Decision Trees in Politics

Interesting use of a decision tree to explain which candidate (Clinton or Obama) would win what county in the primaries.

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame...

Even Churches Have Bad Management

When I think of bad management practices, I usually think of large corporations.

But large churches suffer some of the same maladies...

Take, for example, the recent reorganization of the Catholic Church in the New York area.

Of course, this is also a sad reminder and echo of the recent sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese.

I suppose this is a natural result of a medieval church management style, a model based upon the Roman Empire, kings and queens, that rewards unswerving fealty to the very top of the organization, at the ongoing expense (and potential punishment) of absolutely anyone else who dares challenge (or oppose) the supreme leader. I would not recommend this particular dictatorial management approach to anyone, other than those at the very top who lack any confidence in the general good inherent in all mankind.

Ever watch the EWTN Catholic cable TV network? Have you noticed that on many shows, there is almost always a picture of the current Pope hanging in the background somewhere? Some might say this is so merely to honor the "vicar of Christ on earth walking among us today." Others, of a decidedly less charitable bent, might say that this is an uninhibited example of sucking up to power.

As to the current situation in the New York Archdiocese, here are some telling comments from priests and pastors... the "employees and middle managers of the church"... normally the most disciplined and faithful of the flock... who are expected to work 6 days a week without complaint, and give up any hope of what others may see to be a normal life... no spouse, no kids, complete and total obedience without any question whatsoever to their boss (the bishop), exceedingly poor career opportunities outside the church (who wants to hire an ex-priest?), poor income, etc. After all this (for decade after decade in many cases), it must certainly make the depths of your heart ache for the pain these men (and they are ALL men, aren't they?) are expressing here:

The reorganization bore the distinct odor of appearing, as one cleric put it, "unjustly punitive."

In circles of every stripe, the dominant reaction -- both from those
being moved and those staying in place -- has been a mix of sadness,
pain, malaise and even lower morale.

The mood of the presbyterate had fallen again, this time to "the worst I've ever seen it."

"We might just lose guys over this."

Openly climaxed in October 2006 with the circulation of an anonymous letter among the clergy calling for a vote of no-confidence in the cardinal.

"At no time has the relationship between the Ordinary and the priests
of the Archdiocese been so fractured and seemingly hopeless as it is
now,"

During the last six years, the Cardinal’s relations with the Priests of
New York have been defined by dishonesty, deception, disinterest and
disregard. Far too many of our brothers can speak personally of the
arrogant and cavalier manner in which they have been treated by the
Cardinal. Early in his tenure, the cruel and ruthless way in which
several priests who served on the seminary faculty were dismissed, was
an adumbration of how many other priests would also be treated. Time
and again, the Cardinal fails to be the Father that every bishop must
be to his priests.

A sad reminder of the Cardinal’s decision to leave New York only two
days after the September 11 attack, during a time when the city desperately needed a
spiritual leader.

No one will go “on the record” because they fear how the cardinal might react.

Unpleasantness abounds.

Revealed continued dissatisfaction with the cardinal’s management
style. They said Cardinal Egan had not only disregarded the personnel
board in recent years, but had also failed to provide any guidance on
how to handle the transition for those priests and congregations
affected by the transfers.

Many priests said that this had ultimately affected morale — a precious commodity among an increasingly aging and overworked clergy.

“There
are some priests who are hurting right now and are devastated,” said
one priest who has been fielding calls from colleagues. “And no one is
officially reaching out to them. That I emphatically know. There is no
outreach right now.”

"No one knew it was coming," said one pastor who was reassigned.
"We haven't been given a reason, and many of us are terribly confused
about what's taken place. It's kind of unprecedented, really."

A common view expressed by priests, those affected by the moves
and others, is that Egan is settling scores before his expected
retirement.

"What does it appear to be about?" said one pastor who is being
reassigned. "Rewarding the priests he likes and punishing the priests
he doesn't. It appears that way."

"There is a certain amount of arrogance and highhandedness involved."

"I have never seen morale this bad," he said. "I talked to a guy today who is absolutely broken."

