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PDF versionVoice of the Faithful: hoping to begin anew
Nov. 10, 2009
Women recite the Lord’s Prayer during Mass at the Voice of the Faithful national conference in Melville, N.Y., Oct. 31. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)
MELVILLE, N.Y. -- Four months after financial woes threatened to shut its doors, Voice of the Faithful has emerged with cash in the bank and a new strategic plan that its leaders say will sharpen the organization’s message and shift its efforts from mostly words to mostly actions.
The stated mission of this church reform and advocacy group, formed in 2002 in the wake of clerical sex abuse revelations in Boston, is to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the church.
The organization has struggled to clearly define its issues and approaches. Some early members became frustrated by glacial progress and dearth of action. Some developed ennui and stopped attending meetings. Others, slowed by age and health issues, focused their energies elsewhere.
Many of the more than 500 members who attended Voice of the Faithful’s national conference Oct. 30 and 31 at the Huntington Hilton on Long Island laughed heartily when a 64-year-old participant asked for a show of hands of people younger than him in the Grand Ballroom. Gray heads swiveled, but most hands stayed on the tables.
The summer financial crisis hit during a period of organizational soul-searching in which new leadership commissioned an extensive study of the members and an analysis of Voice of the Faithful’s strengths and weaknesses. The insights gleaned were hammered into a strategic plan that was rolled out beginning in May.
In July, the organization announced that it needed an emergency infusion of $60,000 to remain operational. Treasurer Kevin Connors told NCR that the group’s funds were down to less than a two-month reserve at that time. He attributed the shortfall to the general economic recession and waning public support after the sex abuse scandal faded from view. Annual revenues fell from an average of $700,000 as recently as 2008 to $450,000 in the fiscal year ending in May 2009.
Connors said the appeal generated $120,000, which was enough to get Voice of the Faithful back on its feet and also give it an emotional boost. He said the immediate and generous response of the members “showed us that people out there were ready to support us.”
The new strategy, called Voices in Action, focuses on clarifying the organization’s “brand” and encouraging specific action by the members. It embraces a bottom-up approach to church reformation, acknowledging that the hoped-for dialogue with local bishops has rarely happened. In some places, including Rockville Centre, N.Y., the diocese where the conference occurred, the bishop has forbidden the group to meet on church property and Voice of the Faithful’s relationship with local church leadership has become adversarial.
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The group’s president, Daniel Bartley, said, “Voice of the Faithful has moved beyond dependence or reliance or expectation with regard to the bishops. It could be wonderful, and we’re prayerful and hopeful that someday engagement will happen, but we accept the fact that it may not and as faithful Christians, followers of Christ, we’re going to do what we need to do anyway.”
He said, “It’s pointless to be angry. We’re embracing our own baptism. We’re changing the focus from trying to influence the bishops to directly influencing grass-roots Catholics.”
Nonetheless, Bartley said it would be nice if “the bishops would realize we’re good, faithful Catholics and we’re trying to help.”
The fuzziness of Voice of the Faithful’s message is due, in part, to its multiple goals. Vice president Janet Hauter said, “Because we have a mission statement and three goals, people found it difficult to define our issues in elevator speak.” The goals are to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, to support “priests of integrity” and to shape structural change within the church.
Hauter and other leaders said the goals have not changed, but there has been a shift in attitude and methods. “We were critical in the past and pointed out what’s broken. But now we have the tools and we’re not howling at the moon,” Hauter said. “We’re connecting incremental changes in parishes with a national effort so we can see change in our lifetime. There’s an immediacy now. We’re not just doing it for our children and grandchildren.”
Member Francis Piderit said, “We’ve reached a critical point. We talked about change for seven years. Enough with the talk. Let’s begin to model the church we want to see.” He said the modeling includes dialogue among the Catholic laity on child safety, parish structure, financial accountability and best practices. Piderit leads the “local action platform” of the new strategic action plan. Each of the plan’s five “platforms” has measurable targets.
Hauter quipped that the actual measure of the plan’s success will be the dissolution of the organization, because the reform of the church will have been accomplished through the action of the laity.
The features of Voices in Action were described in detail at the conference and warmly received by the participants. Carol Bongiorno, leader of a Voice of the Faithful affiliate on Long Island since 2002, welcomed the initiative to energize her 150-member chapter. “Voices in Action is clearer and more specific. There’s always the question of how to reach people who don’t really want to hear about sexual abuse in the church. Our membership was growing until about a year ago, but people didn’t think we were getting anywhere with church leadership.”
