May 18, 2000

     Two people who made a difference to the Catholic teacher movement in the Diocese of Scranton passed away recently. 
     John Reilly died this past March.  John was the President of the Association of Catholic Teachers in Philadelphia when we first met him in 1978.  At that time, the first teacher unions that had organized in our diocese had chosen to affiliate with the PSEA. Our affiliation with the public school teachers’ union did not sit well with our employers who were refusing to recognize our fledgling organizations, ostensibly because of such a connection.  We then invited John Reilly and Rita Schwartz (our present national president) to one of our many meetings back then to plan a strategy for the recognition of our groups.  It was at their urging that we disaffiliated from PSEA, and eventually joined the National Association of Catholic School Teachers, which John  ably headed as president from 1978 through 1993.  Without John Reilly’s timely advice on that issue and on numerous other things to assist our efforts, it is unlikely that unions would ever have gotten off the ground in Scranton. Over the next 20 years, John Reilly went on to assist teachers in many other dioceses in the formation of their teachers’ organizations, thus directly impacting on the well-being of thousands of lay teachers.  All of us who have benefited from John’s efforts will remain eternally grateful. 
     We were also saddened by the passing of John Cardinal O’Connor.  When Cardinal O’Connor was first appointed as Bishop of Scranton, one of the first letters to cross his desk was one from the SDACT.  In it, we recounted the sorry history of the labor relations between the Diocese and its teachers up to that time, a history which included teachers who were fired for attempting to organize unions in their schools.  We asked O’Connor for a meeting to address these problems.  When his response indicated what we interpreted as foot dragging, we fired back a letter critical of his initial response.  That prompted an angry phone call from the Bishop to SDACT president, Mike Milz and the demand that we meet with him immediately.  At our meeting, he admonished the SDACT representatives for not giving him a chance to show what he was made of. After we apologized, he asked what he could do for us.  We told him that we wanted a Diocesan policy which would protect teachers right to organize without fear of  intimidation or reprisal.  In an instant, he said “you’ve got it, now what else can I do.”  We nearly fell out of our chairs.  During the next 11 months, SDACT representatives served on a committee responsible for drafting Diocesan School Policy #415, which gives organizational rights to teachers in the Scranton Diocese. 
     As we all know, after leaving Scranton, O’Connor continued his pro-union policies in New York.  Not long before his death, one labor union took out a full page ad in the New York Times emblazoned with his picture saying, “Thank You Cardinal O’Connor, the Patron Saint of Labor.”  We in the teacher movement here in the Scranton Diocese echo those sentiments.
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