Decision-Making Quote by Frank Keating

Keating’s line is a Catholic scolding dressed up as moral common sense: stop hiding behind process and start acting like a pastor. By calling out “a number of bishops” and then dropping Cardinal Mahony’s name as Exhibit A, he turns an institutional pattern into a personal indictment, the kind that lands because it feels both specific and systemic. The phrasing “I put…in that category” is almost bureaucratic in its calmness, which makes the accusation sharper. He’s not ranting; he’s classifying.

The real knife is the opposition between “lawyer” and “heart.” Keating frames the crisis as a choice between liability management and moral responsibility, implying that the Church’s leadership has been captured by a defensive, corporate instinct. “Listen too much” suggests not a one-time mistake but a habit: bishops are being counseled to minimize exposure, protect assets, control narratives. In this telling, the lawyer becomes a symbol of the institution’s fear, while “heart” stands in for the Church’s claimed vocation to compassion, confession, and repair.

The likely context is the early-2000s Catholic sex-abuse scandal and the widening anger at leaders accused of shielding abusers and prioritizing the Church’s reputation. Keating, a politician with a reformer’s posture, is also telegraphing a broader American impatience with elite impunity: when you lead a moral institution, “legal” can’t be your highest standard. The line works because it turns a complex institutional catastrophe into an easily grasped moral drama - and dares the bishops to choose sides.