The organization, for its part, should ask how it meets the rationale of a teacher organization in a Catholic school. Where lawyers or labor-management consultants enter into a collective bargaining process, steps should be taken both by school administrators and teacher organizations to examine with them the concept of the school as a community of faith. Because of their special role in helping to shape policy decisions, consultants should be chosen whose professional background has prepared them to understand fully the special role of the Catholic school within the total mission of the Church. In some cases the reconciliation of separated parties will be indicated. Personal and interpersonal relationships occasionally became tense or even broken in some places.
Leadership is especially important.
A few people working together and agreeing to seek reconciliation can provide a climate agreeable to exchange and understanding. It is the conclusion of the Subcommittee on Teacher Organizations, after a year of study, that the teacher union question is a manageable one for the Catholic community. Although experience to date has at times been characterized as acrimonious and contentious so as to militate almost completely against the possibility of a faith community, the Subcommittee has noted on all sides reservoirs of good will and concern which, if tapped and given the benefit of good communication, will result in a meaningful realization or restoration of such a community. Although the role of government in monitoring the civil aspects of the above effort has yet to be defined, it is the belief of the Subcommittee that even this question of the relationship of government to Catholic school management is capable ultimately of a solution which will be satisfactory to all concerned parties. The question of the relationship of teacher organizations to Catholic elementary and secondary schools is a comparatively recent one.