Management in the Catholic Church: corporate governance

Abstract

This paper contributes to the growing debate on corporate governance by exploring this topic within the context of a large religious organization, the Catholic Church, at the diocesan level. Corporate governance is first distilled to identify its key constructs. Relying on source documents such as the Church’s own Code of Canon Law and the Form for the Quinquennial Report, this paper conceptualizes corporate governance within the Church’s organizational framework, focusing corporate governance specifically at the level of the individual – the diocesan bishop, rather than at the Supreme Pontiff or his Roman Curia; an ecclesiastical model of corporate governance is thus framed.