Voice of Faithful name Ellsworth man president

Bangor Daily News - Bangor,ME,USA
By Judy Harrison
cam free membership no sex web

An Ellsworth man has been elected president of the Maine Chapter of Voice of the Faithful.cam free membership no sex web

Bob McAteer, 70, is the first person to serve as president who lives in northern Maine. He also is the spokesman for VOTF-Maine.cam free membership no sex web

The organization elected new officers earlier this month.cam free membership no sex web

VOTF is a worldwide movement of concerned mainstream Catholics founded in Wellesley, Mass., in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The Maine group was formed in 2002, the same year three priests were removed from parishes in St. Agatha, Madawaska and Ellsworth.cam free membership no sex web

The organization’s goals are to support those who have been abused, to support priests of integrity and to shape structural change within the Catholic Church in full accordance and harmony with church teaching.cam free membership no sex web

McAteer, a communicant at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ellsworth, said earlier this month that he joined VOTF after he learned his brother at age 8 was abused by a priest in another state.cam free membership no sex web

"He didn’t reveal it to me until he was in his 50s," McAteer said. "I thought that maybe if I could do something here in Maine, it would help fulfill his wishes."cam free membership no sex web

McAteer said that he wanted to focus the group’s efforts more on talking about the possibilities of restructuring the church over the next century.cam free membership no sex web

"I want the church I leave behind to be better than the one I had," he said. "I don’t expect changes in my lifetime. We’re dealing with a 2,000-year-old power structure but I don’t think we should give up either."cam free membership no sex web

McAteer said that another goal was to get more laypeople from northern Maine involved in the organization.cam free membership no sex web

Other newly elected officers are: vice president, Steve Roy of Cape Elizabeth; treasurer, Francis McGillicuddy of Portland; clerk-secretary, Jane Merchant of Kennebunkport.cam free membership no sex web

cam free membership no sex web