EVENTS, ETC.

Reports From the Far Fields

****VOTF West Coast conference

VOTF president Jim Post Reports: CALIFORNIA VOTF ROCKS On Saturday March 27th, more than 500 people joined together for a day of serious thought and discussion about the state of the Catholic Church. Northern California VOTF joined with the University of San Francisco's Leo J. McCarthy Center for Public Service to co-sponsor the conference, entitled "Imaging the Future Church." The program featured leading Catholic scholars and speakers Dr. Shawn Copeland, Dr. Mary Ann Hinsdale, Fr. Donald Cozzens, Dr. Leonard Swidler, Dr. Sally Vance-Trembath and VOTF president Jim Post.

On Sunday March 28th, 100 VOTF leaders from throughout the Western region met to talk in workshops dealing with media relations, strategies to build affiliates, developing the "prayerful voice," and leveraging structural change initiatives. The day-long meeting concluded with Mass. Among the travelers were regional representatives from Arizona, Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, Western Washington, and beyond.

Interestingly, the day before the conference, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story revealing Oakland Bishop Alan Vigneron's attempt to subvert the conference by directing the diocesan paper Catholic Voice not to accept a VOTF advertisement of the conference. A number of people said they attended the conference to protest the bishop's action.

**** Cathy and Bill Fallon report - Imaging the Future Church

Leaving behind an interminably grey and cold Boston after the seemingly longest winter in memory and arriving in San Francisco for the first VOTF Western States Conference, a weekend seminar, held in balmy 75 degree sunny weather, was like arriving on another planet. The conference was held at the University of San Francisco, an urban oasis atop Lone Mountain with a view of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge and a stunning St. Ignatius Church a couple of blocks away; palm trees, calla lilies, flowering bushes and wildflowers were everywhere.

We arrived to warm greetings from well-organized volunteers, and the surprise of meeting folks whose names we recognized from their email addresses and commentary, and the anticipation of learning and sharing our faith experiences during this time of what Rosemary Houghton has called a process of “formation, conversion and transformation.”

University of San Francisco President Father Stephen Privett, S.J. brought greetings to the group and recalled the late Cardinal Bernardin’s plea for collaborative leadership, when he asked the hard questions about whether the Catholic Church could enter this new century as a church of promise, a church of honesty and imagination. Privett called, as Bernardin had before his death, for American Catholics to reconstitute the Church centered on Jesus, using tools of civility, dialogue, and consultation, seeking common ground, and rooted in justice to find healing and hope. These were wonderful, powerful words to introduce the conference topic, “Imaging the Future Church.”

The faculty for the Conference included theologian M. Shawn Copeland of Boston College; Fr. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University; theologian Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM of Boston College; Robert Blair Kaiser, author and Vatican correspondent for Newsweek; Jim Post, president of the Voice of the Faithful; Leonard Swidler of Temple University in Philadelphia; and Sally Vance-Trembath, from the University of San Francisco theology faculty. Co-sponsors of the event included the USF St. Ignatius Institute, the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, and Department of Theology and Religious Studies, and the Northern California Voice of the Faithful. Proceedings of the conference were taped. [watch VOTF web site for ordering information.]

We learned that there are thirteen Parish Voice Affiliates in various stages of formation in Northern California alone. Participants came from the states of Washington and Oregon, from Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as from Tucson and Sedona, Arizona. Jim Post’s brother has recently become a parish voice coordinator in Seattle! And we had lunch with a lovely Korean Sacred Heart sister who knows Mary Jane Sullivan at Our Lady Help of Christians back in Newton, Massachusetts. It is indeed a small world.

We regret to mention that as at the Fordham Conference in October, the bishops of San Francisco (William Lavada) and Oakland (Allen Vigneron) ordered their diocesan newspapers to refuse paid advertisements promoting the event and to boycott the conference itself. Could it be that cerebral dialogue with Catholic laity brings on episcopal headaches?

The Sunday session began with a musical prayer offered by the Santa Clara affiliate, keynote remarks by Jim Post and a thematic conference summation by Sally Vance-Trembath. Mary Ann Keyes conducted a break-out session on Sunday on how to start a Parish Voice Affiliate and had asked us to help her facilitate the meeting. Probably sixty or more people rushed into the room, and were given packets of material. We began the meeting, as we always do, with a prayer, and then asked for people to tell us their names and where they were from.