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Conflict Resolution

from Whispers in the Loggia by Rocco Palmo

After
years of tensions between the two sides -- including a March call from
60% of the active presbyterate for his ouster, a seeming Vatican hand-slap and various skirmishes over finances -- long-embattled Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton is seeking dialogue with his priests:

The
meetings will include participation by The Reid Group, a non-profit
that bills itself as "...a consultation and mediation service which
specializes in assisting Catholic organizations transform challenges
into opportunities."

In a May 26 letter to priests, Braxton
stated, "The goal of the discussions was to explore ways of working
toward better communication among priests in order to move beyond the
current situation."

The discussions will be coordinated by the
Presbyteral Council, a priests' organization that was instrumental in
raising criticism of Braxton for misusing money donated to restricted
funds and failing to meet with priests concerning other issues.

The sessions, which will continue into the fall, will not be made public.

"It
is important that these conversations take place in the prayerful
spirit of Christian fraternity and not in the public spotlight," the
letter said.

Noting the state of affairs in some
dioceses which have seen priests and bishops at loggerheads in the
years since the sex-abuse scandals eruped on the national stage in
2002, Pope Benedict told the nation's bishops
during his mid-April visit that "a vital part of your task is to
strengthen relationships with your clergy," especially in venues where,
he said, "tension has arisen" between the two.

"It is important
that you continue to show [priests] your concern," the Pope added, "to
support them, and to lead by example. In this way you will surely help
them to encounter the living God, and point them towards the
life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks.

"If you
yourselves live in a manner closely configured to Christ, the Good
Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, you will inspire your
brother priests to rededicate themselves to the service of their flocks
with Christ-like generosity. Indeed, a clearer focus upon the imitation
of Christ in holiness of life is exactly what is needed in order for us
to move forward."

And this...

Today, June 27, 2008 at noon in Rome (5 a.m. CDT), it was announced that His
Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has named Archbishop Raymond Burke prefect of the Supreme
Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, effective immediately. With the
announcement, he ceased to be the Archbishop of St. Louis.

"Oh, my gosh, that is marvelous news," said one parish priest on
hearing the news Friday morning. He declined to allow his name to be
used. "The priest morale here has been so low."

"I've been getting phone calls since 6 o'clock this morning from
parishioners singing 'Ding, dong, the archbishop is gone,'" said the
Rev. Marek Bozek, who, along with his parish board, were excommunicated
by Burke after a long-simmering dispute over control of St. Stanislaus
Kostka's assets.

"Catholics in St. Louis are exhausted after 4 1/2 years of constant scandal and control by Archbishop Burke," Bozek added.

Some see him as a champion of orthodoxy who represents a refreshing
return to church values. Others view him as sorely lacking as a pastor,
an unbending stickler for the letter of the law. His targets said he
fought them using arcane, medieval church codes they could barely
decipher.



Though warm and charming one-on-one with the laity and on pilgrimages
he led, his official communications and actions with church members has
often left them stunned because his efforts to help them understand his
actions failed.

"I've been frustrated, and bothered that the impression of me has been
quite negative ... as unpleasant, arrogant," Burke said Friday,
reflecting on his time here. "I've tried to be a good shepherd for the
flock."

Have you noticed from the above sample of press reports that these unfavorable opinions seem to be everywhere in the Catholic Church... and not merely confined to just one bishop or just one diocese?

And isn't it amazing that a bishop who has been focus of widespread dissatisfaction has often subsequently been promoted to the highest levels of the church, as happened both in Boston and St. Louis?

Go figure.

Could it be that it is the general style of church management that is at fault?


--------------------

Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning

By Kerry Kennedy

Today, like many Catholics, Kennedy has a hard time reconciling her own views with some of the teachings and actions of her church; in
fact, she often can't. So Kennedy decided to talk with well-known
Americans about their often complicated relationships with the Catholic
faith; the result is a revealing book being released tomorrow.

The
book, "Being Catholic Now," offers an unusually intimate view of how
much being raised Catholic shapes the identity of many prominent
Americans, but also how much tension many feel with the institutional
church.

"Don't even let me go into Cardinal [Bernard F.] Law and
that he has been rewarded with a princely title in Rome," House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi told Kennedy, referring to the former archbishop of
Boston, who resigned over the sex abuse scandal and now oversees a
prominent basilica in Rome. "It is just appalling. I cannot deal with
that, so I don't."

