State rejects Bend ex-priest’s employment claim

By Scott Hammers
Bend Bulletin
April 6, 2015

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/3033912-151/state-rejects-bend-ex-priests-employment-claim

James Radloff

An employment complaint filed by a former Roman Catholic priest against the Diocese of Baker and Bishop Liam Cary has been dismissed.

James Radloff filed his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, alleging Bishop Cary and the diocese had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed from his position with Bend’s St. Francis of Assisi parish in October 2013. Radloff claimed he and Cary had been at odds since months earlier, when he raised concerns over the bishop’s handling of a confession with a teenage boy.

Early last year, Radloff voluntarily left the Roman Catholic Church to start a new church in Bend, the Holy Communion Evangelical Catholic Church, a sect that borrows heavily from the ritual and doctrine of the Roman Catholics.

Radloff’s complaint detailed 29 allegations of mistreatment by Cary and the diocese, with Radloff claiming he was evicted from parish housing on four days’ notice and forbidden from traveling within the diocese, which covers nearly two-thirds of Oregon.

Radloff was barred from performing the duties of a priest at his mother’s home parish in Chicago, the complaint stated, and St. Francis parishioners in Bend were given false and misleading information about his dismissal, “creating the misconception that I was a ‘pedophile priest.’”

A prospective employer who contacted Cary’s office seeking a reference was told, according to the complaint, “when Bishop Cary gets through with Father Radloff, he won’t be allowed to perform Ash Wednesday mass at a mini-mart.”

Charlie Burr, spokesman with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, said the bureau did not make any determination as to the validity of Radloff’s assertions, but instead ruled the case was subject to a “ministerial exception” in the state’s employment laws. Burr said the exception bars the state from applying employment discrimination laws to the relationship between a religious organization and an employee, provided adherence to the faith is “central to the role” of the employee — such as in the case of a priest or minister.

In a one-page March 23 memo, Helen Russon, a senior investigator with the bureau, recommended dropping the investigation.

“This discrimination complaint is the kind of activity that the ministerial exception is designed to prevent,” wrote Russon. “For that reason I recommend that this case be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.”