Catholic university will offer partner benefits

Marquette University in Milwaukee will begin offering domestic partner benefits to its employees beginning next year.

The move by the Catholic, Jesuit university comes about a year after the school rescinded a job offer to a lesbian and scholar at Seattle University. Marquette officials said at the time, rescinding the job offer to Jodi O'Brien had nothing to do with her sexual orientation. But, it triggered heated debate over the issue.

After the university and President Robert A. Wild announced the decision, dozens of faculty members at Marquette and Seattle condemned the school for rescinding the offer to O'Brien to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Marquette later announced it had reached a "mutually acceptable resolution" with O'Brien, but didn't provide details.

Recently, the University Academic Senate and the Marquette University Student Government voted to urge Marquette to offer benefits to domestic partners.

Wild said he's been wrestling with the issue for years.

"If we are truly pastoral in our application of the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, I asked myself if I could reconcile that with denying health benefits to a couple who have legally registered their commitment to each other," Wild said. In Latin, cura personalis means "care for the entire person."

The Journal Sentinel says the same medical, dental and vision benefits offered to married couples and their dependents will be extended to registered domestic partners beginning in 2012.

Same-gender couples receiving the benefits must share a residence and declare their partnership by registering with the local county clerk.

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The Journal Sentinel report can be found at: http://bit.ly/fykTbY

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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com