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	New Catholic Lay Group Formed to Promote Better Church Management By Jerry Filteau Catholic News Service [Washington DC] March 15, 2005 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of U.S. Catholic bishops and lay church and business leaders March 14 announced formation of a National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. Its goal is to help Catholic dioceses and parishes improve administrative practices and financial and human resource management as the church confronts clergy shortages and the challenges of training effective lay leadership. At a press conference in Washington the group also issued an 80-page "Report of the Church in America," reporting the proceedings and recommendations of last July's national leadership round table at Wharton, the prestigious business school of the University of Pennsylvania. That session was a two-day meeting of lay and church leaders from diverse perspectives who came together in Philadelphia to analyze how church leadership can respond more effectively to leadership problems that surfaced in the clergy sexual abuse crises and, more broadly, to the rapidly changing realities in American Catholicism. Geoffrey T. Boisi, a Long Island, N.Y., businessman long prominent in the worlds of business and Catholic philanthropy, introduced the report and new organization to journalists in a 90-minute session at Washington's National Press Club. Among the initial projects of the group are: -- A program with six DVDs and a workbook that the round table plans to distribute to all Catholic parishes and dioceses in the country later this year to initiate a national dialogue on leadership and church management at the parish and diocesan level. -- Creation of Catholic advanced management degree and certificate programs at key educational institutions around the country. The report concluded with 27 priority recommendations -- nine each at the national, diocesan and parish level -- and 21 more long-term recommendations. Each set of recommendations was divided into three areas of management -- governance or administration, finances, and human resources or personnel. Many of the recommendations focused on greater use of Catholic lay expertise from business and professional fields in consultative or advisory capacities to pastors, bishops and other church leaders. Many involved spreading more widely programs or policies already in place in some or many dioceses, but not in all. A major component of the report was a call for research to help identify best management practices already in place in some dioceses and parishes. The report called for developing networks and other means to spread the word about those success stories, showing other dioceses or parishes how to emulate those practices in their own context. Some recommendations invoked management practices widely accepted as sound in the business world but not common in many parishes and dioceses, such as annual personnel reviews and comprehensive self-examinations of all financial, administrative and personnel policies and practices every five years. The report proposed the "Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector" as a basic code of policies and practices that every U.S. Catholic diocese and parish should live up to. Bishop Dale J. Melczek of Gary, Ind., one of the press conference panelists, said the goals of the new round table -- finding better ways to incorporate lay expertise in the management of church finances and human resources, promoting dialogue on those issues and advancing models of best practices in those areas -- are "very much needed in the church." "It's not just a need, it's required of the laity," he said. "Even if we had a plethora of clergy and religious, this would be required of the faithful" because of their call by their baptism "to use their gifts to build up the body of Christ." Also on the panel was Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., who described himself as "a simple parish priest who happened to be named a bishop." He said he supports the collaboration the round table proposes. But he warned against viewing problems in the church, such as the often-mentioned priest shortage, too negatively. He noted that among the 30 people in his diocesan chancery, "I'm the only priest," and he called the involvement of the laity a sign of the church's vitality. Boisi stressed that organizers of the round table recognize that the church is not a business. That does not mean, however, that many successful business practices cannot be adapted to the church's management approach to help the church carry out its mission, he said. In response to a question during the press conference, Boisi said several academic institutions have begun actively exploring the possibilities of some form of church management institutes or programs as a result of last July's church leadership round table at Wharton. He said these include Wharton itself, Yale University, Boston College and the University of Notre Dame. Panelist Frederick W. Gluck, a vice chairman of the Bechtel Group, asked Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and one of the country's leading researchers in Catholic fund raising and finances, to describe the new program there. Zech -- who was in the audience and not part of the press panel -- said that after the Wharton meeting he approached Villanova officials with a proposal, and they are now establishing a new program offering a master's degree in business administration in church management or a certificate in the field. Boisi said the new church management round table will be modeled after various business round tables, with more than 200 members from across the country representing a wide range of managerial and professional expertise in church and secular fields and including at least one bishop from each region of the country. The round table will have its headquarters in Washington at the offices of FADICA -- Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities -- an agency whose members are among the major U.S. foundations supporting church projects and programs in the United States and around the world. The round table's director is Ana Villamil Kelly, a former staff member of the bishops' Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Youth. The round table has established a Web site at www.nlrcm.org. The Web site contains the text of the report on the Wharton meeting, information on the structure, background and mission of the organization, and news about the round table's formation. Still under development, the round table said its mission is "to promote excellence and best practices in the management, finances and human resources of the U.S. Catholic Church by greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity." "The NLRCM will consist of laity, religious and clergy working together with church leaders to offer their resources, skills and talents for the good of the church," it said.
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