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	New Group to Assist Managing Catholic Business By Cathy Lynn Grossman USA Today [Washington DC] March 14, 2005 WASHINGTON — A contingent of Catholic bishops and financially savvy lay leaders on Monday announced an initiative to put the struggling U.S. church on sound business footing from the parish level up. The church has been shaken by a costly three-year sexual abuse scandal, which so far has tipped three dioceses into bankruptcy. The church must operate parishes and schools with fewer priests, fewer dollars and more lay people clamoring for participation and accountability. Now, bishops can call on a newly created National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management for guidance in business, finance and human resources, said one of the founders, Geoffrey Boisi, a vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase. With a total of 1 million employees and an aggregate annual operating budget of almost $100 billion, the church rivals the nation's largest corporations in size and complexity, said Boisi, a major donor to Catholic causes. Yet most of the USA's 196 dioceses and their 19,600-plus parishes have no way to take advantage of economies of scale in their operations. They do their own buying their own travel booking and their own negotiation for services such as insurance. They also do not band together to standardize and raise the quality of recruiting, hiring, training and supervision for employees. The Washington-based Roundtable springs from a meeting in July 2004 at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, also organized by Boisi and by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA), a consortium of major funders of Catholic concerns. Monday's announcement included an edited account of the July meeting with 48 recommendations for short- and long-term issues — from purchasing to auditing to evaluating personnel. Participants will include more than 225 national leaders from business and civic life, professional associations and foundations, universities, healthcare systems, parishes and dioceses, Boisi said. The Roundtable's staff, advisory board and academic and non-profit partners will offer advice, support and research to help establish systems to streamline, upgrade and economize on operations. Also planned: offerings such as a national Catholic advanced management program akin to an elite business school. Even more, the Roundtable is intended to "help re-establish the relationship of trust between the hierarchy and its parishioners," Boisi said. "We have vexing man-made problems we need to address together." Although the report suggests bishop nominees be screened for their management acumen, the Roundtable will not stray "into doctrinal issues," he stressed, distinctly separating the new group from some of the lay activist organizations that combine calls for fiscal transparency with theological challenges to core church teachings and traditions, such as celibacy or a male-only priesthood. Not only is this approach very much needed, "it's required of the faithful. We are all charged to build up the church," said Bishop Dale J. Melczek of Gary, Ind., also on the board of the Roundtable. "One of the biggest assets the church has right now is the discontent of the laity. Only when you are in trouble can you orchestrate change," said Roundtable board member Richard Syron, chairman and chief executive officer of Freddie Mac and a former chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange. Whether the Roundtable's advice will be welcomed and used remains to be seen. Leaders were set to meet today with the national bishops group. Bishops, who answer only to God and the pope, aren't required to follow their recommendations or draw on the expertise of any group. Unlike corporations, the church is ordered by the faith, not by stockholders, and it operates for a spiritual purpose, said Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., a liaison between the Rountable and the bishops group. His diocese has had independent audits publicly published for years. "I fully support collaboration, but the challenge is how to apply (good business practices) theologically. We are not Wal-Mart," Boland said.
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