The Vatican's latest sex scandal is only partly about the sordid activities of its priests and the cover up. The more important issue is about ethics and accountability to its stakeholders.
With journalist Christopher Hitchens calling for the arrest of the Pope in the wake of the Vatican's latest sex scandal, it's worth asking how this sordid affair would be handled if the Catholic Church was a business. Well, it is but I mean a real corporation.
Writing in BusinessWeek, Ben Heineman Jr, GE's former senior vice-president for law and public affairs says a corporation would be far more accountable to its stakeholders.
Heineman writes: "Were such a problem-substantiated allegations of grave ethical violations-to arise in a major corporation it would, in many companies (and should in all companies) be handled differently. To wit, the CEO, in consultation with the board of directors, would constitute an internal fact-finding body, perhaps supplemented by renowned and independent outside investigators, to establish and corroborate what happened. If there were serious, substantiated allegations about the CEO, the Board would have to conduct an independent investigation. Where there are likely violations of law, top leaders will generally report those to appropriate legal and regulatory authorities. Where employees or business leaders are found to have violated the company's own ethical precepts (as in instances of bribery, embezzlement, and harassment), serious internal discipline will be imposed up to and including termination. Leaders who did not engage directly in the improper conduct but who did not create a culture of integrity or who covered up those acts will face similar discipline. Such fixing of internal accountability and discipline can often occur in parallel with actions by enforcement authorities-and, indeed, can be important in showing the authorities that the highest leaders of the company did not authorize or condone such acts and, by example, will seek to deter them in the future. Some might argue that such self-policing will hurt the company with the authorities but, in my experience, it is a vital dimension of managing integrity crises. Inside the organization, such fixing of accountability in egregious cases is critical to maintaining a culture of integrity-where both the troops and the colonels and the generals are held equally accountable and where the company is true to its ethics and aspirations and does not hypocritically look the other way."
Heineman's words are a warning to the Church. If it's to survive, it will have to become more accountable. And that means a gut-wrenching transformation.
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