The Church's lay workforce: Employment in the French Catholic Church

Faced with an ongoing shortage of priests, bishops have assigned permanent religious duties to several thousand laypersons, most of them women. Many have employment contracts. Employment arrangements for this new type of permanent personnel tend to be unfavorable: limited-time assignments (limited to a few years), despite the fact that they have permanent open-ended contracts; part-time work; a wage near the minimum. Various factors account for this vulnerability: the dire financial straits of French dioceses; ecclesiastic authorities' determination to present the clergy as the Church's only fully legitimate permanent personnel; the attitude of the laypersons themselves, who seem satisfied with their situation. Efforts to institutionalize their employment situation run into difficulties with respect to both the French labor code and the unexpected effects produced internally by promotion of a culture of temporary commitment.