The Program of Church Management (PCM) at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross on June 30, 2020, hosted an online conference with its supporters to announce the launch of the Global Institute of Church Management (GICM), an independent non-profit based in the US and directed by a lay board. GICM will promote research and education to assist Church institutions to implement best management practices so that they may exemplarily reflect the Catholic Church’s moral and social teachings. By making the best use of her resources, the Church may achieve Pope Francis’ desire that she may truly be “a poor Church for the poor”.
PCM was started at the request of Cardinal George Pell on the behalf of the Holy See while he was head of the Secretariat for the Economy, an appointment made by Pope Francis. Cardinal Pell’s highest-ranking lay staff expert, Claudia Ciocca, is a faculty member of the program. The Cardinal was able to join by video today, one of his first video appearances since he was acquitted.
In his video, Cardinal Pell encouraged the work of PCM and the newly launched Global Institute of Church Management, indicating his ongoing support for implementing best practices to steward the material resources of the Church: “To say that the Church is not a business provides no justification for us to be inefficient, much less corrupt.”
PCM offers a one-year certificate for lay, clerics, and religious who are in Rome, as well as executive sessions offered in the form of intensive weeks in Rome. Bishops from about fifty dioceses have sent students to the program, some have also participated in the executive sessions themselves. In three years, 110 students have enrolled. Other executive students include vicars general, chancellors, hospital administrators, finance administrators, leaders in religious congregations, etc.
The Pontifical Missionary Union has also supported PCM with scholarships for students.
Program information can be found here: www.pusc.it/pcm.
