BishopAccountability.org
	Dealing with Employment Crisis: Is Vatican Hierarchy Insane? By John Phillips The Word on Employment Law April 8, 2010 http://www.wordonemploymentlaw.com/2010/04/dealing-with-employment-crisis-is-vatican-hierarchy-insane/ In my last post on employment lessons to be learned from the child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, I suggested that employers should keep an eye on how the Vatican deals with the latest revelations of abuse to learn how an employer in crisis should or should not handle such a matter. Even though new allegations of abuse surface almost every day, the Vatican and its hierarchy have entered a bunker and are returning fire. The Church hierarchy’s defiant tone is undoubtedly fueled by suggestions that Pope Benedict XVI has culpability in the Church’s long cover-up of the scandal. Although the Pope has spoken strongly and movingly about the shame of the scandal, he’s failed to address the allegations about him. His defenders are outraged that the Holy Father has become a target. Thus, instead of addressing the world-wide nature of the scandal and disciplining those who caused it, the powers that be are merely remonstrating. Drawing employment lessons from this scandal provokes criticism, but they are staring us in the face. Connecting employment law with this fiasco is ridiculed, but employment law issues abound: negligent hiring, negligent supervision, negligent retention, assault, outrageous conduct, infliction of emotional distress. Anyone critical of the Vatican’s handling of this crisis is labeled a Catholic-hater, but the scandal itself is undermining everything the Church stands for. There’s still time to teach employers how to deal with a severe employment crisis, but it’s slipping away. The Church and its hierarchy should come out of the bunker and hear the words of the one they claim to represent on earth: “Woe to you, blind guides . . . . You have neglected the more important matters of . . . justice, mercy and faithfulness . . . . You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel . . . . You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence . . . . You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.