Dr. Maccoby participates in a Weekly Forum on Washington Post.com called "On Leadership". I am compiling all of his responses to the weekly questions here.
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DATE: March 30, 2010 Pope Benedict: Effective leadership on sex scandal? rts to deal with the Church's sex scandal raises this question: Can a leader hold managers to account on an issue where his own past performance is in question? |
Transforming the priesthood
When there are errors or crimes in an organization, leaders need to decide whether they are caused by a wayward individual or by a faulty system. The challenge for Pope Benedict is not just holding people to account or increasing policing to prevent child abuse. It is transforming the priesthood so that it neither attracts nor shelters abusers.
Steps in this direction would include expanding and improving the pool of applicants for the priesthood by allowing priests to marry and by ordaining women. The definition of chastity would emphasize love and dignity, not treating another human being as an object, loving without exploiting. The Pope's own guilt or innocence is a matter between himself and God. He could overcome the shame of the church by leading an effort to develop a more mature and loving clergy.
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