Then the questions came tumbling out. “How can so few people do so much? How can we attract others?” “How do we overcome a reluctant pastor’s uncertainty about us?” And from other participants came important insights and answers.

“Find and meet the pastor’s needs in order to build his trust. We ran an estate planning session for our parish in hopes of meeting financial needs in the future. Now he’s willing to have us meet in the church.”

“Don’t worry about money and stipends…many young theologians, especially at colleges and universities, are eager to speak to groups for just their expenses.” “You don’t need to bring in experts. Bring in some high school or college students to tell what their faith means to them. Faith-sharing among one-another is a good way to begin, a good way to get to know one another.”

“Bring in a survivor who is willing to share his or her story.” “Collaborate with two or three other new affiliates and agree to cooperate and work together. E-mail makes it easy.”

“Get people together who are interested in doing work with victims and survivors, with priests, or who want to study Vatican II documents. People will come out if there is meaningful work to be done and interesting people to do it with.” “Consider having sessions on some of the new books that have come out. Learn how Voice got started by reading founder Dr. Jim Muller’s new book Keep the Faith, Change the Church: The Struggle of the Catholic Laity for the Soul of the Church.

The time sped by and new affiliate leaders seemed infused with renewed energy. It was good to be together and thrilling to see for ourselves that the movement of the Spirit that started in our backyard in January 2002 has spread 3000 miles and is still expanding.

****Rome Report:

While visiting my daughter who is studying in Rome for a semester, I had the opportunity to meet with the Deputy Chief of Mission Brent Hardt in the office of the American ambassador to Vatican City and, later, John Allen, Rome correspondent for National Catholic Reporter and a Vatican analyst for CNN Rome (John's new book All The Pope's Men will be out in June). I also spoke with but was unable to meet Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Science, Vatican City. In all, I would say we have willing ears in Rome.

John Allen spoke about the need for ecclesiastic language when communicating with Church leadership. It is the language of family working things out together. Earlier the same day, Brent Hardt, the DCM at the American embassy to Vatican City advised that VOTF be in touch with particular bishops as they begin their ad liminas.That’s ecclesiastic language for meeting with the pope. Just before leaving Rome, my brief conversation with Bishop Sanchez Sorondo told me what many Catholics might not know – we don’t talk enough. These few conversations were simply introductory but I found all three contacts forthcoming, interested in VOTF and willing to be helpful. My suspicion is that more factual knowledge about our Church will find not only VOTF but global Catholicism in happier relationships among our dissonant selves as well as between the various ministries of our faith.

Wondering in Rome
These conversations were very much of the day and alive with future promise and possibilities. Yet couple such input with what one sees in Rome, and the effect isn’t quite so clear – on the one hand the remains of a thousands-year old culture scattered about the city in protected decay and on the other hand, the same-age institution standing in prosperous, opulent relief against a backdrop of what was – the effect on this tourist was almost amusing: The Eternal City is both everlasting and long dead, both impervious and vulnerable.

There is glory, past and present, all over Rome – it is the glory of man’s glorification of God. The Vatican is a massive testament to this glory but it is evident as well in countless churches, whose walls, apses and floors leave not one square inch unused in this march toward praise of God, of Jesus, of Mary and the saints. This glory is one-way – us to Him. There is little or no sense, other than the stunning artistic skill behind these memorable works of art, that He is speaking back to us – the sensory overload of so much artistic and material wealth, ironically, blocks the connection. I felt like Alice in free-fall.

I wondered where one might find Presence, silence, meaning at the seat of this ancient religion – that sense of mystery and depth in the holy dark I remember from my parish church before it was renovated.

Perhaps like many Catholics arrested by shock over the past few years, I went to Rome expecting something to be waiting for me, something profound and faith-strengthening. On the way home, I determined that the seat of Christianity, too, is on a journey – it can dispense no more than it takes in. We are the Church – we who look for answers and we who think we already have them. Our journey is made fluid by a great dialectic.

Reading the VOTF Handbook and the Primer on Church Structures, knowing what so many affiliates are doing all over the world and reflecting on the early Church, I concluded that what’s needed is a good dose of Resurrection. In an obvious way, perhaps, this cacophonous city affirms the place of aseity in the Christian consciousness. “Aseitas” – Presence is and vice versa. That’s the very heart of the “good news.”

