Accountability

US president Harry Truman kept on his desk a small sign reading 'The Buck Stops Here'.  He meant that in the end he was responsible for everything his administration did, and answerable if any of his subordinates made a major mistake.  He would not 'pass the buck' - i.e. blame somebody else.  This is the principle of accountability.

Accountability is a key principle of responsible government.  It requires, for example, that an official should resign if his subordinates make a serious mistake because of poor leadership by him.  Officials must also be ready to explain their own decisions when these prove controversial.  They cannot simply ignore criticism and behave as though they are in no way answerable for what they do.

Although we expect officials to be accountable to us in a modern society, this principle of accountability could well be said to originate in the first book of the bible, Genesis.  When God questions Adam and Eve on their disobedience he is 'calling them to account'.  And when Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent, a deep human flaw is revealed:  our human tendency to 'pass the buck' - to avoid responsibility.

It is a scandalous anomaly in any Christian community for its leaders to reject or avoid the principle of accountability.  And that principle is not secured if those leaders are merely accountable to their own superiors.  All Christian leaders must teach by example, so if Catholic bishops refuse to be accountable to those they serve, they are failing to teach one of the most important moral lessons - that everyone has obligations to others and must account for every failure to meet those obligations.

Why have so many bishops across the Catholic church, from Ireland to Australia and Canada, failed to protect children from sexual abuse by Catholic priests, brothers and religious, even after they knew of the dangerous tendencies of these people?  So far this question has not been satisfactorily answered by any Catholic bishop anywhere.  This lack of accountability is a deep wound in the church, and a major source of the disillusionment of many who have simply walked away.  An unaccountable Christian leader is a counter-evangelical force, because he is declaring his church to be fundamentally irresponsible and lacking in integrity.  This is the very opposite of good news for anyone considering what Christian community to belong to.

Some argue that in calling on our bishops to be accountable to us we are challenging their authority.  Quite the contrary.  We want to restore the authority of our bishops by pointing out something basic to the nature of Christian authority.  It is inseparable from integrity - wholeness.  An unaccountable bishop is someone who has failed to notice that the authority of Jesus also was founded foursquare on his integrity.  He could tell us to love the poor because that was what he did.  He could tell us not to be covetous because he did not covet anything - not even the power to compel us to follow him.

And Jesus too made himself accountable for his ministry, assuring his father 'not one of these have I lost'. 

Since 1992 in Ireland the authority of our bishops has dwindled almost to nothing because, although there have been some notable exceptions, they have mostly lacked that same integrity - especially in their unwillingness to explain why so many Irish Catholic families have been laid waste by a too-frequent failure to act decisively when clerical sexual predators were at work.  And in their failure to explain why it is that Ireland still lacks the 'structures of belonging' that popes and Vatican II have called for since 1965.

So to disown any obligation of accountability to the church - the people of God - is a sin against the church and against the authority of the office of bishop.

Transparency

Transparency, or openness, is inseparable from accountability.  A truly accountable leader will explain to those he wishes to lead why he has done something, or proposes to do something, they may find disturbing and a challenge to faith.  Secrecy, the very opposite principal, is a clear signal that a leader is unaccountable, and wants to remain so.

In this era, the secrecy with which so many decisions are made in the church has eaten like acid into the most important asset every bishop has inherited - the trust of his people.  It speaks too loudly of a bishop's lack of forthrightness and plain dealing.  It insults the intelligence and understanding of the people of God by implying that they have no role in forming the mind of the church, and no real membership of it either.  It also makes Catholics ridiculous for tolerating such behaviour in a culture that favours the growth of all to mature adulthood by asking questions and seeking opportunities to have those questions answered.  It implies that lay Catholics must remain children forever.

Accountability and transparency are key principles of good leadership and a healthy community.  To the extent that they are lacking in our church it is critically unhealthy.  They must be embraced if we are to survive this crisis and become healthy again.

If Pope Benedict XVI's promised pastoral of 2010 fails to address this need, this could seriously weaken whatever reorganisation of the Irish church then follows.

VOTF™
Mission Statement

To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church.

Our Goals

2. To support priests of integrity

3.To shape structural change within the Catholic Church.

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