Bongiorno said meetings dwindled to once every two months and there are fewer members whose age and physical condition allows them to attend meetings, which are held in a Protestant church. “We still send the minutes to our members, 18 pastors and the bishop,” she said.
The strategic plan streamlines the organizational structure by eliminating one level, maintains the two-person, full-time staff, and calls for extensive involvement of volunteers and use of electronic communication among members. Voice of the Faithful has 25,000-30,000 members, according to public relations director Jessica Lillie.
Bartley said the commissioned survey confirmed that members are bright, well-educated Catholics with a desire for action. He predicted that defining the organization and putting a clear structure in place will increase membership and contributions. “If we execute well, people will financially support us,” he said.
The two-day conference featured spirited addresses by Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister and Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese and a report by Margaret Smith, leader of an ongoing research study at John Jay College on the causes and context of sexual abuse. “Priest of Integrity” awards were presented to Fr. Joseph M. Fowler of Louisville, Ky., and Fr. Donald B. Cozzens of Cleveland. Reporter and author Jason Berry accepted the St. Catherine of Siena award given by Voice of the Faithful to a distinguished layperson.
Beth Griffin is a freelance writer who lives in New York.
Good riddance to them. They
Good riddance to them. They may have started out with good intentions, but they have shown their true colors. What they say they want reformed and what they are putting their efforts toward have been 2 different things.
The pope's empty words to
The pope's empty words to Ireland
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/popes-empty-words-ireland
National Catholic Reporter
Feb. 19, 2010
By Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish
Pope Benedict's repetition over and over again that the sexual abuse of a child is "a heinous crime" and "a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image," in country after country may, to use Bishop Diarmuid Martin's words, "even be empty."
I agree with Michael O'Brien of Right to Peace in Ireland, who said, "It's unbelievable what we heard today from the pope, this is the man who is in charge of the Catholic church worldwide and he hadn't even the gumption to say he was sorry for what happened to us.
"All he's done now is to add salt to the wounds, and this is very hurtful," he added. "We were expecting something and we got nothing."
While the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has its own variation of child abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious, the underlying causes are much the same in Ireland as they are in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany as well as other European and African countries.
The problems are endemic and systemic to the hierarchical and governmental systems of the Roman Catholic church. They are certainly not peculiar to Ireland.
It is not as if Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Holy Office, does not have the most extensive background in the history of the church's sexual abuse problems involving children, young boys, girls and vulnerable adults which also includes women religious and younger members of religious communities like the Legion of Christ.
Unlike his predecessor, Benedict does not have to depend on others for the facts, because he already has much of that information because of his previous position.
The problem was and continues to be the unbridled abuse of power and authority by an episcopacy that put what was the good name of an institution before the well being of its most vulnerable members.
Until or unless Pope Benedict acknowledges and addresses the governmental structures and policies that led to this terrible abuse of power by the bishops and other church authorities, an infinite number of words of sympathy or shock will not be enough to assuage what those victim/survivors have suffered at the hands of abusers while others continue to suffer because of what they have learned about the criminal and immoral actions of the episcopacy.
The cover-up of the physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of children did not happen in a vacuum in Ireland any more than it happened in a vacuum in the United States, Canada or Australia.
The abuse happened. That's factual and cannot be disputed. In the United States, for example, it wasn't caused by the permissive attitude of the people in New England. It cannot be dismissed as an American problem, and it was not caused by the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood. Homosexuality does not cause the sexual abuse of children any more than heterosexuality causes the sexual abuse of children.
Rather the question that has to be asked and answered is what is wrong with the underlying governmental structures of the institutional Roman Catholic church that gave bishops license to act with such utter abandon of its most vulnerable members in countries worldwide?
What flaws in the fabric of the church contributed to the bishops actually enabling further abuse by transferring priests from place to place over many years while threatening and intimidating victims and their families? What allowed this conspiracy, this collusion to happen in country after country and on such a scale?
There should be some outline, a paradigm of reform and renewal included in the pope's expected pastoral letter to the People of God in Ireland.
Such a letter from the pope will be read very carefully by peoples around the world who expected something more substantive than just the words of sympathy and concern they received when the pope visited their countries, especially the United States where not one bishop was removed from office or criminally prosecuted because of his part in covering up for abusive clerics and enabling their continued abuse over long periods of time.
