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Jim Post and Judge
Michael Merz* to Address the Plenary Session at
the VOTF Conference
Jim Post, Former President of VOTF
and Judge Michael Merz, newly appointed Chairman
of the National Review
Board of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB),
will address the Plenary Session at the VOTF Conference
on Saturday morning, October 20th. Judge Merz is
the Chief Magistrate Judge for the US District Court
of
Southern Ohio.
The National Review Board was established by the USCCB
in June 2002 when the bishops adopted their Charter
for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The Board’s purpose is to collaborate with
the USCCB to prevent sexual abuse of minors by persons
in the service of the Church in the United States.
The Honorable Judge Merz was appointed to the Board
in 2004.
In accepting the appointment as Chairman, Judge Merz
said he would continue the Board’s strong role
as lay collaborators with the bishops in protecting
children, healing the damage done by abuse, and preventing
its recurrence. “Our present goals,” he
said, “are to complete the Causes and Context
study, to audit Charter programs in place to ensure
they are effective, and to recommend to the bishops
best practices in implementing the Charter.”
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School,
Judge Merz’s civic activities have included Chairman
of the United Way of Greater Dayton, President of the
Board of Trustees of the Dayton Public Library, and
President of the Montgomery County Historical Society.
He was given the City of Dayton’s Outstanding
Service Award in 1982. He has served the Archdiocese
of Cincinnati on its Pastoral Council for six years,
and has taught at the University of Dayton School of
Law and at the Ohio Judicial College.
Judge Merz’s comments at the VOTF Convention
in Providence will address the relationship and the
level of coordination between the National Review Board
and the Bishops’ Committee for the Protection
of Children and Young People; he will also examine
the effectiveness of this relationship. Jim Post, immediate
Past-President of VOTF, will introduce Judge Merz,
and, following the Judge's presentation, will facilitate
discussion with the VOTF Convention audience.
*Judge Michael R. Merz has been a trial judge for
thirty years. His most important current work involves
federal
review of state death penalty cases. Magistrate Judge
Michael R. Merz is a life-long resident of Dayton,
Ohio, where he was born in 1945. He is a 1967 graduate
of Harvard College (A.B. cum laude) and received his
J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1970. From 1970
to 1977, Judge Merz was an associate, then partner
with the Dayton law firm of Smith & Schnacke. Appointed
a Judge of the Dayton Municipal Court by Governor James
Rhodes in 1976, he was elected to that position in
1977 and re-elected in 1979. He was appointed United
States Magistrate Judge in 1984 and is in his third
term. He was appointed Chief Magistrate Judge of the
Southern District for a four-year term beginning December
1, 2004.
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