OK, Pope Francis, Time to be CEO Now

Pope Francis is a media darling, which is great for the Catholic Church, because otherwise reporters might look at things like the Vatican Bank instead. The bank's director and deputy director resigned July 1 amidst a criminal probe, after a priest was arrested for allegedly illegally moving $27 million from Switzerland to Italy, David Alvarez at the LA Times points out. Alvarez thinks one of the major reasons the Bank is so troubled is that "for a long time no one has been minding the store."

Ever since Vatican II, "ministry has displaced management in the papal job description. The image of the commanding Supreme Pontiff has been replaced by that of the softer, gentler Holy Father." Francis is definitely in that latter mold, but if the Vatican bureaucracy is ever to be modernized and reformed, the pope has to take the initiative. "Whether he likes it or not, the pope is also the chief executive of an international organization, and perhaps it's time that he start doing his job." Click for the full column (or see a similar opinion ... published before Francis became pope.)