It appears now that such a pastoral letter to Ireland will not be forthcoming and that will be a tragedy because the People of God did have hope.
They expected more from those they considered leaders.
[Maureen Paul Turlish, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is a victims' advocate and writes from New Castle, Delaware.]
She may be reached at maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
The Voice of the Faithful
The Voice of the Faithful people represent EXACTLY the rich kind of spirituality and lay involvement in their Church that the Council Fathers of Vatican II hoped would happen. It is truly a scandal that they are not allowed to meet in ANY Catholic Church facility. It amazes me how the hypocritical hierarchy of the Catholic Church has tried to punish these good Catholics for their desire to eliminate the corruption in the Church and make Christ's Church one that mirrors His teachings. Again, cowardly bishops show their true faces and colors and drive a wider wedge between themselves and the People of God. These gentle and good people are in my prayers and I support their noble and Christ like efforts. The bishops should be ashamed of themselves and their behavior is unacceptable.
Thank you Chris for your
Thank you Chris for your comments on V.O.T.F., I totally agree!!! A few years ago I was ready to walk away from my church, but the strength of this group of people has given me the encouragement to dig my heels in and fight for the church that I believe Christ wanted. Thank you
I am praying that Voice of
I am praying that Voice of the Faithful will continue
it's important work for the Roman Catholics of America.
The Independent Catholic Churches here are struggling
to stay above water all the time, due to lack of funds
also. The Reformed Catholic Church is now under siege
by a group who is determined to totally destroy it. Go
to, ReformedCatholicChurch.info and read these true
issues that now have been publicly widespread.
I was glad to see that Voice
I was glad to see that Voice of the Faithful is committed to stop "howling at the moon" (NCR, 11/13), and has begun "to model the Church we want to see."
Let's hope the Church VOTF wants to see is not the one reflected in its current website. It features a new blog endeavor called "Pharisee Watch" which calls upon fellow VOTF members to contribute to singling out their fellow Catholics to identify them as "Modern Day Pharisees."
The "shift in attitudes and methods" now touted by VOTF should begin with closing down this unfortunate and hypocritical blog. It is little more than a smear campaign, and it does not speak well of an organization that claims to recognize integrity in the Church and priesthood. VOTF's "Pharisee Watch" blog simply doesn't model any Church that I want to be in.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE VOTF
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE VOTF CONFERENCE PLANNERS!
The weekend was wonderful, with Joan Chittister raising the roof and our spirits in equal measure.
She asked what kind of leadership we need in the Church now, keying off writings by the noted historian James MacGregor Burns: intellectual leadership (ideas as moral power), reform leadership, revolutionary leadership, and heroic/charismatic leadership.
Drawing fully on Scripture, she filled out those qualities with multiple examples for inspiration. Those functions of leadership are also the responsibility of the community at large.
Lest I leave impressions of an academic treatise, here are some bon mots:
-power and leadership are not synonymous
-good leadership creates a fruitful environment of openness between leadership and the led, respecting the gifts of each person
-leadership should dare the questions, raise the issues, not deny, repress or smother in the name of God (living tradition can be without traditionalism)
-people get the leadership they demand
-reform equals survival of the Gospel, not the church
-leadership prepares for the future without vacuum-packed answers from previous centuries; we can live in ambiguity without fear
-forgo passivity, waiting for the other person to act; become what you believe
Tom Reese's enthusiastic, "Let us pray" at mass was an invitation accepted heartily, and his humorous description of Irish versus Italian Catholicism was a welcome leitmotif for reflection.
Distinguish between law and doctrine; laws change. Understand the level of authority exercised: instruction from a Vatican congregation vs conciliar document.
Papal announcements have their own lexicon that often does not translate well into modern idiom, so look for the full meaning, he said. (Q: What of the pope's corollary responsibility to speak understandably to the modern world?)
Celebrate the positive with Scripture and prayer; church teaching and practices can change; the study of history helps one take the long view; there will always be disagreements, it's not the ideal but reality. Get into the other's hearts and feelings so you do not know they are Catholics by their fights. Learn to live with disagreement and ambiguity.
So, my cafeteria sense is one of: Rome has spoken, the case is closed, let the debates begin.
Caveat: these are from my notes, any misinterpretation is solely mine. I hope the speakers offer their texts to the VOTF conference website http://www.votf.org/page/2009-voice-faithful-national-conference/6166 Information is there about all the speakers.
