BRAINTREE -- The Archdiocese of Boston has recently announced Catholic Family Medical Leave (CFML), a new benefit for lay employees of the archdiocese, which provides up to 10 weeks of paid leave.

CFML covers "serious medical conditions," including pregnancy, childbirth, maternity and paternity leave (including adoption and foster care), and any physical or mental ailment that prevents an employee from doing their job for an extended period of time. CFML guarantees paid time off to care for a spouse, child, or parent, including in-laws. Those needing to care for a sibling, grandparent, or grandchild can receive CFML on a case-by-case basis.

The benefit will affect 2,500 employees of the Archdiocese of Boston's parishes, parochial schools, cemeteries, and Pastoral Center in Braintree. It will also affect employees of iCatholic Media and four non-parochial Catholic schools who decided to opt into the program. Prior to CFML, the archdiocese had no extended paid leave program.

"We are getting a lot of positive feedback, especially from female employees who have not had paid maternity leave available to them," Carol Gustavson, director of Benefit Trusts for the archdiocese, told The Pilot on Sept. 4. "We were happy to hear from employees who are very grateful that this program is going into effect."

There are two tiers to CFML. The "baseline" benefit provides 40 percent of pay and is employer-funded, while the "full" benefit provides an additional 40 percent of pay but requires an employee contribution. Those who opt into the full benefit must contribute 0.57 percent of their wages for at least one year to become eligible for the enhanced benefit.

Open enrollment for the full benefit ends on Friday, Sept. 13. Those who wish to receive the full benefit can do so by logging into their account at myenroll.com. Employees can begin filing claims for paid medical leave on Sept. 1, 2025. They can begin filing claims for paid family leave on Jan. 1, 2026.

"Obviously, the archdiocese and the church are pro-family, so this will be a way for employers to allow employees time off to care for themselves when they have a serious health condition and also to care for close family members who need assistance," Gustavson said.

In 2018, the Massachusetts State Legislature passed a law mandating paid family leave, but churches were exempt. Unlike the state program, the archdiocese's full benefit program gives employees 80 percent of their pay regardless of their income.

"There was a strong sense from a social justice perspective that the church needed to provide a form of paid family medical leave," Gustavson said. "So that's why we have this program."

For more information, archdiocesan employees should contact the Benefits Department at cfml@rcab.org or 617-746-5640.