Dear Friends,

One of the important commitments made at our leadership Convocation in Indianapolis was the further development of a group of recommendations from nine working groups. Most of those present participated in one of the groups; some said they wish they could have participated in more than one group because all of the discussions were so interesting.

The issues we discussed were clustered into three areas: financial accountability, bishop accountability, and lay accountability. In each area, three questions were developed as focal points for concentrated thinking about how to deal with a critical challenge or problem in our Church. We will summarize the output from the working groups in this letter. (Those who are interested in the original questions can access them through our web site ).

In the area of lay accountability, our members discussed how lay responsibility cannot be divorced from our roles as Catholics. To this end, the group suggested we must do a number of things in the future.

1. We must institute independent, freely elected lay councils at all governance levels in the Church (e.g., parish, deanery/vicariate, diocese and national,) with full right of inquiry and the right and responsibility to communicate. Elections will be designed and administered by independent lay election commissions.

2. We must also create a mechanism for ongoing dialogue and collaborative action among parishioners, parish priests, and bishops.

3. We must insist that elected laity become fully participative members at all levels of diocesan and national decision-making (e.g., pastoral councils, diocesan finance councils, USCCB).

The vision of lay involvement embedded in these proposals also reflected the group's sense of what must be done in the area of holding bishops accountable. Foremost among the proposals for action addressing clergy sexual abuse was the following call:

4. VOTF should promote legislation that protects children and holds bishops accountable for their failure to protect children.

Vigorous discussion, abetted by historical understanding of practices in the early Church, produced a recommendation that VOTF call for a more open process of selecting bishops.

5.Call for the election of bishops through a discernment process by the elected representatives of the laity, priests, deacons, and religious.

The financial accountability issues confronting our Church and all segments of the Catholic community were discussed at length. It was the sense of the meeting that several aspects of financial accountability need to be addressed directly and immediately. Two proposals emerged from the groups:

6. That all parishes and dioceses must be fully transparent and accountable regarding their finances through open, regular meetings for consultation with the baptized, and periodic, comprehensive reporting of income, expenditures, assets, and liabilities.

7. VOTF should call for an independent, widely disseminated, understandable annual CPA audit report for all church-related entities (e.g., parish, diocese, and church institutions) that would include all income, expenses, assets and liabilities (including the current fair market values of all real estate, indebtedness, and bequests).

Of great importance to many in attendance were two issues that affect the moral integrity and accountability of our Church in the modern world. Many members spoke about the positive energy that VOTF members share through communal prayer and worship. One group urged that,

8. VOTF members discern, develop, and implement personal and communal spiritual practices that foster healing, reconciliation, and appreciation of the inherent dignity of all humans.

Another group reported on its spirited discussion of the status of women and other marginalized people within the Church. They recommended that,

9. VOTF should initiate discussion within the organization about issues affecting women and other marginalized people within the Church.

All of these recommendations have merit and, together, form a mosaic of what the Church of the future might look like. Most importantly from our perspective, these recommendations are directions in which we can pursue VOTF's mission of lay participation in the governance and guidance of the Church and our goals - support for survivors, support for priests, and structural change.

Which path to choose? As VOTF looks to the future, we must judge where to invest our energy and resources in order to make a difference in our Church. We must discern which of the pathways is most promising in terms of importance to the laity, support and resources, potential for change, and impact in every parish and diocese. All of the issues matter, but we cannot take on all of them at the same time. We are asking for your help in narrowing down the 9 resolutions to 3 that VOTF should focus on NOW. Those resolutions that are not selected will be forwarded to the National Representative Council (NRC) for possible later development and implementation.

In the next few weeks, we will be asking you to meet in affiliates to discuss these ideas, or to reflect/pray on your own, and share your feedback with your National Representative Council members by September 30, 2005. As you go through this process, we would ask that you consider which resolutions are most timely, will garner the broadest support, and will have the biggest impact. The contact information for your representative can be found on the VOTF web site.

You are being asked to help form the direction VOTF will take in the next two years. The National Representative Council (NRC) and the Convocation Implementation Team (CIT) need your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. Thank you, in advance, for your cooperation and assistance.

Sincerely,

Members of the Convocation Implementation Team

Jim Post (officer representative)
Mary Pat Fox (NRC representative)
Aimee Carevich Hariramani (staff representative)
Janet Hauter (affiliate representative)
Dick Taylor (affiliate representative)