Contact: Suzanne Morse 617-680-2131, smorse@votf.org

Voice of the Faithful
Press Conference
Washington, D.C.

For Immediate Release
Communications Office
November 15, 2004

Remarks of the National Vice President, Kristine Ward

Thank you, Suzanne.

This United States Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting begins as a process for revising the Charter and Essential Norms is underway.

Voice of the Faithful believes that the review of the Charter MUST serve to strengthen the standards of accountability established with the adoption of it. Furthermore, the Charter must preserve and reinforce child safety protection policies in every diocese across the country.

To that end, Voice of the Faithful urges the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse to reach out to the survivor community and actively seek comment during the review process, and to seriously consider their concerns regarding the effectiveness of the child safety protection policies within Catholic parishes.

We believe that lay Catholics, as a whole, are unaware that the Charter is under review, and that it is incumbent on the Bishops to inform Catholics about the process and to devise a process that casts a wider net for contribution. But the survivor community deserves special consideration, and their suggestions deserve special weight. They are the men and women who are acutely aware of how predators can use their positions of authority to harm and abuse children and vulnerable adults. Therefore, we have asked Bishop Gregory, as outgoing president of the USCCB, in a letter to make active steps to ask for the insights of the survivor community.

The letter to Bishop Gregory also called on the Bishops to extend the comment period for public input into the Charter review process. Currently, the plan is to allow 3 months for comment, and 6 months for the Bishops to make their determinations regarding the Charter. We believe that the period for comment should be longer – the Ad Hoc committee has set out an ambitious schedule to solicit input, but the timeframe is too compressed for the committee to receive a full sense from the various committees in the hundreds of diocese across the country.

We believe - in reference to the timeline that the bishops have it backwards. We have requested that the USCCB and the Ad Hoc committee allow 6 months for comment and 3 months for review by the Bishops. With the additional time period, the committee will have a time to hear from and review the suggestions of survivors and other concerned Catholics, which will only enhance the Charter’s status as an agent of accountability within the Catholic Church.

In all practicality this is not the time of year to seriously expect that full attention can be given to a matter of such grace importance to the whole Church. Even given the limitations, Voice of the Faithful plans to meet this deadline for comment, both nationally and through our affiliates. However, we believe that this timeframe is too compressed for most concerned individuals and organizations to give full consideration to.

The process for comment will be done by each bishop submitting the collation of all of the comment from his various consulting and personal views in answers to the Workbook.

In a first review of the proposed revisions Voice of the Faithful was taken back to read that the portion of the Dallas 2002 Charter that says the bishops affirm their concern especially with regard to issues related to effective consultation of the laity and the participation of God’s people in decision making that affects their well being “ is stricken from the proposed revised Charter.

While this gives us pause we were even more surprised to see that all four references to Jesus in the original preamble of the Charter have been eliminated.

It is our sincere hope that both Jesus and the laity will be restored through the collective wisdom of the process of final determination of the revised text.

We have made available the sections of the original text and the revised text that relate to the “ effective consultation of the laity “ and the proposed elimination of the passages that speaks to the Lord’s care for the vulnerable, his tender caring for children, the bishops finding their own obligation to protect your people in his example and in his name.

We also note that the question of “zero tolerance” of priests is raised in a proposed revision. We ask all Bishops and all consulters to weigh any proposed revision with regards to zero tolerance with utmost care.

We see in the Workbook that the bishops have a process– limited as it is to deal with their planned review of the Charter at its two year mark.

Sadly we see no attempt at a process for fraternal correction. Voice of the Faithful, like other lay Catholics, heard the Bishops pledge two years ago that they would hold themselves to a principle of fraternal correction. Nine months ago, the Bennett Report that accompanied the John Jay Study said it was morally incumbent upon the bishops for the good of the Church to undertake fraternal correction.

Today we ask what have they done to make put this principle in action? If the Bishops have taken steps to hold each other accountable we urge them to make them public.

New leadership can unleash the promise of hope. Catholics are a people of hope. We come to this season of change in the top leadership of the bishops conference with reserved expectations -- but attentive to the Spirit -- willing to hope that courageous change could be a day away..

We find in the proposed preamble of the Charter that the bishops acknowledge “fraternal guidance “ from the Holy See. While we are glad they have received brotherly guidance from the Vatican, the need is greater. The need is for the bishops in collaboration with the Vatican to make fraternal correction a reality.

Should the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops make the concept of fraternal correction a reality in the Catholic Church in the United States his would be a strong legacy of accountability .

There should be no doubt that the legacy of the next president will be shaped by his answers to the question of accountability.

We want our spiritual leaders to spiritually lead. The ideal of Fraternal Correction is a noble one.. It is incorporated in our prayer. At the beginning of our liturgies we confess to Almighty God what we have done and we have failed to do. In this prayer is the seed of fraternal correction.

From this prayer can come a pillar of the restoration of trust - a pillar solid enough to be a foundation for rebuilding.

A system needs to be put in place where one Bishop can stand up and hold another Bishop accountable for his failure to act against abuse, without the fear that he will be punished for his act of courage.

As Suzanne stated, Voice of the Faithful passed a resolution in September of this year to hold the Bishops accountable for their actions in connection to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Earlier this year, we called on the Bishops who knowingly moved abusive priests to resign and for the Pope to accept the resignations of those Bishops who knowingly transferred abusive priests.

We urge the Bishops, and the USCCB, to utilize the mechanisms and precedents established in canon law for holding themselves accountable.

The Bishops and the USCCB should be given credit for creating institutions of accountability that Voice of the Faithful believes must become a permanent part of the fabric of the Catholic Church in the United States. Those institutions – the National Review Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection - were established in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The new president of the USCCB is not inheriting a system that does not have some precedents for accountability and transparency. Fraternal Correction can be one important and effective component of Episcopal Accountability if it is consistent with canon law and is done in conjunction with the Vatican. There are models that the U.S. Bishops can and should follow and we urge them to do so. Furthermore, the intent of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was to acknowledge the Bishops role in the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and to address it in productive and accountable ways. The review of the Charter must honor the spirit of its intent, and listen seriously to the concerns of survivors, concerned Catholics, and people of good will.

I want to reiterate the message that Voice of the Faithful stands ready to assist the new president, and the body of Bishops, as they begin to develop these mechanisms of accountability. Just this weekend, in New England where Voice of the Faithful was born and here in the Washington metropolitan area which has been part of the growth of our movement Voice of the Faithful members came together to reaffirm their commitment to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, to demonstrate once again their love for the Catholic Church, and to find ways to renew the Church while honoring the difficulties of the past few years. These are people who are not only willing to take responsibility for the Church, they are eagerly awaiting the opportunity. The new president will need the assistance of these committed, caring, and prayerful individuals as he deals with the considerable challenges facing the Catholic Church in the United States today. We look forward to the day when we can all work together.