On our Way!

Voice of the Faithful Leadership Meeting
Indianapolis, IN July 9-10

“The Laity Speak: Accountability Now”

This is our moment to be heard,

to make decisions,

to make a difference on our watch.

We want you with us – now.

Our leadership gathering in July is to be a grand convocation - a calling together of members and supporters and a calling forth of our gifts. Together we will chart the course for VOTF and, by extension, our Church.

We will review our three years of achievement; brainstorm new and old ideas for action; and learn about some grassroots organizing tools to make things happen when we get home. Above all, we will come together as a community of faith in song, prayer and with Eucharist. We will return to our dioceses ready to claim not only our Baptismal right but our responsibility to full participation in the life of our Church.

The overall focus of the leadership gathering is on accountability in three areas - bishops, church finances and laity. Each of these three key areas will offer breakouts/workshops where your thoughts will help shape the agenda in Indianapolis as well as the future course of VOTF. If you ever wanted your voice to make a difference, this is your moment!

You will not be coming to Indianapolis just to listen, just to talk. You are asked to help make decisions with fellow Catholics who care as much as you do about our Church.

The Indianapolis Convocation Committee will be mailing some information and details to our regional coordinators and affiliate leaders in the next few days. You should already have received Jim Post's announcement letter - if not, please contact one of us (below). "The Laity Speak: Accountability Now" is your opportunity to make yourself heard, so make your personal plans, change whatever plans you might have made, and re-connect with what brought you to VOTF in the first place – it was the right thing to do. It still is.

You will find additional details on our web site, as the program and other details are finalized.

Event chairs Ken Sauer (IN), kensauer@sbcglobal.net; Kris Ward (OH) at kristineward@hotmail.com.
Prayer - Sister Betsy at maple2csj@comcast.net; Susan Troy at troy.mdiv@verizon.net
Program - Gaile Pohlhaus at gaile.pohlhaus@villanova.edu, Sheila Peiffer at sbp2@statetel.com
Communications/Publicity: Peggie Thorp at peggie.thorp@verizon.net; John Moynihan at moynihan_john@hotmail.com
Event Site Planning/Accommodations - Evelyn Mercantini at esmerc48@comcast.net; Mary Heins at maryheins2002@yahoo.com
Volunteers - tbd
Logistics - tbd
Registration – National office/Rick White at rwhite@votf.org
Pre-meeting and follow-up - tbd

Some suggested reading includes:

Acts of the Apostles, New Testament - Here is where VOTF really began. Consider what you find in these pages and superimpose that image over your own parish/diocesan experience.

Governance, Accountability and the Future of the Catholic Church edited by Francis Oakley and Bruce Russett (2004)

Faith That Dares To Speak by Fr. Donald Cozzens (2004)

The Liberation of the Laity by Paul Lakeland (2003)

Common Calling - The Laity and Governance of the Catholic Church* edited by Stephen J. Pope

Others recommended by members:

• The Remaking of the Church by Richard P. McBrien (1973 and still relevant)

• Vatican II document "Dogmatic Constitution on The Church" (Lumen Gentium) "

• Letter to Women from Pope John Paul II 1988 - "On the Dignity and Vocation of Women" (Mulieris Dignitatem) "

• A Documentary History of Religion in America*- edited by Edwin Gaustad and Mark A. Noll (VOTF made it into the third edition, 2003)

• Lay Ministry in the Catholic Church** - Visioning Church Ministry Through the Wisdom of the Past - symposium sponsored by National Association of Lay Ministry in collaboration with the Catholic Community Foundation of Kansas City in June 2004. Books, videos, study guides, cassettes available from Liguori Publications, One Liguori Drive, Liguori, MO 63057-9999 or email liguori@liguori.com

• American Catholics - Gender, Generation, and Commitment by D'Antonio, Davidson, Hoge and Meyer (2001)

• Good Catholic Girls - How Women Are Leading the Fight To Change the Church by Angela Bonavoglia (reviewed in this issue of In the Vineyard)

*The essays in these books are each worth reading, study and discussion but they also make good group projects where members could recap one reading apiece.

**Two perspectives presented that may have particular resonance with VOTFers heading to the leadership meeting are "Who Did What in the Church in the New Testament" by Sr. Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J. and "Who Did What in the Church in the First Millennium?" by Dr. Francine Cardman of Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

From Margaret Roylance, chair of the national Structural Change Working Group - a recap of this committee's work over the past three years. It provides a quick snapshot of what VOTF has done to shape structural change within the Church. Next month, Margaret will discuss the committee's vision for the future.

As VOTF moves toward our July 9-10 convocation in Indianapolis, it is a good time to reflect on what we have accomplished in the last three years in the area of our third goal - "To shape structural change within the church", and on the possibilities for the future. Some think we have accomplished very little because they perceive the Church to have the same structure that has existed for years. This perception is misleading. While it is unreasonable to expect major changes in a 2000 year old institution in a few years, significant changes have occurred, and will continue.

First, it is important to remember that we are the Church, and we have changed. As a result of VOTF efforts, lay Catholics both within and outside VOTF are increasingly knowledgeable about the role of the laity throughout Church history, our rights under Canon Law, and the way our Church is currently governed. Because we have educated ourselves and begun to take our rightful role, our Church is changing in other ways as well. When the USCCB uses the language of transparency and accountability, when Bishops post diocesan financial statements on the web, or when the Holy Father tells American Bishops that "a commitment to creating better structures of participation, consultation and shared responsibility should not be misunderstood as a concession to a secular "democratic" model of governance, but as an intrinsic requirement of the exercise of episcopal authority and a necessary means of strengthening that authority," it is clear that the VOTF call for structural change is reverberating at all levels of our church.

The approach that VOTF has taken to structural change to date could be characterized as working for full implementation of existing structures of participation, consultation and shared responsibility. The first VOTF statement on structural change was UNANIMOUSLY adopted by the Representative Council on February 22, 2003. VOTF sought and incorporated feedback on the statement from all the affiliates in the organization, as well as all the US bishops. In the process of developing a consensus document, many ideas (radical and otherwise) were considered, but the review process lead to a foundation which could provide a solid basis for future VOTF action, and it has done so. For example, VOTF's national survey showed that Parish Pastoral Councils work most effectively when they have by-laws or foundation documents guiding their operation. Acting on this information, VOTF has provided a collection of sample by-laws for PPCs, now on our website at www.votf.org.

Other actions include formation of the web-based Structural Change Network to facilitate a national discussion about structural change, preparation of a Primer on existing Canon Law and Church structures (because you cannot work effectively to change what you don't understand), definition of sound operating principles for Diocesan Finance Councils (approved by the Council last May) and Parish Finance Councils (in preparation). VOTF has worked hard on preparing and circulating these finance documents because we are convinced that financial abuse is at least as widespread as sexual abuse within the Church, and may well provoke the next crisis.

In the statement, VOTF called for Parish Safety Committees in every parish in the US, as well as regional lay councils. Child safety groups are now required in every parish in Boston, and VOTF has provided guidelines for PSCs to affiliates across the country. Regional councils could provide a continuum of lay representation from the parish to the region to the diocese, and would have been invaluable in providing genuine lay input into the process of "restructuring" in the Boston. Ad hoc cluster groups with some lay members were formed during restructuring in Boston, but the Diocese of Los Angeles has announced formation of standing regional councils. It may be a coincidence that VOTF worked with the Diocese of LA on a Spanish translation of the statement, but Regional Councils are a good idea, whether we take credit for it or not.

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