AFFILIATE NEWS
UPDATE FROM NATIONAL PARISH VOICE from Mary
Ann Keyes and Suzy Nauman
Alice Campanella has been involved with Voice of the
Faithful from the early days of our formation. She has
served on the registration committee for our July 2002
conference and helped start the St. Paul Parish Voice
in Wellesley. She has coordinated Maryland, DC and Virginia
and as a coordinator helped get affiliates started in
those states and nurtured many good leaders, who today
are active on many levels with Voice of the Faithful.
Most recently, she is the Regional Coordinator for the
West Region of Boston, the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Greensburg,
Erie and Johnstown-Altoona, PA, Phoenix, AZ and Norwich,
CT. Her track record is such that we are hoping to see
a lot more affiliates forming in the near future!!
Alice comes to us from her job of 20 years as a school
librarian in the Wellesley public schools. She served
as the director of the CCD program at St. Paul's, where
she is also a Eucharistic minister. Alice, as well as
her late husband and five children, is a graduate of
Boston College. She later received a BS in Education
and an MS in Library Science from Simmons College. She
has lived in MA, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Thailand.
With her children and six grandchildren living in Sedona,
AZ, Southern CA as well as Needham MA, we might see
even more affiliates with all these geographical connections!
Please join us in wishing Alice well. We welcome her
experience and her commitment to all that Voice of the
Faithful is hoping to accomplish.
Other Parish Voice news comes from Anne Potts who
has just had a baby girl - Isabel Grace, born July 24th.
Anne provided a wonderful service to Parish Voice during
her time in the office and for that we will always be
grateful.
Meagan Yogi (myogi@votf.org),
our intern from Boston College working on starting affiliates
on college campuses, will continue with us during her
senior year at BC. Theresa Cooney, who has been
in the communications office, will help in this effort,
when she returns to her senior year at Georgetown (tc33@georgetown.edu).
We are hoping to make VOTF on campuses a reality, so
any suggestions/help can be directed to them or Alice
Campanella (acampanella@votf.org).
The Parish Voice team has been working on a program
that will train affiliate leaders and regional coordinators.
The process has begun and the work for putting together
such a training program is beginning to take shape under
the guidance and direction of Aimee Carevich.
There is a small team in Boston and one from CT/ NY
hard at work since mid-June. They have managed to do
an incredible amount of research. What we have realized
is that for this to be effective, many more will have
to become involved as time goes on. The teams have been
meeting once or twice a week and have included conference
calls. The first joint meeting was held in Mystic, CT
all day Sunday August 8th.
Last but not least, our latest toolkit got mailed to
our affiliate contacts and the Regional Coordinators.
EAST Region
VOTF NJ
Submitted by Maria Cleary
This has been NJ VOTF's month to regroup. We had a
wonderful meeting in July, and now are planning for
the beginning of our third year! We've welcomed
three new affiliates in Metuchen, Union County and Sparta,
with coordinators, Kevin Gilmartin, Tom Quinn and Nora
Roberts doing an excellent job spearheading those efforts.
Here are a few pictures to share from our last taping
of our public access show, "Voice of the Faithful,"
which airs on two cable systems in NJ (visit the NJ
web site). We wish our VOTF family a restful August
so we can begin again in the Fall, renewed and refreshed.
VOTF Winchester, MA
Submitted by Bob Morris
Our group continued weekly meetings into July. Highlights
included three very special speakers. On July 6, close
to100 people attended a talk by author and journalist
Jason Berry. Jason is the author of Lead Us Not Into
Temptation, a groundbreaking examination of the
clergy sexual abuse crisis. His most recent book is
Vows of Silence, with Gerald Renner. Jason talked about
his experiences as a reporter in New Orleans in the
late 1980s covering clergy sexual abuse, and how this
eventually led to his award-winning book. Jason encouraged
VOTF to continue speaking out, and not to lapse back
into the complacency that contributed to the crisis.
On July 14, Dick Ryan addressed 80 people. Dick is
a regular contributor to Newsday, National Catholic
Reporter, and other publications. Dick was unsparing
in his criticism of the conduct of so many bishops in
the handling of the crisis, and particularly of his
own bishop on Long Island, Bishop Murphy (formerly of
Boston). Dick also urged us to continue to raise our
voices.
 On
July 28, Jetta Bernier and Thom Harrigan addressed a
group of about 50 (despite the opening of the Democratic
National Convention). Jetta is Executive Director of
the Massachusetts Citizens for Children, and Thom has
a distinguished career as a social worker.  Both
are members of the Victims' Rights Committee, which
issued a report n June 2004 reviewing the procedures
followed by the Archdiocese of Boston in investigating
abuse allegations against Msgr. William Foster. Jetta
and Thom recounted in detail the findings of their report,
which found that the Archdiocese had failed to live
up to its own standards and norms. Jetta, Thom and the
entire Victims' Rights Committee are to be commended
for their perseverance and commitment to truth.
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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