Most PR practitioners would agree the Catholic Church needs to
focus its attention on a few Golden Rules of crisis communications:
Tell the truth and take responsibility.
When the sex scandal that has eaten away at the Church's
credibility engulfed Monsignor Michael Smith Foster, he knew he
would need all the counsel he could get. As the chief judicial
vicar to then-Cardinal Law of Boston, Foster is the top canon
lawyer in the archdiocese. He turned to a team of expert legal
counsel that began searching for PR representation to help defend
his reputation.
The legal team approached Helene Solomon, partner with Bishoff
Solomon Communications, which does a significant amount of work on
litigation issues. The Church by then had put Foster on leave, and
it was a Monday in August when the legal team arrived with Foster
to speak with Solomon. "It was 5 p.m., and they hadn't returned any
media calls," Solomon says. Solomon advised the team that whether
they hired her or not, they had better begin responding to the
queries, and she did a quick media primer for one of the lead
attorneys. "After that, they decided they'd proceed with hiring
us."
Countering a Sex Scandal
Foster was accused by a Massachusetts man, Paul Edwards, who had
once been a member of his parish's youth group, of sexual abuse.
Edwards brought the charges to Suffolk County Court in a civil
suit. Fortunately for Foster, he had a few things going for
him:
- Members of his old youth group immediately began communicating
with each other and coming forward with pieces of information they
thought might help. - Edwards had a long history of dishonesty.
Solomon and her team began what she calls "facilitating
communications with the media" to call attention to Foster's side
of the story. The Bishoff Solomon team included Solomon herself, an
EVP and an account coordinator, who was charged with the meteoric
task of keeping records of media clips and other documents for the
case. They began talking to the Monsignor's many friends to get
their perspectives on the situation and gauge how well-suited they
were to the task of speaking to the media. Although papers like The
Boston Herald accused the priest of having his PR team script
interviews, Solomon says that on the contrary, many supporters
simply came to her for Media Training 101 because they were
determined to speak up for the priest.
On Sept. 4, the civil suit was dropped with prejudice by the
accusor (meaning he would not raise it again in court), and plans
were made to reinstate Monsignor Foster and for him to celebrate
Mass publicly. Immediately before he did so, however, Edwards
brought his complaint to the Church, which was once again forced to
suspend Foster.
Solomon and team continued to work with Foster's supporters.
They also:
- Conducted extensive media monitoring. That meant getting a look
at the Boston media early enough in the day to correct
inaccuracies. The team kept old-fashioned paper clips in massive
binders, because it's much easier to compare facts that way,
Solomon says. - Pored through the Church's notes on its investigation of the
situation. Unlike a legal proceeding, a Church investigation
doesn't include interview transcripts. Instead, one priest is asked
to "take notes," often in his own handwriting. If legal teams are
present and also taking notes, there can often be conflicting
reports of interviews. In order to represent Foster well with the
media and prepare statements in conjunction with the lawyers, the
PR team had to be up on all the materials. - Kept the media focused on the message that the Monsignor was
innocent -- but also acknowledged that the Monsignor recognized and
was sympathetic to the many victims who did suffer at the hands of
priests.
Results
The Church dismissed the charges on Oct. 31 and reinstated the
Monsignor. The Bishoff Solomon team then began focusing on
repairing the priest's reputation. The natural news, Solomon says,
was to cover his first public celebration of Mass after being
reinstated. Foster sat down with The Boston Globe for an extensive
interview and received front-page coverage before and after his
Mass.
Unfortunately, Edwards is now pressing for further investigation
from the Church, which has stated that the matter is closed.
However, as Solomon says, she figured the matter would be closed
before the end of September.
Campaign Stats
Timeframe: August 2002 - present
Budget: Foster has not disclosed how much his PR representation
has cost. Friends and supporters have helped the priest, who
Solomon will only say "has paid his bills. It was a significant
amount of money for a priest, and the situation was treated the way
the way an agency should treat it."
Restoring Reputation
Although the Church makes a commitment to priests it has
reinstated to help restore their reputation, it is currently so
sidetracked by its own crisis of confidence, that Solomon says it
has few resources to provide to the priests. She is anxious to
begin repair work on the Monsignor's reputation, she says,
including getting Foster to do some national media (several outlets
have expressed interest), but right now, with Edwards pressing his
cause yet again, the priest can't think about doing more media.
(Contact: Helene Solomon, [email protected])