Speaker proposes professional code of ethics for church leaders

Published: 2004-02-23

BOSTON (CNS) -- As Catholic leaders attempt to recover from the clergy sex abuse scandal, they must rediscover "the meaning of Christian leadership," said a speaker at a Boston College conference on developing "an ecclesial professional ethic." Francis J. Butler, president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, a national consortium of 50 private philanthropies, said during the Feb. 13-14 conference, "There is no room in the church for spin doctors, one-way communicators or those obsessed with secrecy." In his Feb. 14 talk, Butler proposed a 10-point professional code of ethical behavior for church leaders, both lay and clerical. In his proposal, he called on church leaders to pledge to observe the highest standards of their profession; to promise to be good stewards; and to do all in their power to understand the church as community, to be accountable and open, to foster broad participation in the life of the church and to oppose anything that encourages clericalism.

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