The spiritual leader of the 11-county Madison Catholic Diocese is in the news this week because a fundraising firm is suing him for $350,000 because, it says, the bishop demanded the fundraisers turn over confidential interviews with local priests and, when it refused to do so, cancelled his contract with them and refused to pay them the money already due.

The contract with the Madison firm, Phoenix Fundraising Counsel, was to conduct a feasibility study of the diocese 's chances of raising $70 million for a new cathedral and assist campus ministries in Madison and Platteville.

We don 't know exactly what the fundraiser found out. We do know that Morlino subsequently announced he was postponing the capital campaign, and we can infer from the lawsuit that the fundraisers got an earful from diocesan priests about their willingness to raise $70 million to build the bishop a cathedral.

We can also infer that the bishop, who said publicly that he was deferring the capital campaign until he could do some "catechesis " to help critics understand the need for a cathedral, also planned to do a little more direct "catechesis " with the priests who were rebelling against the idea.

I can certainly understand the bishop 's ire.

What I can 't understand is why he didn 't pay the bill. The diocesan administration isn 't commenting on the issue so we won 't get its side unless or until the matter finally gets to court. My own guess is that, now that the issue has become public, the diocese will settle it quickly and the good people of the Madison Catholic Diocese will be out $350,000.

I do know, however, that there are ethics involved in doing feasibility studies. I have been interviewed by several fundraisers, and the interviews always begin with the interviewer assuring me my comments will remain anonymous. In the case of priests, whose careers are absolutely dependent upon a bishops ' good will, such anonymity is essential. Without it, the priests will say only positive things. Good executives know that good decisions arise only from good information. Coerced optimism isn 't helpful.

I 'm also interested in just what kind of cathedral the diocese wants to build.

If the church is going to build a cathedral, it ought to build something grand, something that features great architecture and great art. If the church is going to make a statement, then it ought to make a forceful statement.

But $70 million forceful? Morlino really didn 't think he could ever raise that kind of money locally, did he? It took us 40 years to build Monona Terrace, and we have the Overture Center only because Jerry Frautschi loves this city -- and Frautschi, alas, isn 't Catholic.

In the end, this controversy is most likely to mean that no cathedral is going to be built in Madison anytime soon. What the bishop ought to do is to accept that sad fact, designate St. Maria Goretti, a new church with lots of class, as his temporary cathedral and wait for a few years until things settle down.

Contact Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or at 252-6146. Read Wineke's blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.