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By Mitch Finley
A friend who is a member of the Roman Catholic Church in the Spokane Diocese works as a lay para educator at a Catholic elementary school in Spokane. Now of course she is unemployed. She told me she’s not eligible for state unemployment insurance, which I guess is understandable because of separation of Church and State, BUT she said the Catholic Diocese is not offering any financial help either. I always thought the Catholic Church had a predisposition towards helping the poor, but this makes me question that. It seems just plain wrong. What am I missing here?
Thanks for your question. This is clearly about local policies. So, I engaged in some local research. I contacted the Catholic Schools Office of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and this is the reply I received:
“Our Catholic School employees are eligible for unemployment through a special federal program. The information on how to apply has been provided to all of our schools. In addition, our schools could apply for the Payroll Protection Program that provides eight weeks’ of full pay for all employees. Please encourage the employee to contact his/her school or our office.”
The person to contact at the Catholic Schools Office is Victoria Loveland, executive director, and the phone number to call is (509) 358-7330. The email address is vloveland@dioceseofspokane.org .
I hope this information will be helpful to your friend.
