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Please send
comments and inquiries to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
“If we work together, pray and
stand together, we can create a new heaven and ease
life for each other.” Franciscan Sr. Thea Bowman,
1937-90 from www.futurechurch.org
IMPORTANT
notice from the VOTF website manager: Voice
of the Faithful’s
web site has temporarily moved from
www.votf.org to www.votf.org.
Please make a note of it in your bookmarks. All VOTF
email addresses have
also changed from votf.org to votf.org. For example
rjoyce@votf.org is now rjoyce@votf.org. In
the Vineyard correspondents should write to
pthorp.ed@votf.org.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
PRIORITY News
in this issue:
Better NEWS from the USCCB:
Proposals to conduct compliance audits of
U.S. dioceses and eparchies with the U.S. bishops'
Charter for the Protection of Children and Young
People are being sought by the National Review
Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
See more in National/International News.
Breaking
News: May 18, National Catholic
Reporter: "Vatican
restricts ministry of Legionaries priest founder:
Move seen as confirmation of sex abuse allegations
against Maciel" - Read John
Allen's story. VOTF Pentecost Action represents
the official public launch of the VOTF Campaign
for Accountability – there
is a place for everyone. Click
here for details.
The
road to dialogue between parishioners and diocesan
leadership is often unpaved but the road in
Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri
would be hard to beat for difficulty. Read
how one bishop
reversed one parish in one week. See National
Catholic Reporter, May 8, “Extreme
Makeover: The Diocese.” Let us know
what you think at pthorp.ed@votf.org.
VOTF
Chicago and Cardinal George held their first
meeting, as scheduled, on May 12. See Diocese/State
Watch for Chicago Update.
The
statewide Diocese of Burlington, VT fearing
the costs of 19 priest misconduct lawsuits
against it, just placed its 128 local parishes
in charitable trusts. See more in Diocese/State
Watch.
As
reported in an earlier Vineyard, twenty-two
Long Island, NY priests have offered to pay
for a mediator to settle a long-running dispute
between Bishop William Murphy of Rockville
Centre, N.Y., and the Long Island Voice
of the Faithful. For a National
Catholic Reporter update,
click here.
VOTF
No. VA offered its own progress report (“audit”)
to Bishop Loverde on the Arlington diocese’s
Charter compliance. Go to Diocese/State
Watch.
Parish
closings: See what VOTF
New York City, NY is planning for May 20 – their
Parish Encounter II program may be just what your parish
needs. Go to Diocese/State
Watch.
Ohio
is a case study in trying
to advance legislatively the protection of
children. Marci Hamilton, the
Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University,
weighs in with her column, reprinted with permission.
See Commentary – “Lessons from Ohio”.
Changing
the rules to get closer
to justice for survivors was the subject of
two recent commentaries
in America magazine and the Long
Island Catholic. VOTF members in CA and NY addressed each, respectively.
See Commentary for Robert
Rowden and Tom
Myles’ responses.
Fr.
Tom Doyle’s paper on dialogue with
bishops – conclusion. See Commentary – “Dialogue
with Bishops”; the VOTF Bridgeport conference
at Fairfield University is the subject of a May
19 NCR column “Speaker calls for
return to election of bishops”. Subscribers
can read the full text here.
Check this issue’s Site-Seeing,
Etc. (Vatican astronomer, CARA study, and film
alert). Check
Diocese/State Watch for news in No. VA, IL, NJ,
VT, CA, NY and CO.
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NATIONAL/International News
The VOTF
National Representative Council will be
meeting in Chicago, June 2-4. See the NRC
Update and resolutions
being considered – Click
here. Watch the next Vineyard and
the web site for voting results.(Do you know who
your representative is? Click
here.)
Proposals
to conduct compliance audits of U.S. dioceses
and eparchies with the U.S. bishops'
Charter for the
Protection of Children and Young People are being sought
by the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops. Details are available at their
website. Of special note in the Request for Proposals
is this
statement: “In particular, future audits will
be expected to assess not only the extent to which
dioceses and eparchies have established policies, procedures,
and programs in accord with the Charter, but
also the effectiveness of the administration of these
policies,
procedures, and programs. The audit must also determine
the accuracy of the data provided to the auditors.
Additionally, as guidelines and measurements of effectiveness
are developed over the next few years, they are to
be incorporated into future audits.”
- See
VOTF Ohio Kris Ward’s “take” on
the above (Commentary) and let us know what you
think at pthorp.ed@votf.org.
-
Also, see www.zenit.org for a May 9 posting: “Holy
See OKs Revised Norms in Sex-Abuse”.
-
Bishops are on the move. Archbishop McCarrick (Washington,
DC) and Archbishop Imesch (Joliet, IL) have
resigned. See details.
