As has been noted by some members of the City Council, Georgetown University, a Catholic university, has written eligibility for its staff and faculty benefits program broadly, so that employees can extend benefits to other eligible adults with whom they may or may not be romantically involved. Lawmakers point to a similar arrangement in San Francisco, where church officials reached an agreement with the city in the late 1990s under which church-related employers allowed employees to designate a member of the household as a “spousal equivalent.”

The error in the reasoning, of course, is that Georgetown is not really a Catholic university, it seems. Rather, it's "a national University rooted in the Catholic faith and Jesuit tradition". Or to make it a bit clearer, from the above page,

While the University and the Jesuit Community are distinct and separately governed entities, they are united in the long tradition and common spirit of learning and faith that characterize Georgetown.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. But perhaps not.

Labels: catholic, politics