[If you’ve been to Rome, I hope you’ll write to leaderpub@votf.org and share your own impressions.] PLT

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN – Steve Krueger reports:

Last week I had the opportunity and pleasure to be a part of two events in Minneapolis//St. Paul and then travel to Los Angeles to meet with the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times as well as the editorial staff of the Tidings, the Los Angeles Archdiocesan newspaper.

On Friday night, the Twin Cities affiliate sponsored a panel discussion on the clergy sexual abuse crisis with Jason Berry, David Clohessy, Thomas Doyle, Belinda Marinez of Survivor’s Network – MN, Richard Sipe and Patrick Wall, a Canon Law expert, and myself. We each spoke of the clergy sexual abuse crisis from our own perspective. It was an extraordinary gathering with passionate presentations and subsequent heartfelt discussion from both survivors and Voice of the Faithful members.

On Saturday, Survivor’s Network – MN sponsored a day-long conference for survivors that presented many of the speakers from the previous evening as well as experts in sexual abuse, and Canon and criminal law. Among those in attendance was Jeffrey Anderson, a prominent attorney and advocate for survivors for many years. Throughout the day survivors told their stories.

The day was a profoundly emotional experience with several people publicly announcing their abuse for the first time. A communications consultant, who will be helping SN-MN to create public awareness of the need for legislative reform regarding the statute of limitations, spoke of the sense of responsibility he felt as a Catholic who was being confronted by these stories for the very first time. From my viewpoint, I have learned that the stories of survivors are ever-new, ever-painful. Being part of this event serves to temper our resolve that Voice of the Faithful support will be present to survivors for the rest of their lives.

On Monday morning I met with three of the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times along with our Los Angeles Regional Coordinator, Mary Jane McGraw. What is happening in Los Angeles today – the current Grand Jury investigation and the issue regarding the release of records – will have an impact throughout the rest of the country and we wanted the opportunity to discuss this with the Los Angeles Times. (Cardinal Mahoney was cited in the NRB reports as doing little to enhance the reputation of the Church for transparency and cooperation.)

In the afternoon we met with the Tidings and were joined by Peter Kruz from the Santa Barbara affiliate. It was an interesting experience. We were told that they were considering an article on Voice of the Faithful – they even had a photographer there.

On returning to Boston there was much to reflect on: the myriad issues facing survivors and the Church as a result of this crisis; how we have grown as an organization in the past year; and the ways VOTF can and is making a difference. Our members were literally spread across this country and the world bringing action into faith.

****How’s Your Ad Limina? From on-line Catholic News Service, Catholic Information Network and the Vatican web site:

Every five years, each bishop throughout the world goes to the Vatican for a visit Ad Limina Apostolorum, literally "to the threshold of the apostles," a reference to the pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul that the bishops are required to make. Together, the bishops go in a spirit of prayer to give the Holy Father an account of their dioceses and to consult with him and the Roman Congregations regarding a multitude of pastoral issues.

U.S. bishops began their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican in late March. Conducted by regional groupings over the next 10 months, the visits will represent the most exhaustive review of church life in the United States since the sex abuse crisis erupted into a national scandal two years ago. Diocese by diocese, the meetings will take the pulse of sacramental life, vocational trends, liturgical developments, religious education and a host of other areas.

Recently, the Pope received six US bishops in separate audiences: Archbishop John Donoghue, of Atlanta, Georgia; Bishop Robert Baker, of Charleston, South Carolina, with Bishop Emeritus David Thompson; Bishop Peter Jugis, of Charlotte, North Carolina, with Bishop Emeritus William Curlin; and Bishop Francis Gossman, of Raleigh, North Carolina.

In late May of 2004, Bishop Morlino from Madison, Wisconsin and other bishops from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, will make their ad limina visit. To follow this and related stories, visit www.catholicnews.com, www.cathnews.com, and/or www.cin.org.

****Boston VOTF meets with Mayor Menino – VOTF Communications Manager Suzanne Morse reporting

On March 18th, representatives from both Voice of the Faithful-National and Voice of the Faithful-Boston met with Mayor Tom Menino (D-Boston) to discuss the issues surrounding parish closings in the Archdiocese of Boston. Attendees included Steve Krueger, Suzanne Morse, John Hynes, and Peggy Sullivan.

