Life comes first

After an abortion scandal in Richmond, the director of Arlington’s Catholic Charities says employees are informed of Church teaching from day one.

While trying to understand how a teenage immigrant girl in Richmond obtained an abortion with the help of employees from a Catholic organization, Catholic Charities of the Arlington Diocese is working to assure donors and employees that policies are in place to prevent something similar from occurring here.

“We can’t control every individual, but we do have checks and balances,” said Steve Luteran, Catholic Charities executive director. “We are committed to life and the life of the unborn child is really the foundational principle upon which everything else is built.”

Luteran said the charitable organization’s commitment to upholding Catholic moral and social teaching is clearly stated in employee handbooks and procedures. In addition, all potential employees must complete a final, one-on-one interview with Luteran prior to being offered a position.

“I have that conversation with every single candidate who’s hired, especially about faith and morals,” he said, adding that violation of any of those principles could be grounds for termination. It’s an extra layer of inquiry for prospective hires that Luteran began when he took over as executive director in 2003.

During the final interview, Luteran said he explicitly explains Church teaching about respect for life from conception until natural death, about the prohibition against artificial contraception, about Church teaching on homosexuality and its opposition to same-sex marriage. And he makes it clear that employees are expected to adhere to the same standards during and after work hours, and that if they work for Catholic Charities, they work for the Church.

“If you really can’t embrace this, then to me you can’t accept our mission,” Luteran said. “You’re almost living a lie. Since I’ve been at Catholic Charities I’ve had a good handful of people who’ve decided they couldn’t work here. I wanted to be the one to do the last part of the interview to really be sure.”

Agency volunteers are required to attend an orientation session that includes similar discussions about faith and morals.

In January, four employees of Commonwealth Catholic Charities in Richmond helped a 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant girl obtain an abortion. The employees, who have since been fired, signed the needed consent form for the procedure and provided transportation.

Luteran said the scandal of what happened in Richmond gave him the opportunity “to talk again to our employees to make sure that everyone’s clear that this is something that can never happen.”

Catholic Charities also is in the process of updating its employee code of conduct to ensure there are no gray areas of interpretation when it comes to moral and ethical questions.

“As a Catholic organization, it is paramount that we are clear on our commitment to life from conception until natural death,” said Father Mark Mealey, vicar general for administration. “Although those helped through Catholic Charities may not themselves be Catholic, we must strive to be unequivocal in our defense of life through the services we provide to the people of Northern Virginia.”

Despite the safeguards and assurances that respect for life is at the heart of Catholic Charities’ work, Luteran said the incident in Richmond has impacted the organization’s work locally, including a handful of donors who have refused to contribute.

“We really take this very seriously and we’re just as upset as anybody else about what happened,” Luteran said. “I and the management of our Catholic Charities are really working hard to be faithful to Church teaching. We have good checks and balances in place to ensure that (a similar situation) doesn’t happen here.”