WASHINGTON — Leaky roofs and poorly managed bank accounts are typical in Catholic parishes, says Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore.

“Men come out of seminary who don’t have the most rudimentary understanding of finance and bookkeeping, yet they’re to be the administrators of entire parishes,” Bishop Vasa said.

The bishop is part of a movement of Catholics concerned with poor Church administration — a lack of focus on organization and management they say contributed to the sexual abuse crisis and has led to financial problems in some parishes and dioceses.

The concern has inspired the creation of at least two organizations that provide bishops and pastors with lay experts on personnel, property management, employment law, budgeting, fundraising and accounting.

New York investment banker Geoffrey Boisi, a Catholic, started the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management in 2003. It is providing the Archdiocese of New Orleans with management and financial advice on how to rebuild its parochial school system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

But the roundtable has come under fire from Catholics who believe its members want to change the hierarchical nature of the Church, giving more control to the laity.

Kerry Robinson, executive director of the Leadership Roundtable, calls that criticism “blatantly false.”

“It’s exactly the opposite of what we stand for,” she said. “We are a profoundly Catholic organization, loyal to the magisterium. This is a membership organization that has members with exceptionally high levels of expertise and skills in addressing the temporal, non-doctrinal affairs of the Church.”

Deal Hudson, former head of the Republican National Committee’s Catholic Outreach and former editor of Crisis magazine, criticized Boisi’s organization early on for inviting a host of progressive, pro-abortion Catholics to its first few meetings and failing to invite prominent orthodox Catholics.

“I only know from a couple of meetings they’ve had, and some of the early reports they published, that they seem to think some of the problems in the Church are due to the way it’s governed,” Hudson said.

Hudson has just started an organization called the Church Resource Institute that is offering bishops “expertise in some areas of business operation, management, personnel, budgeting and fundraising,” he said. “It’s just an effort to offer education and advice on those issues our bishops and clergy aren’t taught in college or the seminaries.”

Wal-Mart Model

Of the Leadership Roundtable, Father Richard Neuhaus wrote in the August/September 2006 issue of First Things: “As it stands, the Roundtable is a collaborative effort of wealthy East Coast Catholics, academics, editors and Church activists who are determined to devise a strategy for establishing a major role for the laity in the governance of the Catholic Church in this country.”

In a book produced by the Leadership Roundtable titled Governance, Accountability, and the Future of the Catholic Church, co-founder Francis Butler wrote that the initiative will “marshal the talent, education, and experience of the best lay Catholic leaders in government, business, charitable and other sectors to help chart a course of reconstruction in the Church’s administrative life.”

Boisi added to concerns the organization would try to rearrange Church hierarchy when he held a meeting at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in July 2004. At the meeting, Boisi quoted the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who said: “Listen to the customers. Reassure them that this is their company, too. Give them confidence to speak up, because they will come up with the solution to almost any problem.”

“If you follow Boisi’s logic, then Catholics ultimately can choose who becomes a cardinal — or even the pope,” charged former Covenant House Chairman Denis Coleman after the meeting at Wharton.

The organization, based in Washington, consists of 200 members, four employees, and an annual budget of $750,000.

Hidden Gifts

Hudson’s group already has its first client — the Diocese of Baker. Bishop Vasa said he has steered clear of the Roundtable because he is concerned about statements in its founding documents. He said other bishops are also concerned, though he declined to be more specific.

“There have been confidential discussions, and that’s all I’ll say about it,” he said.

Bishop Vasa said he sees no evidence the Church Resource Institute has an agenda outside of helping bishops and priests with business and management advice.

“Deal Hudson has put together eight individuals who are experts in their respective fields, who can come into a parish or diocese to present one- or two-day modules on different topics,” Bishop Vasa said.

Among the experts is Catholic financial adviser Pat O’Meara, founder of O’Meara Ferguson Kearns, a Reston, Va., firm specializing in Church finance. The group’s legal expert is Jim Sonne, a professor at Ave Maria University Law School who specializes in corporate personnel issues.

“The team came in here and offered absolute respect and regard for the Church and her priests.” Bishop Vasa said. “They weren’t here to tell us how to do our jobs as pastors and bishops. … My guys were captivated. I could see they wanted to go home to their parish councils and talk about strategic planning that keeps the focus on the super-ordinate goal of saving souls.”

Bishop Vasa is hoping the Resource Institute will bring out the hidden administrative gifts in more of his pastors.

“We must realize that service to the people of God is more than just serving them spiritually,” he said. “It also involves being responsible to the household of that community.”

            Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.