Letters
to the Editor
[Send your letter to pthorp.ed@votf.org]
From
Christine O’Connor
“ What I think is that I plan to continue to think for myself with your help
and advice. I plan on continuing to attend church and worship in my faith, there
is nothing that Rome or my parish can do to keep me away. I disagree with many
things and will continue to do so. This is my right and duty, but has nothing
to do with my faith in the God whose daughter I became when I was baptized 87
years ago. Sorry if you guys in Rome are inviting me out, I don't plan to help
you make our Church smaller and more easily managed.
I
will miss Father Reese's opinions but have a feeling we
will be hearing from him again and I will keep my eyes
and ears open. I will be interested to see what happens
now. Thank you Voice of the Faithful for what you are doing.”
From
Sally Beers
“ I am appalled and not a little frightened by the dismissal of Fr. Reese. I
have been a church-loving Catholic through Pius XII, Vatican II and John Paul
II. I fear I will be stranded in my dotage, attached to my beloved Church by
the single, mighty tie of the Eucharist brought to me be strangers. God bless
us all.”
From
Henry A. Smith, Yorba Linda, CA
“… there is more to life than preserving. We--the Body of Christ--now find ourselves
in the rough beginnings of a non-hierarchical Catholic Church.”
From
retired United Methodist minister Rev. Frank A. Halse,
Jr.
“ I want you to know how deeply I feel about your effort at renewal. I was thrilled
back when it started, and I remain so to this moment.
Know
then that I continue to hold you all in my daily prayers,
and that I want you to know that it is when you are most
discouraged that you are doing exactly what you are supposed
to be doing.”
From
Paul Kendrick, Maine
“ If I'm not mistaken, the Episcopal Accountability Resolution passed on September
18, 2004 states that the worldwide membership of Voice of the Faithful is calling
for all bishops who placed children at risk of sexual abuse to step down from
any leadership position in the Church. Period.
According
to news reports, two-thirds plus of all U.S. bishops would
fall into this category. Yet, we certainly don't hear that
most VOTF affiliates across the country are calling for
the resignation of their bishops. And even more importantly,
while our officers may talk about this subject in their
speeches, VOTF is not identified or perceived by the
public or the press as an organization that is calling
for most bishops to resign.
Some
say that the recent ad placed in America reflects
the intent of the Resolution. Not really. The ad didn't
specifically say that VOTF members want all bishops who
placed kids at risk of abuse to resign, to step down, to
no longer serve as bishop.
We
didn't explain in the ad that this is one of the only means
by which our Church can move forward. No, instead, we asked
the same bishops who put kids at risk of abuse to discern
what they should do to help heal our church. The last thing
they're going to do is resign.
I
hear more and more about the need to create better dialogue
with these same bishops. Who could argue with that? Getting
together, face to face, with our bishops is good business.
Collaboration, after all, is our goal.
But
we can't have it both ways. If we can't have it both ways,
which way are we going?
In
summary, will VOTF begin to implement the terms of the
Resolution in a highly visible manner? Will our print ads,
national speeches, press and media interviews always include
a call for the resignation of bishops who placed kids at
risk?”
From
Anita Schepkler
“I believe that we must get much more active on a grassroots and local level
about all the issues that face us today in the Church. I am worried that our
children will leave and find a Christian community that is less punishing, less
demeaning and more welcoming. Who can blame them?
We
should have a communications and a letter writing campaign
to all Bishops before they head off to their June meeting
where several issues need our careful watching, especially
if they try to weaken the document on sexual abuse and
reporting. I encouraged our local VOTF to get this message
in as many church bulletins as possible. I would personally
volunteer to get up and speak at masses about these grass-roots
campaigns if it were possible. We need to stop the possible
attempt to weaken this document. If anything, we should
have Bishops at the meeting trying to make it stronger.”
From
Deborah Doyle
“ I am the product of a large Catholic family and 12 years of Catholic education.
I will not allow the Vatican or the Catholic Church to tell me that I cannot
debate a topic of have an opinion about the issues confronting the Catholic Church
today. I do not want a smaller leaner church but a larger and much more inclusive
one.”
From
Lois Hatten, Boise, ID
“ The recent removal of Father Thomas Reese as Editor-In-Chief of America magazine
brings me sadness and apprehension. I have long been a subscriber to America. I
applaud and admire the magazine's efforts to be timely, fair, scholarly and spiritual
in its content. Both (or more) sides of an issue are addressed. Does the removal
of Father Reese mean censorship is alive and well and in the future nothing controversial
will be published? Surely our Catholic faith is big enough and strong enough
and universal enough for dialogue including different opinions and more than
one side of an issue.”
From
B. Cleary
“ Our title, ‘Voice of the Faithful,’ means to me that we have decided to speak
(voice) of what in our hearts we believe (the faith-full). It does not mean that
we will be forever ‘faithful’ to or uncritical of any once-upon-a-time set of
beliefs like the Baltimore Catechism or the decrees of Vatican One (1869). It
does mean that we pledge and claim to be faithful to our interior sense of things
and honest experience. Our honest experience, for instance, of the funeral of
the former pope may well have been negative – with all its extravagant praise
for a flawed, theatrical, sometimes arrogant and narrow-minded man, as well as
our experience of the bizarre gathering of hand-picked and subservient cardinals
as they elected to the papacy one of their own, a man so isolated he can never
really lead the whole church. The whole church: what a concept! Ask Jesus what
it is and he'd say it's the world, everyone in the world – with all its indescribable
diversity, where love overwhelms despair, and violence, and even gender. It's
everywhere, that church, and most of us believe in it. That's what we are faithful
to, and give our voice to in VOTF.”
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