Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Priests and the government "shutdown"


The government is said to have “shutdown” on 1 October 2013 because the continuing resolution to fund some or all of the new fiscal year could not be agreed to by members of Congress and the Senate. There is still a mass amount of confusion for how much of the government still somehow operating.

As a result of this, some news articles have circulated that say that the priests who are contracted to give mass and perform priestly duties for military personnel cannot volunteer. These reporters have projected the idea that the priests cannot perform Mass at all. In order to understand how we got here, a few things have to be noted about fiscal law, and how volunteering is illegal according to our laws.

Few have the training and knowledge of how fiscal law works within our government. In the fiscal law there is what is referred to the “color of money” in which fiscal appropriations have three parts, 1) time, 2) purpose, and 3) amount. This means that the particular pool of money given to a department or agency of the government cannot be used in such a way that violates these three given limitations. For example, the government might allot $2 million to the FAA for Operations and Maintenance, which is good for that purpose (2), for 1 year (1), and cannot exceed the appropriation of $2 million (3). A violation would occur if the money was used to purchase a new construction project (violates purpose) that cost $2.4 million (violates amount) and was to start in the next fiscal year (violates time). These are violations of the Antideficiency Act, which disallows the government to obligate the appropriation for use and amount outside its “color of money”.

Further, our government has outlawed the hiring of volunteers for any scope of work unless authorized by statute. To hire, say, a fireman without pay is hiring a volunteer and is a violation of the Economy Act. There is a real need for this sort of law. If it did not exist the government could influence contractors to work for free on future promises, to gain merit, or any other number of reasons. The bottom line is, the government is limited in this capacity for a good reason.

This is hardly an introduction to fiscal law that would be worthy of the training necessary for those who are charged with the responsibilities of handling and spending these appropriations in accordance with the law, but for all intents and purposes, this gives you the understanding to better appreciate the situation with the priests who are “not able to volunteer”. As much as I agree with the enthusiasm for the writers covering the situation with the priests, I cannot speak well of the credibility of their portrayal of the facts. The fact is, these priests are contracted employees of the government when they perform within the scope of work given in their contract. It has been illegal at all times, funded or not, for the government to hire a volunteer since the Economy Act was penned into law after the Civil War. So the notion that the priest can’t volunteer because the government is shutdown, is a misrepresentation of the facts.

Does this mean a priest cannot offer Holy Mass? No. It would be volunteering if the given priest were to perform Mass in the capacity of their given contract though. Many have asked, “what if someone was dying? Would the priest be able to perform the Anointing of the Sick?” I would answer, does not being on duty stop a lifeguard from saving a life at the beach? The key factor would be intent. Because it is a regular duty of the priest to perform these actions, their actions are not tied to their government contract. In other words, their contract is not what makes them a priest. The meaning of the “priest cannot volunteer” is a real stretch, you see, because the real law means they cannot willfully perform their contractual duties in the capacity of the contractor.

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