Voice of the Faithful Letter Sent to US Bishops on the
Eve
of their Annual Retreat
June 8, 2007
Voice of the Faithful writes to you as you prepare to join your brother
bishops at a retreat meeting June 18-22. As you suspend your usual schedule
and draw back from the competing and pressing issues that you face as
a bishop, we ask that you join with us in a time-honored practice of
the Church ideally suited to a retreat, the examination of conscience.
This
past Lent, Voice of the Faithful called upon its members to dig deep
into their consciences to seek to understand and act on them more
fully. We challenged our members to search out how scripture, revelation
and tradition call us to act responsibly. As members of the Body of
Christ, we believe that we are called to act:
-
in solidarity with survivors of clergy sexual abuse;
- in solidarity with priests of integrity; and
- in solidarity with all
Catholics in lifting up our voices so that we may be faithful and
accountable stewards of God’s church.
We have studied, prayed,
and learned.
We know that as bishops you also share our commitment to build up the
Church of Jesus and to reform what needs to be changed in order to be
honest messengers of the gospel. As a result of our own discernment,
we call upon you, the appointed leaders of the Catholic Church, to examine
and listen to your own consciences for God’s voice and take the
bold actions required to heal the Body of Christ.
We respectfully ask you to join us in supporting the following measures:
- Protection of our children by strengthening our laws
by extending the statutes of limitations so that victims have an
opportunity to
seek justice.
- A national database of the names and places of service of priests
and other Church personnel credibly accused of abusing a child,
so that other victims might come forward and other pedophiles exposed.
- Financial accountability and transparency in all areas of
parish and diocesan finances including effective, collaborative
finance councils
at both levels
Please join us in an examination of conscience.
Protecting our Children:
We recognize that child sexual abuse is not only a problem within the
Catholic Church but infects all of society. We appeal to you to be
proactive leaders to effectively address this problem within our own
Church, and to work cooperatively with legislators and other citizens
to eliminate this scourge in society as a whole.
Financial Transparency and Accountability:
The lack of financial accountability plagues our society. We appeal to
you to make the Catholic Church a model of accountability and transparency
starting with the full implementation of the USCCB guidelines on financial
accountability.
We ask you to reflect on these issues and join us in working toward
our mutual goal of becoming a more compassionate, just, accountable,
and transparent church, modeling the Church Jesus intended.
Sincerely,
Mary Pat Fox
Voice of the Faithful National President
MPF:mas
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