Abstract

The case discusses the efforts of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, to rebrand the traditional Roman Catholic Church. Ever since Pope Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, he had been making efforts to reposition the church. He wanted to make the Catholic Church an inclusive institution, and toward this end, he encouraged priests to be more welcoming toward single parents, divorced couples, and gay people – groups which till then, had been shunned by the 2,000-year-old Church. While rebranding the Church, Pope Francis had to deal with the scandals rocking the Church – financial corruption, child sex abuse cover-ups, and allegations of a gay sex scandal. Despite establishing the Vatican’s first pontifical commission dedicated specifically to the protection of minors in the Church, Pope Francis came under severe criticism for not speaking out on the subject more strongly and not acting more forcefully against the abusers and those who were covering up the abuse. Experts felt that Pope Francis should bring in more transparency and responsibility while tackling child sex abuse. In addition to this, Pope Francis also had to deal with several other issues facing the Vatican, such as gay marriage, the role of women in the church, and the ban on artificial contraception. Some Vatican experts believed that while Pope Francis was introducing several reforms to rebrand the church, he had to come out with a comprehensive roadmap to manage change in the Catholic Church, which was full of traditions. They felt that he had to design a future strategy to make the reforms concerning the teachings of the Catholic Church sustainable in the long run while tackling the challenge of dealing with the resistance of Catholics to change in revisiting the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the nature of reforms that Pope Francis tried to bring about in the church and the strategy he followed.
• Explore and understand the similarities and differences in managing a corporate organization and managing a religious organization.
• Discuss how principles and frameworks of managing change could be applied to the change management process in the church.
• Critically analyze the leadership style of Pope Francis and how he tackled the challenges. Discuss the management lessons business leaders can learn from this.
• Debate whether the reforms introduced by Pope Francis can be sustained on a long-term basis and what challenges lie ahead for him. Suggest a roadmap for future reforms.

Keywords

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, Roman Catholic Church, Vatican, Rebranding, Leadership, Holy Communion, Financial corruption, Child sex abuse, Homosexuality, Church reforms, Pontifical Commission, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests