Published: April 26, 2008 12:57 am            

McDONALD: Pope’s visit speaks to transforming church ethics

While there have been several high profile organizations that have been ethically impure in recent years; Enron, Arthur Andersen, MCI WorldCom, none sullied its mission as badly as the Roman Catholic Church. The ultimate servant leaders, priests from the parish level up to the Pope in Rome commanded unquestioning faith and respect from their flocks. Priests were there to serve their parishes. Priests were there to place the needs of their parishioners and the needs of the church ahead of their own. In hindsight, after the scandal of the pedophile priests broke in the media, it was clear that the Roman Catholic Church in the United States exhibited many of the attributes of an ethically decoupled organization.

The Bishops represented organizationally a middle management level and slightly higher level in the Roman Catholic Church. While expected to proclaim morality and ethical behavior, given their base, the actions of these men were incongruent with their Christian mission. While managing their parishes many priests were leading a pathologically duplicitous life by violating those they were to serve.

The Catholic Church in the United States, as an organization, routinely moved priests from one parish to another every twelve years or so. This policy and practice led to the institutionalization of what actions driven by practical concerns. The practical concerns for the church were the protection of the image of the Catholic Church. As investigations revealed, errant priests were rotated out of parishes when violations occurred. In fact, the behavior of the Bishops in relocating errant priests demonstrates several characteristics of an organization that has, as organizational ethicist Craig Johnson points out, decoupled from ethical behavior. The Catholic Church placed itself ahead of the parishioners and innocents that they served, behaved inconsistently with their values, engaged in communication that was self-centered, and were reactive to the scandal rather than proactive and policing their organization.

As the allegations and scandal broke in the Boston Archdiocese, the church reacted and went into defense mode. Testimony was taken from the victims of priest's abuse and suits were filed while the church admitted to nothing and sought a way to settle with the victims as expeditiously as possible. The church essentially circled the wagons and prepared to defend the institution forsaking the ones they served. By their denials and stoicism the church caused rifts in the families of the abused as victims in some cases were chastised by family members for hurting the church.



Turning the Corner

I remember distinctly the cost to the church community as the various archdioceses prepared for settlements and lawsuits. Parish schools like the one I had been responsible for turning around and building enrollment, were closed to reduce operating costs and to set aside funds to pay settlements. Concurrently, the church began to develop tighter screening processes for the priesthood. They also began cooperating in turning over records of transfers of priests to facilitate investigations. While not an ethical transformation at this point, the church was turning from a mode of defense to one of cooperation.

Now some six years on from the height of the scandal, the church has begun to demonstrate some of the elements of servant leadership that Larry Spears of the Greenleaf Center for Servant leadership identifies such as empathy, listening, and healing.

While the church has moved forward past many of the lawsuits, instituted screening processes and training, the church is a long way from persuading the faithful that they are committed to development of the people within the organization. Building a community of faithful Catholics and regaining the trust lost is another matter entirely. The transformation of an organization from arrogance, monologues and encyclicals to one that is perceived as a servant organization by all who are served by it may take a generation to complete as the leadership must present a long term vision of the church that is agreeable to the faithful without sacrificing the core values of the faith.

In April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington, D.C. and met with victims of priest abuse. He demonstrated empathy, listened to them and apologized for the church's failure to act. Perhaps this is the capstone moment of an ethical transformation of the Catholic Church. I believe the church, at least with respect to regaining trust, has turned the corner with the Pope's actions.

I can only hope that Pope Benedict can instill in the church leadership a forward reaching plan to continue this reconciliation and create a vision for the future of the church.



Tim McDonald is a local educator, lecturer and doctoral student. He can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu

References: Johnson, C. (2007). “Ethics in the Workplace” Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

        

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