VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL TO MEET IN NEWARK
ARCHDIOCESE DESPITE BAN BY ARCHBISHOP

Whippany, NJ – June 20, 2003 – Seeking to bring its message to Catholics in Essex County, where it is banned from meeting on Roman Catholic property by Archbishop John J. Myers of the Newark archdiocese, Voice of the Faithful/Northern New Jersey (VOTF/NNJ) announced today that it will hold its next meeting at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 363 Hillsdale Avenue in Hillsdale on Monday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m. The featured speaker at the meeting will be Eileen P. Flynn, Ph.D., a noted author and currently Professor of Theology at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. This VOTF/NNJ event is free and open to the public.

Voice of the Faithful is a Newton, MA-based organization, formed in response to the clergy sex abuse scandals, of 30,000 concerned, mainstream Catholics from across the U.S., who support the teachings of the Church. The group’s mission is to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church. The nearly 400 members of VOTF’s affiliate in Northern New Jersey (VOTF/NNJ) have been actively involved in numerous efforts to achieve the group’s three goals: to support victim/survivors of abuse, support priests of integrity, and shape structural change within the Catholic Church.

While he has never met with representatives of VOTF, Archbishop Myers alleged in an October 2002 column published in the Catholic Advocate, the archdiocesan newspaper of Newark, that VOTF is “presenting an agenda that is anti-Church and, ultimately, anti-Catholic.” He went on to ban the group from using “any archdiocesan or parish property, facility or assets.” Members of VOTF/NNJ who belong to parishes within the Newark archdiocese have been attending meetings held at Catholic churches in the Paterson diocese, where there is no ban.

Given this situation, VOTF/NNJ representatives turned to faith communities outside of the Catholic Church in order to secure facilities in which to meet within the Newark Archdiocese. Fr. John J. Negrotto, Rector of Holy Trinity responded enthusiastically by inviting VOTF to meet at his Episcopal church. Commenting on this situation, Fr. Negrotto said, “It seems to me that Jesus would not only have found a supper room for such a meeting, but also would have been physically present there to hear the cries of His people. It is my pleasure to make our facilities available. May this be the beginning of a spiritual relationship between us which may help to bind the wounds and heal the hearts of all those in need.”

At the meeting, Dr. Flynn will address the subject, “Catholic Crisis: What Went Wrong?" A prolific author, as well as a respected educator, her most recent publication is Catholics at a Crossroads: coverup, crisis, and cure (Paraview Press, 2003), signed copies of which will be available for purchase. Commenting on the subject matter of her upcoming talk, Dr. Flynn noted, ”The major factors in the crisis facing the Church—priest sexual abuse, hierarchical complicity, and financial misconduct—are now well known. Today's pressing challenge is to understand how this happened. The reasons for the crisis need to be identified so that the Catholic Church can correct the corruption in its own house.”

For more information regarding VOTF/NNJ and Dr. Flynn’s talk, please visit the website at www.votfnnj.org