VOTF honored Jason Berry with
VOTF honored Jason Berry with the St. Catherine of Siena Distinguished Lay Person Award, and rightly so. As a longtime respected contributor to NCR, it is appropriate to note his achievements as given at the conference:
Author, investigative reporter, and documentary producer, Jason is the premier catalyst for exposure of sexual abuse and its cover-up in the Catholic Church. His name should be the first to come to mind when crediting those who exposed the rot.
Jason Berry pioneered coverage in his native Louisiana 17 years before the Boston Globe series in 2002. A rapist recycled from parish to parish by the local bishop was on trial and convicted. Jason learned it was not an isolated case, but a pattern that extended across the nation.
The Louisiana experience led to his first book on the broader crisis. Titled Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children, the manuscript required six to seven years of extensive research. It was rejected by 30 publishers, but won the Catholic Press Association Book Award in 1993. It is still the standard reference in newsrooms today.
Beginning in 1996, Jason and the late Gerald Renner of the Hartford Courant investigated the Legionaries of Christ, a militant order founded by the Mexican priest, Fr. Marcial Maciel. He abused up to 100 seminarians, but due to his influence with Pope John Paul II, Maciel was untouchable.
Berry and Renner worked with sources throughout the United States, also in Italy, Spain, Chile, and Mexico, among other countries, to write Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II. Published in 2004, a documentary film of the book was completed last year. It won the award for best television documentary at the Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival. www.vowsofsilencefilm.com
The meticulous research in Vows of Silence led to the reopening of a canon law case against Maciel. Though survivors were unjustly denied a verdict on the merits, Maciel was at least invited to a life of prayer and penance. He died two years later in 2008. The Legionaries are now under review by Rome, hopefully to be dissolved for corruption at the highest levels. None of this --- the exposure of Maciel as a serial predator, his sanctioning by Pope Benedict, nor the current investigation --- would have happened without Jason Berry and Gerald Renner’s dogged pursuit of justice.
Juan Vaca, one of Maciel’s survivors, whose searing history opens Vows of Silence, and is featured in the documentary, is here today. I want to let his eloquent tribute to Jason conclude these remarks:
"I feel very honored to be able to express my admiration and appreciation for Jason Berry. Since the day he interviewed me back in 1996, I considered Jason not only a very special friend, but a courageous and intrepid defender of the Truth. He vindicated so many victims of the criminal, sexual and psychological abuse perpetrated by clergy.
My personal friendship and gratitude for Jason’s struggles on all our behalf are so strong, that he is like a true brother to me. Thank you, Jason, for being a special advocate for countless survivors, who join today in recognizing your historic achievements."
Why am I not surprised that
Why am I not surprised that an NCR reader would support such a schismatic/heretical group such as the Reformed Catholic Church.
I would venture the guess,
I would venture the guess, Tom A., that you are not surprised because you are reactionary and condemn, from what I have seen of your postings, anything or anyone who thinks differently than you. Let me ask you: do you think that the Society of Saint Pius X is schismatic or heretical? And, since you clearly hold NCR readers in such contempt, would you continually come here, read the articles, and then attack us? What does it do for you? Does it increase your living out of Christ's teachings? Just wondering.
So what the article says is
So what the article says is that the youngest people in the meeting basically have been on social security and medicare for several years. These are exactly the people to lead us to a "future church"!
I am a Reformed Catholic
I am a Reformed Catholic Church priest living in Glen Cove, NY and am here to serve any and all who are not being served by the Roman Catholic Church. jbeasley50@aol,com
The claim of support for
The claim of support for priests of integrity seems a little hollow? What is being done to support religious and laity unjustly accused?
Money payouts are a huge temptation. Everyone accused has the right to natural justice.
Currently the pendulum appears to have swung to anyone accused is guilty till proven innocent.
Yes the innocent victims of abuse have suffered enormously but just as grievous is the suffering of souls unjustly accused and because of the "vigilante hysterical atmosphere now prevailing" have been abandoned by all.
Personally I believe part of the Church's pastoral concern should be to revisit every religious charged with abuse to ensure that no miscarriage of justice has occured because a frightened Bishop or Superior of an order made financial settlements or failed to provide a religious with proper legal defence hoping the whole problem would simply go away.
If a religious admitted guilt without coercion what is now being done for them pastorally? Is anything being done to help them repent and do pennance. Are they being visited in prison. Or have they become the modern lepers that no one will come near?
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