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Reading Options:
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Excerpt from Keep the Faith, Change the Church
by VOTF founding president James E. Muller and
Charles Kenney
“The effectiveness of the path toward clearly
defined dogma and centralized rule initiated by
Constantine…is undeniable – the Catholic Church
has brought the message of Christ to billions
of individuals for almost two thousand years.
Indeed, autocratic structures can accomplish certain
missions, but they are also prone to abuses of
power, and they do not provide the church with
a mechanism to accomplish orderly change in response
to developments in the secular world that are
best know by the laity.”
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Excerpt from Governance, Accountability and
the Future of the Catholic Church, edited
by Francis Oakley and Bruce Russett. [Conference
papers presented in March 2003 at the St. Thomas
More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University]
Bishop Donald Wuerl: “Reflections on Governance
and Accountability in the Church”
“By sharing more information with the faithful
entrusted to our spiritual care, we complement
what is assumed by what is now verifiable. Is
this not a definition of accountability?” Peter
Steinfels in his paper “Necessary But Not Sufficient”
questions Bishop Wuerl’s seeming equating of openness
and accountability. Steinfels: “I am not sure
that the answer to his question is yes. In this
description, openness, transparency, and information
serve as an alternative to the vision of accountability….
Now openness seems to be a necessary but not sufficient
definition of accountability. Openness and information
do not, for example, of themselves provide verifiability.”
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Excerpt from Vows of Silence by Jason
Berry and Gerald Renner
“As John Paul leaves the stage, the extraordinary
achievements that ensure his role as one of the
greatest popes must be weighted against the human
suffering wrought by internal corruption on his
watch…. His tragic naivete left him unable to
look inside the Roman Curia, the bishops, and
the culture of the priesthood with the intelligence
he brought to bear in diplomacy.”
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And…
Jim Post found The Clergy and the Sexual Abuse Crisis:
Reform and Renewal in the Catholic Community by
Paul R. Dokecki, a worthwhile read. Jim wrote, “The
author is a faculty member at Vanderbilt where he teaches
in the Department of Human and Organizational Development
and the doctoral program in Community Research and Action.
He uses three lenses to examine the sexual abuse crisis:
professional ethics, human science, and ecological.
The treatment is clear, focused, and readable.
Dokecki tells the story from the view of Nashville,
where one notorious local priest triggered a wave of
legal and community action, including the creation of
Nashville VOTF. He relates the Nashville story to the
story taking shape in Boston. There is an extensive
discussion of VOTF, including Nashville VOTF, which
is very valuable. Readers outside of Boston will also
benefit because Dokecki’s story shows how local communities
everywhere can organize, focus their efforts, and promote
meaningful change.”
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