Catholic, Inc.

Our last post addressed the diocesan administration of funds, especially regarding the purchasing, rehabbing and running of the St. Joseph Retreat Center in Tipton, Indiana, which appears to have had a substantial impact on diocesan finances.

Whatever one thinks of the business acumen (or lack thereof) which continues to drive the project, the next point of impact will be the parishes, which have been instructed to adopt a slew of business and operational strategies developed by the diocese as a part of the Uniting in Heart 2030 Pastoral Plan.

A letter from the bishop dated October 30, 2020 lays out the new blueprint for parishes and pastorates:

Dear Missionary Pastors,

I write to you with a grateful heart. You minister during one of the more challenging times in Catholic life. Little is normal in 2020. Still, I am aware that rewards arise amid challenges.

On August 19, you accepted my invitation to be a Missionary Pastor of a Pastorate. My commitment to you at that time was to provide you with the resources required for building up a pastorate reflective of my Uniting in Heart 2030 pastoral plan.

I am aware you are not all equally equipped in terms of temperament or experience. This was not why you were designated. But each of us brings capacities that can move the mission. In this particular letter, I can clarify my hopes and expectations shared with you on August 19^th. Honing expectations is a way to maintain the strong foundation for our work. More particularly, this letter emphasizes your priestly office of administration. In the future, other memoranda will focus on your offices of teaching and sanctification.

“I am aware you are not all equally equipped in terms of temperament or experience. This was not why you were designated.” This is quite an interesting statement, given that the diocese’s FAQs about UiH stated specifically that the 2030 Pastoral Plan would address the problem that “Not all priests have the skills or desire to be pastors.” Yet now, the above would seem to suggest that all the upheaval the parishes have been through with the reassignment of nearly every member of clergy has not, in fact, led to better-qualified pastors, and evidently, nor was it intended to: “This is not why you were designated.”

The letter continues with a description of administration as ministry and an admonition against resisting the directives of professionals:

Church administration is ministry. A number of years ago I gave you Father Donald Senior’s book The Gift of Administration to aid our appreciation of that part of our calling. I realize that this is not necessarily where we have been trained or even desire to spend our time and energy. I remember griping to a farmer about how much desk work came with my first pastorate. He told me how much office work it took him to produce and market his crops. “It’s not time away from my work, it’s part of it,” he said.

Catholic priests are criticized for the weakness of policy directed standards by professionals who interface with us. Pastoral and finance councils help with expertise that we might lack. What really can hurt our mission is a lack of humility in our willingness to accept professional guidance. We need to receive criticism (both positive and negative) with humility. A sage leader recognizes at every stage that competent advisors are needed because we do not always know what we do not know. And then, guided by holy wisdom, we must allow the advice to guide us toward decisions that build up the body of Christ.

Every organization has an element of business to it. And every business or profession depends on a working organization. Because of this, we must have appropriate business standard-practices in place. For example, if you have an EIN (Federal Tax ID No.) or stable income, you have revenue, expenses and budgets to deal with; thus, we are bound by accounting standards including audits. Your investments must be handled consistently and correctly. Employers and employees are bound by Federal Labor and OSHA laws. We manage personal and property insurances. Daily we oversee liability and risk mitigations in both human and material resources.

It is my responsibility to ensure that, as a diocesan whole, we are current in best practices, processes and procedures so that none of these elements causes adverse consequences. One of the many diocesan projects is updating Policy Manuals both in our Office of Administration (formerly the blue book) and for other diocesan offices. Our policies and our standardization of certain organizational practices will no longer be optional. As pastors, you should expect to be able to move from pastorate to pastorate and find the same practices.

It’s certainly true that “Every organization has an element of business to it,” and that clergy and pastors must handle investments, insurance, labor and personnel issues with care. Persons in charge of such things must either have or else develop such competencies. And perhaps it’s cheaper or better for all parishes to have some procedures in common.

However, the mandatory standardization of all procedures at every parish, so that each operates essentially as a franchise right down to every piece of software downloaded and ream of paper bought, comes from the corporate worldview, not the ecclesial one. It could be argued that it further bypasses the notion of governance and management occurring at the lowest level (subsidiarity), long held as a principle of Catholic social teaching.

Further, promoting the idea of the Church as a failed business model in need of revamping is the bread and butter of consultancy groups like the Leadership Roundtable, as we discussed in a previous post.

How will this thoroughgoing transformation of practices be carried out? Policy manuals are being rewritten in a way that is “no longer optional” and naturally will entail the use of corporate continuous monitoring strategies, as the bishop’s letter goes on to describe:

So our “new way of being” seems to be a total corporate-style rewrite, which involves clearing out any structures (or people) that no longer fit the plan from above, and handing the parish reigns over to a paid compliance czar.

Many months ago when we speculated that UiH would erase parish culture and mandate an artificial homogeneity, we received some criticism. As the plan becomes more explicit, we find this more and more to be the case.

We all can agree that the Church should practice careful stewardship and the responsibility needed to carry out her work. It is sad, in our opinion, and likely unjust, to assume that no one desires or knows how to do this, and must have an assigned Watcher and slew of rigid policies in order to carry it forward; that a pastor cannot even hire a secretary or DRE without direct personal oversight, that a parish finance council can’t do its work without particular approval and direction from the diocese.

One of the ironies is that the quest for ultimate “mission effectiveness,” achieved by controlling “all processes and procedures so that none of these elements causes adverse consequences” is that it can backfire and have adverse effects of its own.

In other words, the habit of elevating “risk-mitigating” to a primary mission goal carries its own set of risks. In this case, it involves the damage that happens when it becomes evident to all that our leadership trusts the capability and judgment of no one. What can be more adverse a consequence than alienating communities, leaving people with the knowledge that their parish–its councils, ministries and staff–can be unceremoniously rebooted (or just booted) by an employee of the diocese–with whom their pastor evidently shares his authority but not his vocational charisms? In short, the Faithful’s ecclesial life will be co-run at the parish or pastorate level by someone who neither knows nor cares about them personally, but who has a job to do, goals to hit and boxes to tick.

Just as Our Lord intended.

The relational aspect of the Church fades (father-children, Shepherd-flock, bridegroom-bride), replaced by a simple authority structure: boss-employees, with some middlemen standing in the gap to make sure anything not appropriately oriented to someone’s notion of “vibrancy” gets flushed. And bear in mind, this so far only deals with the administrative aspect; new guidelines for teaching and sanctification are still to come.

Catholics understand loyalty. It is perhaps the one thing that has prevented utter collapse in the face of many scandals and doctrinal failings. Is Catholic, Inc. a thing to which anyone will feel loyal? Or will they just experience a growing alienation as their customs, roots, and workers are scrutinized? Perhaps UiH’s adoption of Our Lord’s phrase from the final judgment, “Behold, I make all things new,” was appropriate after all, since they have brought in the winnowing fans to sweep through the Faithful’s lives.

The bishop’s letter concludes with some words about the challenges of change, and by reminding the pastors that:

I commissioned you to be a Missionary Pastor who shares my vision and accepts the awesome responsibility of shepherding the people of your pastorate. And don’t forget that we are looking at Uniting in Heart 2030, a years’ long sustained response to the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit draw us into a renewed discipleship that we have yet to imagine!