After traveling the world for dialogue, will Francis talk to his own workers?

ROME – Though the Vatican has an entire gaggle of international business experts it can call upon for advice, it hardly requires an MBA from Stanford or IESE to realize that if your own workforce is expressing “alarm,” “discontent,” “demotivation” and “confusion,” you’ve got a fairly serious problem on your hands.

Such is the situation facing the Vatican today under Pope Francis, with the latest confirmation coming in an Aug. 20 statement from the Association of Lay Employees, the closest thing to a union the place actually has.

Formed in 1985, the association has had only mixed results in defending labor rights, but it has at least become a unique sounding board for knowing how the worker bees in the pope’s realm are thinking and feeling.

In its latest cri du cœur, issued in the form of an unsigned statement on its web site, the association asserts that while the Vatican is supposed to be a unique environment rooted in the dignity of the human person and shaped by Catholic social teaching, in fact the effect of reforms unleashed by Pope Francis has been to turn the Vatican into just another multinational company, only one that’s “limping” because of the shabby way it treats its workforce.

Specifically, the association lodged five principal complaints.

First, it cites a host of cost-cutting measures imposed under Francis, including the suspension of seniority-related pay increases, as well as restrictions on promotions, new hires and overtime payments, claiming that while employees have suffered the effects of these moves, no one knows if they’ve been effective because of an information blackout.

“What are the results of this ‘revolution?’ We don’t know with any precision, since for years the results of an annual financial statement – which used to be presented in a press conference – haven’t been published,” the association said.

“We haven’t lost hope of being able to see the final balance sheet for 2023,” it said.

Second, the association claims that unexplained exceptions have been made to these restrictions, suggesting that favoritism may be involved. Certain promotions “to positions of leadership,” it says, “have consequences for the balance sheet, and don’t always seem to take place according to the criteria of a meritocracy.”

Third, the association claims that Vatican workers are suffering collateral damage from other reforms. For example, they say that efforts to reset rents on Vatican-owned apartments to better reflect actual market value has a negative effect on Vatican employees living in those properties, whose incomes remain essentially fixed at 2008 levels.

Fourth, the association pointed to a growing trend towards out-sourcing labor in the Vatican, including cleaning and reception services. Recently it was announced that the Vatican’s fabled supermarket, where shoppers can purchase various items tax-free, will be leased to a major Italian grocery chain, with uncertain consequences for the roughly 30 employees who currently work there.

In addition, the association noted that management of much of the investment activity of the Vatican’s various entities has been handed over to external consultants, “for the most part American,” wondering aloud what role the Vatican’s own internal investment experts will have going forward.

Fifth and finally, the association complained that its various requests for dialogue on these points with Vatican superiors have fallen on deaf ears. The statement closes with a reference to the late Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the first Secretary of State under St. John Paul II, who was legendary for his diplomatic style and who’s often been cited by Pope Francis as a role model, wondering out loud what happened to Casaroli-style dialogue.

“We have the perception that the body is falling apart,” the statement concludes. “Is this a policy that will pay off? Only time will tell, but meanwhile we have to ask … why we’re not reinforcing our internal resources, which are ever more unmotivated and confused? What direction are we moving in?”

“What is the Vatican becoming?” the association asks. “Who are we working for? We all know the importance of keeping up with the times, but at what cost? What are the reasons behind this sudden change of direction? All is silent. We write, but those in charge, when questioned, struggle to give answers.”

The statement also cites a recent protest signed by 49 employees of the Vatican Museums, threatening to bring a class action complaint before the Vatican tribunal if their concerns about worker safety and other matters, such as overtime pay and medical leaves, aren’t addressed.

Let’s be clear: These are the complaints of what is, in effect, a trade union, and as is always the case, a union doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of everyone who works in a particular industry. Often they’re the voice of the more militant and disgruntled elements of the workforce, while those basically content don’t issue communiques or stage walkouts.

Still, anyone who’s been around the Vatican for more than five minutes realizes that these aren’t isolated or idiosyncratic complaints, but rather real concerns from people who’ve given their lives in service to the Vatican and the pope, and who now find themselves fearful not only for their financial future, but very much their present.

In truth, the discontent runs even deeper, because the dollars and cents dimension of these issues probably could be hammered out in a sincere give-and-take. The root problem is that many Vatican employees believe their superiors don’t really care about their problems, and that the lack of dialogue is an index of a lack of interest.

Here’s a basic piece of math: There are 1.3 billion Catholics in the world and a little over 5,000 workers on the Vatican payroll, combining the Roman Curia with the Vatican City State. If you were to apply the same ratio of citizens to bureaucrats to the United States, the federal government would have just under 600 employees, not the two and a quarter million currently receiving federal paychecks.

In other words, the Vatican is an incredibly lean operation, one in which even small disruptions in morale and motivation can have mammoth consequences in terms of productivity and quality.

Pope Francis is currently preparing to head off to Asia and Oceania for a four-nation, 11-day odyssey that will take him to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. Along the way, he’ll meet faith leaders, politicians, missionaries, indigenous groups, captains of culture and industry, and any number of other movers and shakers, engaging them all in earnest conversation.

Perhaps when he gets back to Rome, he may want to consider actually talking to his own employees in the same fashion. Such in-house outreach might, in the end, have a far more direct effect on the success or failure of his initiatives than just about any other use of his time one could imagine.