Whether one is in the world of commercial corporate governance or that of ecclesiastical governance, the naked notion of “efficiency” is – as the saying goes – a good servant but a terrible master. It is especially dangerous when powerful figures mistake efficiency for a ruling principle. That’s one reason why the words of the Vatican’s new chief of mission, Cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle, on the subject – and the words of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Mission Societies, which preceded and occasioned Cardinal Tagle’s recent remarks – deserve careful attention. “Pope Francis is not against efficiency and methods that could make our mission fruitful and transparent,” Cardinal Tagle told Vatican News in an interview released on May 28, “but he is warning us about the danger of ‘measuring’ Church mission using only the standards and outcomes predetermined by models or schools of management, no matter how good and useful these may be. “The tools of efficiency can help,” Cardinal Tagle said, “but should never be a substitute for church mission.” Tagle went on to say, “The most efficiently run church organisation may end up being the least missionary.” Efficiency, however, is not a measure of how much an outfit spends or an account of where it spends it, but a prudent ordering of resources to the service of the core mission. On that understanding, the most efficiently run Church organisation will be the most successful missionary outfit, almost by definition. It will be the one that gets the most from the resources at its disposal. The Pontifical Mission Societies, by the way, is the name of an umbrella organisation for several worldwide networks: