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WORKING GROUP NEWS
Structural Change
Working Group
Suzanne Morse, VOTF Communication Manager reports:
On April 1st, Voice of the Faithful began training
for Parish Voice affiliates on the new Structural Change
Working Group’s “Organizational Structures of the Catholic
Church: A Primer.”
This project is the culmination of a year’s work by
Voice of the Faithful’s Structural Change Working Group.
It is a first-of-its-kind briefing on the organizational
structures of the Roman Catholic Church – to the best
of our knowledge, there has not been a centralized document
that explains the layers of the Catholic Church and
how the Church is governed.
We are offering the training as a service to our members,
who remain committed to finding reasonable ways to promote
structural change within the Catholic Church. The training,
led by Margaret Roylance and other members of the Structural
Change Working Group, will be conducted using web technology
made available to Voice of the Faithful by the FirstWorks
Corporation.
Margaret Roylance, VOTF chair of the Structural
Change Working Group reports:
In the structural change statement that was unanimously
approved by the Representative Council in February 2003
(http://www.votf.org/Structural_Change/structural.html),
VOTF promised to provide a Primer on Church Structures.
This new educational tool (currently in Power Point
presentation format) was needed because many faithful
Catholics do not understand how our church functions
as a human institution, and we cannot work effectively
to change what we do not understand.
The VOTF Structural Change Working Group was unable
to find any existing compilation of this information,
so we worked with Fr. Ladislas Orsy, S.J. to develop
one, and it is now ready for use by affiliates across
the country. It includes information on Church governing
law, organizational structures of the Church as they
are defined by canon law and diocesan statutes, specific
changes in Church structures called for by VOTF, and
questions for discussion that might be used as a starting
point for individual affiliates to begin working effectively
for structural change within the parish and diocese.
On-line Primer training is now being conducted out
of the VOTF office to familiarize interested members
of VOTF with the contents of the Primer, and how it
might be presented and discussed within individual affiliates.
Please plan to take part in one of the Primer training
sessions (contact roylances@voiceofthefaithful.org),
and join us as we educate ourselves to use our God-given
gifts for the good of the Church and move forward toward
the vision of the Second Vatican Council.
Voice
of the Faithful, VOTF, "Keep the Faith, Change the Church,"
Voice of Compassion, VOTF logo(s), Parish Voice, and
Prayerful Voice are trademarks of Voice of the Faithful,
Inc.
Voice
of the Faithful is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization.
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