PR in the age of scepticism
The Vatican's handling of the child abuse scandal is a lesson in how not to do it, says Dougal Paver.
Like many scandals that engulf organisations, the one facing the Vatican rumbles on, fuelled by a series of own-goals and the Papacy's inability to close down the story through wont of some good advice and a dose of humility.
In PR terms the solution is straightforward: an unequivocal, frank and honest apology for the church's misdeeds by the Pope, with an independent body tasked with investigating the Vatican's role in any cover-up.
Follow that with a fund to compensate victims and a plan for ensuring the most robust vetting of clerical candidates and practicing priests and you may - just may - be able to recover some of the church's lost authority.
That will be tough, of course. It has been proven that across the globe the Catholic church has sought to cover up the rape and torture of children in order to protect its reputation.
That's right: it cared more for its reputation than the well-being of innocents - and was prepared to collude in their continued abuse to ensure it wasn't found out. And now, thanks to further revelations, fingers are starting to point directly at the Pontiff himself.
Rotten to the core? Seemingly. And as various surveys are showing, the church's authority among its followers is ebbing away. As a Catholic I'd know.
The fact that the Vatican still fails to grasp how dangerous this crisis is for its survival tells you how out of touch and unprepared it is for the implications of an increasingly sceptical and secular world.
Deference is dead and 2000 years of history, culture and political connectivity count for nothing, but no-one's told the Pope. Or if they have, he isn't listening.
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