From a Crisis to a Solution

Leadership Roundtable was founded in the wake of the abuse crisis of 2002. The clergy, religious, and lay Catholics who gathered at our first convenings knew that the Church was facing twin crises: a crisis of abuse and a crisis of leadership failures. If the Church was going to solve the abuse crisis, it needed to promote accountability and best practices in its leadership and management. For nearly 15 years, Leadership Roundtable has developed and implemented services to help the Church in areas of management, finance, human resources, and communications. The organization has become a responsive and valued partner for Church leaders across the country.

With the rise of the latest twin crises of abuse and leadership failures in 2018, Leadership Roundtable responded with the expertise of our network and the strength of our resources to assist even more Church leaders to help them transform the Church’s management and leadership culture. The following timeline shows highlights of our response to the crises in 2018 and early 2019:

• August: Provided individual consultations and resources for Catholic leaders in more than 50 dioceses, religious communities, and other Catholic institutions across the country. 
• September: Created a section on our website about the crises for Catholic leaders to easily access resources and support. Helped Catholics understand the dual nature of the crises and practical solutions for it with dozens of media interviews, op-eds, podcast appearances, etc. 
• October: Convened a meeting in October for bishops and lay experts as they prepared for the November meeting of the bishops’ conference. The group looked at the twin crises and identified three approaches for addressing it with actionable recommendations. 
• November: Presented practical ideas to address the crises for bishops and diocesan teams on the West Coast who attended our Bishops’ Workshop at the Santa Clara Faith Formation Conference.
• February: Convened the Catholic Partnership Summit with more than 200 Catholic leaders from 43 dioceses to lift up recommendations to address the crises. Participants included abuse survivors, three cardinals, multiple bishops, diocesan staff, college and university presidents, corporate leaders and theologians, canon lawyers and philanthropists, religious superiors and experts in abuse prevention.
• March: Published Heal the Body of Christ report with practical ideas from the Catholic Partnership Summit on how Church leaders, lay and ordained, can implement recovery and reform.