Boston College will start the nation’s first graduate program in church management, in response to the Catholic Church’s need to better manage its business operations, financial resources and personnel.
Starting this fall, BC’s Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, in collaboration with the university’s Carroll School of Management, will offer a master’s degree in pastoral ministry with a concentration in church management. It will also offer a dual degree program in pastoral ministry and business administration, akin to a church MBA program, that can be completed in three years.
The Catholic Church has been rocked by multiple scandals over recent years, says BC theology professor Thomas Groome. A sex abuse scandal that resulted in the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law as Archbishop of Boston in Dec. 2002 is just one example.
But one of the main reasons for the church’s trouble, says Groome, is “miserable management.
“I tell bishops who come to me saying, ‘the church is more than a corporation.’ They’re right. But a well-run corporation will only serve to enhance the church’s spiritual mission,” he says.
Groome notes that the affiliated Catholic Charities of Boston has 1,800 employees and a $135 million budget. It is vital to know how to manage such large resources, he says.
“There is a desperate need for proper management in the Catholic Church,” says Dr. Thomas A. Bausch, professor of management at Marquette University, a Jesuit school in Milwaukee. Although Marquette has no immediate plans to initiate its own church management program, Bausch applauded BC’s plan.
