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Case Code: HROB184
Case Length: 13 Pages 
Period: 2013-2016   
Pub Date: 2017
Teaching Note: Available
Price:Rs.500
Organization : Roman Catholic Church
Industry : -
Countries : Vatican 
Themes: Leadership and Change Management  
/Managing Religious Organizations 
Case Studies  
Business Strategy
Marketing
Finance
Human Resource Management
IT and Systems
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Economics
Leadership & Entrepreneurship

Pope Francis – a Radical Reformer: Rebranding the Church

 
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EXCERPTS

SCANDALS ROCKING THE CHURCH

 

When Bergoglio was elected, the Roman Catholic Church was mired in several controversies – the financial scandal at the Vatican Bank, child sexual abuse cover-ups, discrimination against homosexuals, dwindling church attendance, and dysfunctional Vatican headquarters. It was reported that the Vatican Bank was involved in money laundering in 2010 when around US$ 28 million was seized by prosecutors from a Vatican-linked bank account. This was followed by an arrest in 2013 of a ranking Vatican cleric for allegedly trying to smuggle and launder around US$ 30 million. The bank was also accused by international regulatory agencies of turning a blind eye to tax evasion and money laundering and of hiding its sources of income...

 
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REBRANDING THE CHURCH

Experts felt that Pope Francis had changed the definition of leadership with his gestures like forsaking a golden pectoral cross for a plain metal one, hopping into a bus instead of his limo, and stopping his pope-mobile to embrace a disabled man. A month after his election, in April 2013, Pope Francis assembled a special commission called the Council of Cardinals comprising a group of nine Roman Catholic cardinals to serve as advisors to him. ..
 

THE RESPONSE

Pope Francis’s efforts received appreciation from several quarters. He was named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the year’ in 2013 for being the most influential global newsmaker. However, he also received huge criticism from several quarters. The Remnant, a small, traditionalist US newspaper, in an open letter to the Pope advised him to change his course or resign, stating that his papacy was “causing grave harm to the Church.
 

THE CHALLENGES CONTINUE...

While Pope Francis was making several efforts to handle the financial scandal at Vatican, in November 2015, some confidential Vatican documents were leaked by a former lay consultant to an Italian journalist who announced his plans to publish them in a book. On November 2, 2015, Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and Francesca Chaouqui (Chaouqui), a former member of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, were arrested by the Vatican police. Chaouqui, who had previously worked at Ernst & Young, worked in Pope Francis’ pontifical commission to develop solutions for greater fiscal responsibility and transparency in Vatican offices...
 

LOOKING AHEAD

Amidst several challenges, in April 2016, Pope Francis released his second apostolic exhortation known as ‘Amoris Laetitia’ (meaning ‘The Joy of Love’). The document aimed to bring about changes in controversial subjects such as whether divorced couples who remarried without annulling their marriage could receive Holy Communion, in addition to addressing issues related to polygamy, cohabitating, and same-sex relationships...
 

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I:Biography of Pope Francis
Exhibit II: Organizational Structure of the Roman Catholic Church
Exhibit III: Income Statement of the Institute for the Works of Religion (Commonly Known as the Vatican Bank) for the Year Ended 31 December 2014
Exhibit IV: Forbes’ List of Ten Most Powerful People