Lessons From The Catholic Church Scandal
by Dick Dyer, APR

When an organization comes under the kind of scrutiny recently experienced by the Catholic Church, most people haven’t a clue how intense it gets for the public relations effort. Everything seems to fall apart and all efforts at communication seem to pale in comparison to the deluge of negative reporting in the media. Bunker mentalities often rule the day—hoping that this issue will just go away.

The church is not denying the issue, but it is not doing all that it can and should to help itself while the issue is boiling. It should be noted that this kind of controversy is also an excellent opportunity for the Catholic Church—you know the adage, “just make sure they spell your name correctly.”

Lessons for all of us

Four major lessons are revealed to all of us in the midst of this scandal: make sure that individuals (both perpetrators of a crime and the victims) are provided due process and counseling; make sure the institutions mission and goals are clearly identified; make sure that all communications separate the institution from the individuals; and make sure you take advantage of the increased attention to tell about all the good things the organization is doing.

In my work with major crisis (at least two with sexual abuse at the center of the crisis) it is most important to take care of people. Alleged perpetrators need to be safely placed on administrative leave until they have their day in court. All people have that right in America and the public relations role is to make sure that people get that privilege. At the same time, alleged victims of the crime deserve their rights and protection and so to does the institution. While the courts and counselors sort it all out, the individuals need to be protected and that action, in turn, provides that the institution is protected as well. This is not an attempt to dodge the criticism or the bullets, it is quiet time to allow for due process.

If as part of the process, the institution is guilty of cover-ups, it is extremely important to openly and honestly address that issue. This is also another way of saying the organization needs to bring forward its mission and goals. No mission statement I have ever looked at says we will harbor known criminals and hurt our primary constituents or customer base in the process. The church has a beautiful, if daunting, mission to further its efforts to help people! It is difficult for anyone to believe that the leadership of the church would deliberately do wrong. But, by not getting back to their core mission statements, it can’t help but appear they are trying to protect some individual priests and appear insensitive to the victims alleged and otherwise. Even efforts to provide counseling to priests appears as an attempt to cover-up the issue and get them somewhere out of the limelight until the issue blows over.

The other way the church can separate itself from the individuals involved is to speak to the unique nature of each individual church in each state. The Catholic Church in Maine, for example, is not one big behemoth of a church, but a collection of individual parishes under the Catholic doctrine. People of the Catholic faith in Van Buren have different missions for their communities than say Catholics in Kittery. Obviously they have similar missions but they are no more alike than the individual paper companies in this state. Paper companies all make paper, but they have different processes based upon local infrastructure and resources.

Finally, this is a great opportunity. Organizations I work with would like this level of attention without the crisis. But, while you have the attention, you have the opportunity to tell the difference. This is an opportunity for the churches (not just the Catholics) to all tell how they are making a difference in their communities. If that difference pales or seems insignificant, it is also an opportunity to step and make a difference for people. How do we work together and protect our children from sexual abuse? And you know what, I think that there are many great leaders in many of our churches who have great ideas on how to rid our society of sexual abuse among many other maladies.

The church doesn’t have to appear to be the culprit on this crisis; they need to get back to discussions of what the do or could do to minimize the cause of the crisis.

Dick Dyer operates his own public relations firm in Winthrop, Maine. He enjoys hearing from readers on column ideas and/or questions they would like pursued within this column. You can reach him by email dyerapr@fairpoint.net or by phone at (207) 512-2217.