Crisis Management for the Catholic Church

The revelations about the scale of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland and the rest of Europe have been garnering more and more media attention throughout the world, with the latest updates appearing on
the front page of newspapers and leading the evening news. Americans feel a sense of de ja vue, because of the clergy abuse scandal in the US several years ago. The Catholic Church needs to take the proactive steps in Europe that it failed to take in the US, to restore its image and the faith of its followers. While there are many ways to approach a problem, there are some obvious crisis management techniques.



Confront the Subject Head On
Victims are on the evening news, being interviewed about their plight. But, the Vatican remains remarkably silent - only urging its dwindling followers not to engaging in what the Pope called "petty gossip", according to The Guardian. Declaring a scandal of this magnitude "petty gossip" and refusing to speak about if further, in the hopes that it will somehow magically vanish only makes the scandal bigger, because the Church appears in denial. High level officials, including the Pope himself, need to talk more openly about what happened, what the church knew, and what went wrong.

Treat Victims Compassionately
The Vatican should ensure that victims and communities know they have the support of their church, especially after their ordeal. The Church needs to ensure that those abused by priests are not abused a second time by a church trying to cover up wrongdoing in its ranks - anything less could lead to a second scandal.
Ensure There is No More Abuse - And Let the Public Know

Once the Catholic Church moves beyond the realm of considering a serious priest sex abuse case "petty gossip" and begins acting more openly, officials should act aggressively to make sure that the abuse stays a thing of the past and never happens again - not just for the sake of the Vactican's image, but also for the sake of Catholics and their children. Making prevention a quiet, closed doors affair will not help their image, since the church's deafening silence about abuse in the past is a part of the current scandal. Preventative measures need to be made public - these could include allowing Catholic priests to marry (as they did in the Middle Ages), excommunicating child molesting priests (to set a precedent), and creating a council of cardinals to review other measures that would deter this behavior in the future.

Apologize
Saying, "I'm sorry" alone is not enough, but an appropriately timed mea culpa, to both the individual victims and entire church community, in concert with other appropriate, proactive actions already mentioned, could help the church regain the esteem it was held in before the Priest Abuse Scandal broke.

Return the Focus to Religion
After taking initial steps to regain its credibility, the Church should return to what it is known for - providing religious and spiritual support to its hundreds of millions of followers. WCVB Boston notes that since the Church's inception in Roman times, the Church has faced many scandals that it has survived, including selling indulgences in the Middle Ages, starting the Crusades, and rows with Jewish community after 1945. If the church takes proper steps, these scandals, like the ones before it, will fade into history.