The meeting with Mayor Menino was an extremely cordial and productive exchange of ideas regarding the parish closing process, the impact of the closures on the surrounding communities, and the future of the archdiocese. Mayor Menino is concerned that the process put in place by the Archdiocese does not address the needs of the neighborhoods. He also expressed misgivings about the impact of the closures on social services and education inside the city of Boston.

Mayor Menino agreed to have individuals from the Boston Redevelopment Authority attend the first Council meeting of VOTF- Boston in April to assist in their efforts to address the parish closings. We anticipate building a productive relationship with the mayor and with other city officials who wish to work cooperatively in handling the difficulties that the parish closings will bring to the future of the Catholic Church in the city of Boston.

Be sure to check the VOTF website for ongoing regional and national developments at www.votf.org

EAST

****The next meeting of the Council will be held on Thursday evening, April 22, at St. Pius X Church, Lynn, MA. The May meeting of the Council will be held on Saturday, May 22, at St. Timothy’s Church in West Hartford, CT. There will be a speaker, author David Gibson, at 9:30 a.m., followed by the Council meeting at 10:30 a.m. Watch the VOTF web site for additional details – www.votf.org

**** Members of our affiliate (such as Suzy Nauman and Marge Bean), with the assistance of the indefatigable Mike Gustin, are busy planning a conference at St. Eulalia's in Winchester on Saturday, June 12. The conference is designed for the most active members and leaders of the RCAB affiliates (though anyone is welcome to come). We hope to address the whole range of issues that affiliates face, such as how to achieve VOTF's three goals, maintaining morale, moving from talking to action, and other issues. David Gibson, author of The Coming Catholic Church, will speak, but the focus of the day is likely to be on break-out sessions centered on topics such as those listed above.

This event was originally planned for April 3, but had to be moved due to the leadership conference at Boston College on that day. We are looking for people who might be interested in facilitating break-out sessions on 6/12, or in preparing summaries of the discussions for distribution to attendees. If you're interested in helping, just let me know.

More information will be forthcoming in later weeks. Many have completed the brief survey (set forth below), which we are using to help plan the event.

[In the Vineyard shares the questionnaire as an idea others might want to try.]

Questionnaire for VOTF Affiliates in Archdiocese of Boston in preparation for June 12 Meeting: 1. What is your affiliate’s name? 2. Where does your affiliate meet? 3. How often does your affiliate meet? 4. What is the typical attendance at your affiliate's meetings? 5. How has your affiliate tried to fulfill VOTF’s 3 goals? 6. What are the most significant problems your affiliate faces? 7. Please feel free to add any other comments

(Name, Phone and e-mail requested). Bob Morris, Winchester, MA Area VOTF

****The National Catholic Educators Association is having its conference at the Hynes Convention center next month (Apr. 13 – 16). VOTF will have a booth at this conference. For more information go to http://www.ncea.org/annual/convention/exhibitorsinfo/04exhprpscts.pdf

****DON'T FORGET!! April 16-17 - A conference with global implications, "Envisioning the Church Women Want: A Conference on Women in the Church," will be held at Boston College, visit www.bc.edu/church21, or call 617-552-3489.

**** Monday, April 12 6-9 pm, the first meeting of the new Boston VOTF Council (known as the Boston Voice) will meet at St. John Chrysostom Parish Hall, W. Roxbury, MA.

**** Monday, April 26 - Rev. Thomas Doyle, O.P. to speak at St. Pius X Church, 492 Ocean Ave, Portland ME, 7 pm. Fr. Doyle is a noted canon lawyer and advocate for sexual abuse victims. A military chaplain and widely-respected canon lawyer, he also served as secretary-canonist at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, DC. He is the author of seven books on canon law and is a prolific contributor to professional journals and the Catholic press.

****SAVE THE DATE Mo Donovan of VOTF Seacoast, MA notes: “At the invitation of Seacoast, Jim Post will be speaking at Holy Family Parish, Amesbury, MA on Thursday evening, May 13, 2004. Details to follow.”

****The Paulist Center VOTF, Boston, MA is hosting a video presentation and discussion on Vatican II: "The Faithful Revolution" at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays April 27, May 11, May 25, and June 15. For those of you with access to the PCC_VOTF Web page (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCC_VOTF/), the meetings are listed in the CALENDAR section of the page.

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