marriage is no secret,”Wesolek said.”Domestic partnerships are not equal to marriage _ that’s the basic issue.”But he said Levada”still looks forward to some discussion with city officials. The archbishop respectfully asked to talk (with Brown) about the exemption, but (Brown) has only done so through the press. That’s unfortunate.”

MJP END AQUINO