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Please
send comments and inquiries to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
“He
had loved his own in this world, and would show his love
for them to the end.” John 13: 1. Voice
of the Faithful wishes you renewed hope and lasting joy
in Easter’s promise. Click
here to read Easter letter from VOTF president Mary Pat
Fox.
NATIONAL
News and Updates
VOTF
welcomes five new affiliates: St. James VOTF
in Kansas, Ohio; St. Thomas More VOTF Bowling Green,
Ohio; Mahoning Valley VOTF in Youngstown, Ohio; East
Grand Rapids VOTF in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Eastern
Iowa VOTF in Davenport, Michigan.
National
Representative Council (NRC) Update: See
text of recently passed resolutions on support for survivors;
on a white paper to consider church finances and accountability;
and on effective church management systems. The report
also includes the voting tally. A proposal calling for
ecclesial review of mandatory celibacy for priests is
also posted; a vote is expected next week.
Report
to Board of Trustees from Council summarizes
Council election results throughout the U.S. Click
here to identify your representative on the NRC.
Voice
of the Faithful has been blessed from Day #1 with the committed,
energetic and gifted voices of many Catholics. Frank
Murray, who died recently after a short battle
with leukemia, was one of them. Frank served VOTF as NRC
representative from Region 7 (WI, IL, IN). See “Remembering
Frank Murray” from Ron Dubois.
From National
Catholic Reporter: “The chairman of the U.S.
bishops’ Committee for the Protection of
Children and Young People told a Georgetown
University audience March 20 that he opposes establishing
a searchable Internet-based registry containing the names
of clergy facing credible accusations of sexual abuse.” Read
more.
DIOCESE/State Watch
| AFFILIATE Highlights:
VOTF Long Island NY will host a Faith
Convention on Saturday April 14. For details, click
here.
VOTF
Bridgeport CT and
the chair of Catholic Studies at Fairfield University
will present “Follow
the Money: Financial Accountability in the Catholic
Church” on Saturday April 28. For information,
click here; VOTF Bridgeport CT was also
the host recently of a talk by Sr. Theresa Kane on
a vision of Church in the 21st Century (see Commentary);
the affiliate also has another means of communicating
with other diocesan Catholics in “Our Voice.” Check
it out on their website.
VOTF Greater Cincinnati will
host “A
Gathering for Justice” with Fr. Tom Doyle, Richard
Sipe and Patrick Wall, co-authors of Sex, Priests and
Secret Codes. The conference will be held at Xavier
University in Cincinnati. For additional information, click
here or call 513-231-5271 or email at votfcincinnati@aol.com.
|
Good
News for the protection of children in San Diego CA?:
The diocese has released the names of over three dozen “credibly
accused priests” inclusive of their church service
records as far back as 1928. See the San
Diego Union-Tribune. Also, “Officials
from the Catholic Diocese of San Diego say they have
named the priests accused of sexually molesting minors
in San Diego, but critics are saying that the church's
list is missing almost as many priests as it named.” Read
more.
No
question about Good News in Idaho: SNAP Great
Plains Michigan applauded a new Idaho law that extends
the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.
For details, click
here. More good news for protecting
children in Springfield MA: “In a legal
setback for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield,
the Massachusetts Appeals Court has upheld a lower court
ruling requiring the diocese to turn over thousands of
pages of documents from sexual abuse claims to its insurance
companies. In an 11-page ruling, Justice Fernande R.V.
Duffly ordered church officials to turn over most of
the 7,000 pages of documents at the center of a two-year
legal skirmish.” See the Republican.
Bad
news for survivors in Chicago IL: Speaking of
the Catholic Church-led lobby effort against an extension
of the state’s statute of limitations on reporting
incidents of sexual abuse, ABC 7/Chicago said, “It
is a lobbying effort led by the Catholic Church that
would prefer to handle years-old cases of priest sex
abuse internally with counseling, guidance and sometimes
settlement payments.” For the full story, click
here.
SITE-Seeing,
Etc.
The so-called “doctrine
of mental reservation” has been receiving
media attention, particularly in a recent item in the Los
Angeles Times – subscribers (free) can read
the article. However, according to a Los
Angeles diocesan newsletter comment, the principle of
mental reservation is not doctrine and has been used
improperly by the media. Read
more.
US
Catholic magazine:
Author of The Holy Longing and former philosophy
professor Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I. discusses polarity
among Catholics. Fr. Rolheiser now serves as president
of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. Read
more.
The unfolding
tragedy of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has placed
a spotlight on clergy of other denominations.
One such indication was noted in a recent Colorado newspaper
article. Read
more.
A lay
synod movement has held its first lay congress. Read
about the experience of one Texas parish.
National
Public Radio has excellent coverage of the recent FutureChurch
pilgrimage to Rome’s archaeological sites
of early women leaders. Read
more. Also
on NPR are links to NPR stories about Mary
of Magdala and the FutureChurch
2006 Rome Pilgrimage.
The February
2007 post-synodal exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” from
Pope Benedict XVI is at the Vatican's website.
See an overview from Catholic
News Service.
Thank
you to Mike Nicholas, VOTF Australia,
for identifying an excellent article that considers two
kinds of church men – Bernard Haring and Joseph Ratzinger.
The item appears in the Canadian publication Social
Edge.
Note:
The recent bankruptcy filing by the Diocese of
San Diego is the fifth U.S. diocese (and the largest)
to file bankruptcy after Portland, Ore., Spokane, Wash.,
Tucson, Ariz. and Davenport, Iowa.
The Catholic
Common Ground Initiative newsletter "Initiative
Report" is posted on the National Pastoral Life
Center website. It includes a summary by Dean Hoge of
two findings noted in his new book American Catholics
Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church.
The findings he notes are about generational differences
among Catholics and what laity see as the main problems
in the Church. Dean Hoge is professor of sociology emeritus
at The Catholic University of America. Click
here for the full text of the talk. Then
subscribe to the quarterly eight-page newsletter by sending
your name and postal mail address to commonground@nplc.org.
Delaware
Online reports:“ Navy
Cmdr. Kenneth J. Whitwell took the stand Thursday in
U.S. District Court and told a panel of six jurors what
no Delaware jury has heard before: He told them how he
was sexually abused by a Catholic priest as a student
at Archmere Academy.” Survivors and survivor support
advocates believe Whitwell’s testimony will encourage
other survivors to come forward. Read
the full story.
Pewsitters.com
is a new site worth a visit. Go to www.pewsitters.com and
let us know what you think at pthorp.ed@votf.org.
QUOTE
for our time: "As women we have heard the powerful
message of our church addressing the dignity and reverence
of all persons. As women we have pondered these words. Our
contemplation leads us to state that the church in its struggle
to be faithful to its call for reverence and dignity for
all persons must respond by providing the possibility of
women as persons being included in all ministries of the
church." Sr.
Theresa Kane speaking to Pope John Paul II in October 1979
at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New
York City. See Commentary for more. |