-
A media advisory from the USCCB on their
upcoming June meeting in Los Angeles, CA has been posted
here. VOTF will again bear witness at the bishops’ gathering;
watch future issues of the Vineyard for details.
On
July 21-23, Jersey City, New Jersey will host the
2006 conference of SNAP. For more information about
the conference, visit their website, www.snapnetwork.org.
Many survivors need financial assistance to attend
this conference. If you would like to contribute some
funding or sponsor an attendee, contact SNAP.
- The Winchester
Area VOTF is selling blank note cards designed by two of its members to benefit survivors
of clergy sexual abuse. Cards are $10 for a package
of 8 (2 each of four different designs). To view cards
and print order form, visit www.votfwinchester.org.
VOTF
Ireland has had a number of “hits” as
of the Vineyard announcement of its new
website. A recent Limerick story warrants reading
for the
question it raises about a bishop’s possible
conflict of interest between the administrative and
the pastoral requirements of his job. Read more.
Calling all affiliates with web sites: Add a link
to In the Vineyard on your home page.
Fr.
Tom Doyle gave an electrifying
VOTF-sponsored talk in Tucson on March 4th. Entitled "What
the Clergy Abuse Phenomenon Is Trying to Tell Us," a
professional video specialist captured the talk
on DVD disk. Tom’s presentation was a truly
memorable event, and your copy will be of interest
to a wide variety of fellow Catholics.
For your personal DVD, please send your name, mailing
address, e-mail address, and a check or money order
for $25 payable to Frank Douglas to Terry
Carden,
VOTF-Tucson, 6451 N Lazulite Pl, Tucson, AZ 85750.
All proceeds go toward production of the DVDs and
expenses related to Tom's visit to Tucson; 50%
of any profits will be donated to SNAP.
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SITE-Seeing, Etc.
FILM
Alert from film maker Barbara Rick: “IN
GOOD CONSCIENCE: Sister Jeannine Gramick's Journey
of Faith” tells the story of an American nun's
battle with the Vatican to follow her conscience regarding
her lifelong, compassionate ministry to gay and lesbian
Catholics. Many VOTF members have seen and appreciated
the film around the world. “IN GOOD CONSCIENCE” opens
at Real Art Ways Cinema in Hartford, CT on
May 19th.
More information is available on their website. Folks
can purchase the limited edition DVD on the site as
well. Tickets for the Hartford showings are available
here.
Did
you know that the Vatican has its
own astronomer? He is Brother Guy Consolmagno who
works in a Vatican
observatory in Arizona and is curator of the Vatican
meteorite collection in Italy. Learn more
here.
According to the Guardian Unlimited, “For the
past 13 years, he [Consolmagno] has held one of the
most secure and prestigious posts in the planetary
sciences, as one of the Pope's 12 personal astronomers,
dividing his time between the Vatican's observatory
at the papal summer palace at Castel Gandolfo in Italy
and a giant telescope in Tucson, Arizona.”
The
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA)
at Georgetown University has published “Catholic
Reactions to News of Sexual Abuse Cases Involving
Catholic Clergy”. To read the report (PDF),
click
here and let us know your thoughts at pthorp.ed@votf.org.
Note the following from the paper’s conclusion:
"The
CARA polls provide little evidence that Catholics
have exited the Church in
significant numbers as a result of the sexual abuse
scandal.
The proportion of the U.S.
population identifying as Catholic has remained constant.
Additionally, the CARA polls show little change in
Mass attendance. There is some evidence of ‘voice’ (i.e.,
expression of discontent) among Catholics. In the
CARA polls, sizeable numbers of Catholics are critical
of
Church leaders and their handling of the issue of
sex abuse in the Catholic Church. One manifestation
of
this is the organized reform and protest groups that
have formed (e.g., Voice of the Faithful).” Let
us know what you think at pthorp.ed@votf.org.
QUOTE
for our time: Cynthia Vrooman from Sonoma, Calif.
sent the following quote from Karl Rahner in his book I
Remember: An Autobiographical Interview. If you have
a favorite VOTF-apt quote, please send to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
“I believe that you have to make a few distinctions.
The pope is the highest representative of the Church and,
if you like, of Catholic Christianity with respect to
certain juridical, ecclesial structures. But I maintain
that the most humble, the most loving (to put it in this
old-fashioned way), the most holy, the most apparently
obscure person in the Church, and not the pope, is at
the top of the hierarchy, the real hierarchy for which
the Church is only a means...the highest representative
within the social fabric is not necessarily the highest
representative of the real reason for which the Church
exists. She is there so that God may be worshiped, praised,
and loved, and so that people might love one another
and be selfless, and for that the saints are the real
representatives. Innocent III was pope, but Francis of
Assisi was the highest in the only hierarchy that ultimately
counts”
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