Organizational Defensiveness
The Catholic Church continues to struggle with it’s sex abuse nightmare, seemingly digging itself deeper into the turmoil with every public statement. In recent days, we have heard musings that link the sexual abuse of children to homosexuality and that the Church is under attack from its critics in the same way that the Jews were from the Nazis.
As far as Organizational Defensive Routines (ODR) go, this is one for the textbooks.
ODR are strategies that organizations adopt for self-preservation. They are designed to shut down inquiry that would lead to embarrassment or the potential loss of reputation. It appears that the Catholic Church has been mastering ODR for years.
Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, pioneers of organizational learning, suggest that ODR is driven by some governing variables, including:
• always maintain unilateral control;
• maximize winning and minimize losing;
• behave according to what you believe is rational.
They also state that the implications of these governing variables are:
• the design and management of situations unilaterally to ensure maximum control;
• the advocacy of a single viewpoint and the elimination of inquiry;
• the attribution of causes (ie. homosexuality is the problem);
• the cover-up of problems and the undiscussability of issues related to the problem;
• engaging defensive actions such as blaming others, stereotyping, and rationalizations for behaviors.
There it is. The Church’s strategy in response to these long-standing charges in a nutshell.
The John Jay Report (2004), commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found that over 10,000 people had alleged sex abuse by the clergy between 1950 and 2002. A total of 4,392 priests and deacons against whom allegations were made had these claims “substantiated.” This does not include cases in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, Norway or the Philipines.
Not only did some Catholic priests rape children but the hierarchy covered it up, moved suspects to other countries to avoid prosecution, and allowed sex offenders to reoffend once moved. They also sought to silence their victims, according to the BBC, through the imposition of oaths of secrecy on child victims, the priest dealing with the allegations and any witnessess, on pain of excommunication.
Pope Benedict claims to be deeply ashamed but sought diplomatic immunity from a law suit where he was accused of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three young boys in Texas. The conspiracy charges may grow as more of the details of his involvement in the global cover-up are revealed.
Benedict’s tears in recent meetings with victims are not enough. Real change must come to the Catholic Church for it to survive the 21st Century. Organizational defensiveness may be a major contributing factor to this long agony, this cancer, within the Catholic Church.
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
April 29th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I agree, tears are not enough. But, they are not a bad place to start. As a survivor those public tears, real or for show, feel like the beginning of an acknowledgment that something is wrong and perhaps those tears will serve as a way of opening a dialogue not only with survivors but with every church member.
For church is not merely an institution “owned” by church hierarchy or priests, we are the church. Each of us who walks in a church door, no matter what the denomination, are the church. We all need to ask questions. We all need to hold our leaders accountable. We also need to ask, where is my place in this? What gifts and skills and talents do I possess which aid in creating faith communities who govern themselves with faithfulness, transparency and honesty?
The Roman Catholic Church is no longer my church home and my angst with the RC Church has been deep and painful. Clearly there is much work to do in the RC Church, not only in the area of child protection but in the area of creating transparent, accountable governance. But the RC Church in the United States, particularly the US Conference of Bishops, has worked hard to create structures and training to protect children. (see http://www.usccb.org/ocyp/april_cap_month_2010.shtml) Their website notes that they have trained 2 million adults to recognize the behavior of offenders and what to do about it and they have equipped 5 million children with the skills to protect themselves from abuse. The materials on their website are credible, readable and useful.
My heart aches for the journey this has been, not only for survivors but for those who care about us and for all who placed their faith in church being a safe place. Tears are a start. Direct, honest, thoughtful dialogue is better. One lesson I have learned along the way is that what we can face we can handle. My prayer not only for the RC Church but for all faith communities is that we shine a light on the dark places in our midst and make a commitment to honest, open dialogue which will let darkness know that it is not welcome in our midst.