By Reid Collins on 6.18.02 @ 12:01AM
If the damage has been done, what are the chances for recovery? Reflections on Andersen and the American bishops.
At about the time the Roman Catholic bishops in Dallas were
agonizing over their policy toward pedophilia, a federal judge in
Houston was Allenizing an undecided jury in the Arthur Andersen
trial. The so-called Allen charge involves telling a hung jury to
snap out of fixed positions, consider fellow jurors' views, and
reach higher for a verdict. The Andersen jury soon returned a
verdict of guilty that would seal the fate of the auditing company
and may open the way to further prosecutions. The bishops in Dallas
had no such superintendency of their deliberations and they
returned a verdict which has dissatisfied many and leads the way to
further obfuscation.
For a time the bishops leaned toward the allowance of one
established priestly pedophilic act, a sort of "one man, one vote
-- one priest, one boy" rubric. But the howls of the laity -- some
actually picketed the proceedings -- made them think better of
that. They decided instead that any priest who ever has or ever
does sexually abuse a minor will lose the clerical collar and be
denied ministerial responsibilities. As for de-frocking, expelling
from the priesthood, that tortuous process will be considered on a
case-by-case basis.
In keeping with the current reaction to crisis, there will be a
new national review board, a sort of enforcement arm, headed by
Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, joined by Washington lawyer Robert
S. "Bob" Bennett, who assisted President Clinton in resisting Paula
Jones's legal advances. Gov. Keating foresees a board of 15 to 20
eventually. To handle the day-to-day administration of these new
policies, each diocese will appoint a review board of at least five
people, one of whom "should" be a priest. Credible allegations of
abuse are to be reported to "the public authorities." (Unclear is
who gets first dibs here -- church or cops.) Above this diocesan
board will be an appellate review board, at least one member of
which should be a bishop and another a canon lawyer.
All of it is subject to approval by the Vatican.
In many ways the headlines of the bishops' deliberations and
decisions mirror those of the CEOs on the business page. Both
acknowledge failure at some point and the loss of public
credibility. With the rare exception of one taken from his SoHo
digs in handcuffs and his 'jammies, the business CEOs are allowed
to walk away from diminished corporations with the millions
prescribed in their contract small print. It is the stockholder who
foots the bill of share prices plunging from 60 to a dollar. If
still in the earning category, the stockholder may be able to
recover. Hard work, or class action, but recover.
The CEOs of the soul may share the headlines of remorse and
revision. But they are different. No bishop is leaving his parish
house some morning in handcuffs and pajamas, though in the view of
many concealing the buggering of a little boy far surpasses the sin
of selling stock with inside information. His will be the
unpleasant duty to judge another priest; though Gov. Keating warns
in his acceptance statement that "if someone obscures, absolves,
obstructs, hides (that) criminal act, arguably they are obstructing
justice or arguably they are also accessories to the crime." We'll
see, arguably.
But what of the losses? The laity of Enron has lost money; it
can make it back. Andersen employees have lost jobs; they retain
their talents. All can soldier on. But if the CEOs of souls fail,
they have cost their stockholders that which is becoming the
rarest, most irreplaceable of all commodities -- faith.
topics:
Business, Law