Bill O'Reilly, the FOX News personality, told
Kennedy, "Cardinal Law is a villain. I got him removed from office in
Boston. I pounded him relentlessly, because he was not doing what he
should have for the protection of children in this country."

And
Anne Burke, an Illinois Supreme Court justice who was appointed by the
American bishops to a board overseeing the church's response to the
clergy abuse scandal, was clearly infuriated by her up-close view of
the church's upper management.

"It's the culture of the
administration of the Catholic Church in the United States that
permitted a climate of cover-up to go on for the past 50 years; it's
the same culture and it's still out there today," Burke said. "Things
have hit rock bottom in the Catholic Church, and it's going to get
worse."

-----------------------------

9/17/08

"Our present infrastructure isn't sustainable," said Msgr. John J.
Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning at the Diocese of Springfield,
which expects to have 25 fewer priests in just seven years.

The trend also suggests that scars from the six-year-old clergy abuse scandal may be deepening rather than fading.

The
scandal has cost U.S. Catholic archdioceses $2 billion, and it is not
over. In May, a former altar boy who accused a priest of molesting him
30 years ago won an $8.7 million jury verdict against Vermont's Diocese
of Burlington. A judge put a $10 million lien on the diocese's
headquarters.

More than 850 parishes nationwide have shut since
1995 -- the majority since 2000, according to figures compiled by the
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown
University, a Catholic university in Washington.

--------------------------------

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame...

...or at least, its legendary former President, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh.
The Wall Street Journal sat down for a chat with this 91-year-old icon
recently.

A snip: WSJ:
In your day, the Church produced figures such as Bishop Sheen and
Father Drinan and Pope John XXIII. Who are the Catholic leaders today
of their caliber? Are there any?

Father
Hesburgh: That's a fair question. I'm not in a position to come up with
an answer, but I have my ideas about it. I think somehow, either in the
educational system for clergy or in the kind of people we attract to
the clergy, we are going to have to take a very close look at that,
because whatever we're doing, let's say it's not working. The number of
Catholic clergymen is going down, and the same is probably true of many
other churches. It's one of the key problems that exists in our
country, and we ought to find a way of getting at that problem.

The
Catholic Church, like any other human organization, depends on
leadership, and leadership depends on performance. If you look for
leaders in a given group and you don't find them, something is wrong.
When you had leaders, such as you just mentioned, a few decades ago, I
have to say the Church seemed more vital to most people, even to people
outside the church.

Is the lack of leadership why the Church ended up in the priests' scandal?

Father
Hesburgh: Everything is part of an organic whole, and the scandal is
one aspect. I wouldn't want to be personally buffaloed about whether
there was a scandal, because there is no question there was. The answer
is to find a different caliber of training and of selection and of
inspiration of young men going into priesthood. And I think, more and
more, women have to be involved in this, and I suspect that in the long
run, married people are going to be a lot more involved in this whole
problem than we have today.

It has to evolve over time. I have
no problem with females or married people as priests, but I realize
that the majority of the leadership in the Church would. But what's
important is that people get the sacraments. You have to remember,
there were married priests, even married popes, in the first 1,000
years of the church.

----------------------

Where Goes America?

Looking for an interesting summer read?

Concerned about America's place in the global society?

Look no further!

The New York Times has not just ONE (A Challenge for the US: Sun Rising in the East), but TWO (The New World) reviews of this important new book:

The Post American World, By Fareed Zakaria, 292 pages. W. W. Norton & Company. $25.95

In his book, Mr. Zakaria writes that America remains a politico-military superpower, but “in every other dimension — industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural — the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” With the rise of China, India and other emerging markets, with economic growth sweeping much of the planet, and the world becoming increasingly decentralized and interconnected, he contends, “we are moving into a post-American world, one defined and directed from many places and by many people.”

America's future: Good or bad? Up or down? You be the judge of this book which is being discussed in boardrooms and backyards all over the globe.

If it does nothing else, it will get you thinking about America's place in the world order over coming decades.

Highly recommended!