Contact: John Moynihan 617-680-2131, jmoynihan@votf.org

For Immediate Release

VOTF Responds to USCCB plans for Causes and Context Study and Vatican instruction on priest formation.

November 27, 2005 - In 2002, U.S. bishops wisely called for the commissioning of a study into the Causes and Context of the Sexual Abuse of Children and Youth by Catholic Clergy in the United States. Last week’s announcement that the John Jay College of Criminal Justice will conduct this study is good news for all Catholics. The bad news is that the study is grossly under funded by the USCCB – the greatest crisis in five hundred years of American Catholic Church history is over three years old and Catholics worldwide are still in the dark as to the cause of the unthinkable.

Add to this the recently released Vatican Instruction (“Concerning the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Seminaries and Holy Orders”), Voice of the Faithful must question Church leadership’s priorities. The time, effort, money and discernment available in the Vatican and in US dioceses are far better invested in the Causes and Context Study than in what appears to be a purge of homosexual men in the priesthood. Experts have continually pointed out that there is no correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia. The former has had no negative impact on the mission of the Church and the latter has brought this Church to its knees. Voice of the Faithful believes that the Church would have been far better served by an “instruction” on hierarchical leadership among whom so many enablers of clergy sexual abuse continue to occupy high office.

As the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., recently wrote in his diocesan newspaper: “There are many wonderful and excellent priests in the church who have a gay orientation, are chaste and celibate, and are very effective ministers of the Gospel. Witch hunts and gay bashing have no place in the Church.” Voice of the Faithful agrees.

We repeat and reaffirm our support for priests of integrity – without regard to their sexuality. We urge all Catholics to dismiss sexuality litmus tests for service in our Church. And we strongly encourage prompt and adequate funding for the overdue Causes and Context Study – our Church cannot heal without it.

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About Voice of the Faithful: Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is a worldwide movement of concerned mainstream Catholics formed in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. 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. Its goals are to support survivors of abuse, support priests of integrity, and shape structural change within the Catholic Church in full accordance and harmony with Church teaching.