| Voice
of the Faithful Focus – A brief update
highlighting both a problem in our church and
some progress being made as we work together to Keep
the Faith, Change the Church.
Problem: To this day a known California diocesan pedophile
Catholic priest roams free in
Ireland while his enabler
presides over the largest Catholic diocese in the United
States. We encourage all members to see “Deliver
Us From Evil”, a new documentary film. The film
depicts a serial abuser priest in the diocese of Sacramento,
CA who was transferred from parish to parish by then
Bishop Roger Mahony, now Cardinal of the archdiocese
of Los Angeles. It is a striking expose of the clergy
abuse scandal and won the Best Picture Award at the
Los Angeles Film Festival last June.
Progress: Change requires that all of us act in large
and small ways. One small way is to sign the “Petition
for Accountability within Our Catholic Church.”
Let
the U.S. bishops know that you want to see more effort
on behalf of the church hierarchy
to end the
sexual abuse crisis in our Church. The United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) “Causes
and Context” study should be fully funded by
now. A national database of credibly accused priests
should be available by now to help protect children
from further abuse and to validate the claims of those
who have been abuse. By now financial accountability
should be achieved by ensuring that finance councils
in each diocese and every parish are genuine and effective;
by now the regular release of all financial documents
necessary to ensure financial transparency should be
a given. But none of this will happen without your
voice.
Learn how you can get more involved in the Campaign
for Accountability at our website.
Look for the next Vineyard edition to be sent on October
19.
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