Archive for the ‘Church Disputes’ Category
Why the Catholic Church needs Collaborative Law
June 28th, 2010 | 
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The crisis of child abuse by priests of the Roman Catholic Church and the cover-ups by their bishops was the focus of a recent Time magazine cover story (June 7, 2010). The story caught my interest for several reasons: I am a committed Christian, an active member of the oldest national Christian church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, and a former seminarian who gave serious though to becoming a clergyman. And my first job out of law school was prosecuting child abuse cases in Westchester (NY) County.
But also, I was interested in the story because I am a lawyer and mediator, dedicated to the non-adversarial resolution of dispute resolution. I read the article with sadness, feeling compassion for the victims, but also for the Catholic Church dealing with a difficult issue and for the stakeholders – the faithful of the Catholic Church and all those other priests who have done no wrong, but have to live with the stigma of the wrongdoing that touches their ministries as well.
The article mentioned the two approaches that people are presently using to address this crisis: either going through a long litigation path that begins with the state Attorney General’s office and is thereafter driven by private attorneys or an internal process within the hierarchy of the Church. The first is tremendously draining and damaging to those victims who can even afford the legal fees; the second has failed to gain the trust and confidence of the people because it has often done little more than transfer or re-assign the suspected priests and keep the matter as quiet as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Church Disputes, Collaborative Law, Mediation | 
Tags: Collaborative Mediation, Mediation, Religious Disputes | 
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Using Collaborative Practice in Church Disputes
| Using Collaborative Practice in church disputes; Jan. 17, 2009 |
| 2009.01.17 23:53:57 | |
| I was recently reading in Time magazine about the continuing tension between Roman Catholic parishioners fighting to keep older parishes alive and running, despite the plans of the governing Catholic archdioceses to close them down and sell them off. The article stated that the Catholic hierarchy needed to sell the parishes and real estate due to declines in membership and the cost of litigation and paying settlement damages arising out of clergy-sexual abuse claims. I couldn’t help but recognize how useful a dispute resolution tool for both sides of the dispute Collaborative Law would be in that kind of situation, where there are so many interests to consider — those of the parishioners and families, those of the parish itself or the archidiocese involved and of the Catholic Church, and for that matter, organized religion itself. And the issues and interests are so deeply interwoven and interconnected that all those involved could benefit deeply from the approaches of collaborative negotiations, the collective use of various neutral experts - psychologists, counselors, financial advisors, communications coaches, etc., all working together with the parties to develop deeper resolutions with options that satisfy all the needs and interests at the negotiation table. Instead, we hear of random lawusuits here and there, settlements in some, long delays in others, parishioners sleeping on pews in parishes on cold winter nights to to keep watch or seige over the parish, etc. Church leaders want to be and should be investing their time and energies in more the important callings. Instead, they often have to use huge chunks of time and energy - and large sums of money — entrenched in the litigation processes that so consume them. Through all this, relationships are damaged, often beyond repair; trust that once was has eroded; the spiritual needs of parishioners are overlooked; the callings that inspired and attracted right-minded young men to serve God in some meaningful and lives-changing way are lost in the shuffle, caught in the crossfire of one chess match or another; the reputation of priests, pastors, parishes, dioceses, hierarachs and the Church itself takes a huge hit.
Practitioners of Collaborative Practice and other forms of alternative dispute resolution know that it doesn’t have to go this way. And these practitioners, committed to transforming the way disputes are resolved, have to tools and the know-how to help. All that stands in the way is for the problems and situations these churches and parishioners face to be connected with the appropriate processes and solutions. Public education about the choices that exist in dispute resolution other than lawsuits and court will help to link those who have the willingness and training to help with meaningful, efficient solutions and those who are in clear need of them, in order to best satisfy their interests. |
Posted in Church Disputes, Dispute Resolution Resources |
Tags: Collaborative Processes, Religious Disputes |
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