The new head of the oldest
corporation on Earth - the Catholic
Church - should have the skills of a
chief executive officer, argues
Reverend Robert Gahl. Many people focus solely on the pope
as spiritual leader or even policy maker,
but several cardinals have suggested
that the Catholic Church needs a pope
with management expertise. They have
also pointed to a pressing need to reform the Vatican Curia, the central
offices of the Church. To appreciate the enormous task facing
the next pope, secular comparisons fade
in contrast with the demands of leading
the oldest and largest institution in the
history of the universe. The Catholic
Church is 2,000 years old, has more than 1.2 billion members, and aims to reach the entire world. Of course, the Church is a religious
institution. She organises worship,
private and public, and offers spiritual
formation. But she is much more. She is
a humanitarian relief organisation and a
global array of educational and healthcare institutions, serving Catholics
and non-Catholics alike. She is also a catalyst for countless
research institutes and think tanks.
Especially striking, in contrast with
other religious communities, the
Church's headquarters is based in its
own sovereign state, with its own territory, diplomatic corps, judges,
tribunals, financial institutions and, of
course, sovereign head of state. Thus, the Vatican coins money, prints
stamps, recognises citizenship, offers
passports and driver's licenses, and has
embassies and other diplomatic
missions with 179 sovereign states. Following the edifying example of John
Paul II and Benedict XVI, the qualified
candidate to be the next pope must be
a spiritual leader, an internationally
recognised moral authority, and a man
of prayer. He will also need to be capable of
carrying out the executive duties of
running the institutions of the Church,
governing the Vatican City State, and
negotiating bilateral and multilateral
international accords. The pope also speaks as a head of state
in the UN. He actively participates in
international accords regarding climate
change, arms-trafficking, human-
trafficking, intellectual property, border
disputes, peace negotiations and bioethics. A long and rich theological tradition
prizes the need for spiritual shepherds
who also excel in management skills
and the virtues of leadership. Recent
developments in theology converge
with components of contemporary management theory. Theologians increasingly emphasise
that configuration in Christian holiness
involves a three-fold office called tria
munera that consists in governance,
teaching and sanctifying. While all the baptised enjoy this three-
fold office, pastors must especially excel
in their leadership. To fulfil the
demands of his office, the supreme
pontiff must enjoy the special expertise
in governance and management needed to take charge and direct the
flock and therefore manage all
ecclesiastical organisations, from the
local parish in Papua New Guinea to the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. The Church can be compared to a
publicly traded corporation. She is a
body and is incorporated in Christ. Both
canon and civil law recognise her as a
corporation. The Pope has complete
executive, judicial and legislative authority because Jesus gave the first
pope, St Peter, the keys to loose and to
bind in Heaven and on Earth. In fact, the
Pope runs a corporation and enjoys
more executive powers than any other
CEO. Pope Benedict XVI is seen here bidbing
farewell to his cardinals in Vatican City But he is accountable to a board of
directors: God Himself, the Blessed
Trinity. Indeed, Benedict decided to
resign after prayer, that is consultation
with the board. And, in leaving his
corporate chair empty, Benedict has assured the members of the
corporation: Don't worry, you are in
Jesus's hands. I have not left you
without a leader at the helm. With a divine board of directors and an
autocratic CEO, the Church's corporate
structure may seem very old-fashioned,
and it is. But it also includes modern
components of participatory
governance - the more than one billion shareholders. The shareholders can request that the
pope report regarding organisation,
mission, financials, growth, and future
expectations for development. Indeed,
although Benedict did not need anyone
but God to accept his resignation, he also chose to give an account of his
resignation to all of the shareholders
with an update regarding corporate
performance. Benedict did just that in
his last audience, the day before he
formally stepped down from office. Many have commented that the
Vatican's central offices, even aside from
the scandal of Vatileaks, need an overhaul, and that the most urgent task
for the next pope will be organisational
reform. The cardinals will be considering who
will be the most capable of
demonstrating personal union with God
and ability to teach the faith, but also to
reform the Vatican in order to
implement some of the efficiencies taught in today's best business schools. The Vatileaks episode offered a glimpse
into some of the disfunctionality,
normally due to petty squabbles
among internal factions within middle
management, but also drew attention
to the traditional feudal structure of governance within and among the
offices, and how the current structures
and attitudes impede the distribution of
information to facilitate efficient
governance, thereby hampering the
Church's mission to evangelise. The culture and the attitudes of
governance tend toward the
antiquated vertical structures of
authority found in Italian public
universities, not to mention Italy's
notorious criminal organisations. Advancement depends upon loyalty to
one's superior, who is traditionally
expected to defend the department's
turf from internal rivals to safeguard
career advancement, often awarded
more on account of seniority and credentials than for professional
performance. The next pope needs to be someone
knowledgeable about the curia and its
language and ready to open up the
channels of information flow and
decision-making to free the dedicated,
talented men and women working in the Vatican to more effectively serve
the pope and the Church's mission of
evangelisation. Such reform will require more effective
communication, external and internal,
greater transparency, and a more
flexible managerial structure. Confidentiality must be respected and
safeguarded when dealing with
matters of conscience. But in the
governance of behavioural affairs, the
officers serving the pope need to be
free, at all levels, to co-operate in concert. Many of the cardinals hope that the
next pope will be able to bring
managerial efficiencies to the Vatican to
empower all of those dedicated clerics
and lay people who give their lives
while serving behind those ancient walls. Given the need for reform, no-one
should be surprised if the next pope,
while drawing from his own
managerial talents, were also to rely
upon experts in managerial consulting
while taking on organisational reform so as to better serve the mission
entrusted to him by the board of
directors. Rev Robert Gahl is an associate
professor of ethics at the Pontifical
University of the Holy Cross in Rome
and member of the Catholic Church's
Opus Dei organisation.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21658218

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