READING your way to Indianapolis

Some reading suggestions we found applicable to our focus on accountability:

Acts of the Apostles, New Testament - Here is where VOTF really began. Consider what you find in these pages and superimpose that image over your own parish/diocesan experience.

Governance, Accountability and the Future of the Catholic Church edited by Francis Oakley and Bruce Russett (2004)

Faith That Dares To Speak by Fr. Donald Cozzens (2004)

The Liberation of the Laity by Paul Lakeland (2003)

Common Calling - The Laity and Governance of the Catholic Church* edited by Stephen J. Pope

Others recommended by members:

• The Remaking of the Church by Richard P. McBrien (1973 and still relevant)

• Vatican II document "Dogmatic Constitution on The Church" (Lumen Gentium)

• Letter to Women from Pope John Paul II 1988 - "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women" (Mulieris Dignitatem) "

• A Documentary History of Religion in America*- edited by Edwin Gaustad and Mark A. Noll (VOTF made it into the third edition, 2003)

• Lay Ministry in the Catholic Church** - Visioning Church Ministry Through the Wisdom of the Past - symposium sponsored by National Association of Lay Ministry in collaboration with the Catholic Community Foundation of Kansas City in June 2004. Books, videos, study guides, cassettes available from Liguori Publications, One Liguori Drive, Liguori, MO 63057-9999 or email liguori@liguori.com

• American Catholics - Gender, Generation, and Commitment by D'Antonio, Davidson, Hoge and Meyer (2001)

• Good Catholic Girls - How Women Are Leading the Fight To Change the Church by Angela Bonavoglia (reviewed in the March issue of In the Vineyard)

• “Report of the Church in America” – Leadership Roundtable 2004 at The Wharton School, Phila., PA (PDF file, Adobe Reader required)

• Marshall Ganz, the grassroots organizer’s notes on “People, Power and Change” is available here.

• Excellent Catholic Parishes by Paul Wilkes; also Wilkes’ Seven Secrets of Successful Catholics

• NALM – the National Association of Lay Ministry is a professional organization that supports, educates and advocates for lay ministers and promotes the development of lay ministry in the Catholic Church. Their web site is worth a visit.
  

*The essays in these books are each worth reading, study and discussion but they also make good group projects where members could recap one reading apiece.

**Two perspectives presented that may have particular resonance with VOTFers heading to the leadership meeting are "Who Did What in the Church in the New Testament" by Sr. Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J. and "Who Did What in the Church in the First Millennium?" by Dr. Francine Cardman of Weston Jesuit School of Theology.