EVENTS, ETC.

VOTF New York, NY and clergy to offer "Parish Encounter:
Preparing for Change in the Archdiocese of New York" on Saturday, May 14, 2005 – 8:30AM to 3:30PM
St. Ignatius Loyola Church - Wallace Hall, Park Avenue at East 84th Street, NY, NY. To attend, please register in advance. More details click here.

USCCB Meeting Scheduled for June 16-18, Chicago, IL From the USCCB web site at www.usccb.org The agenda will include discussion and vote on the 5th Edition of the Program of Priestly Formation, discussion and vote on the adaptations of the Order of Mass, a statement of renewed commitment to Catholic elementary and secondary schools, a pastoral letter on World Missions, and discussion and vote on the revised Essential Norms and the revised Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The bishops will spend a half day on prayer and discussion on the theme of Evangelization and Catechesis. Only the mornings of Thursday, June 16, and Friday, June 17, will be open to coverage by the news media.

• According to a Kansas City Star Associated Press item on March 31, 2005, “America's Roman Catholic bishops started an online survey of clergy sex abuse victims Wednesday, asking how the church can better help them recover and to protect young people. Advocacy groups said they were pleased that the bishops wanted to improve their outreach.” Sue Archibald of The Linkup said. “I don't know what really remains unknown in terms of what the problems are. Rather than continuing to gather information, I'd much rather see action.” The bishops’ web site is www.victim-outreach.com

Boston College is conducting a survey through June on its Church in the 21st Century program. If you are familiar with the program and/or have participated in its offerings, you can take the survey here.

• While you’re at it, note the following June opportunities: Saturday, June 4, 2005 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Devlin 008, Seminar: "How The Church in the 21st Century is working to transform the current crisis into an opportunity for renewal," June 15-17, 2005 Conference: “The Roman Catholic Priesthood in the 21st Century.” The conference will discuss the challenges facing today’s priests and the shape of the priesthood during the coming decades. Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Higgins Hall, Conference: The Second Annual Conference on Understanding the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis for mental health professionals, parish administrative staff and religious education directors. Information: Dr. Vincent Lynch, 617-552-4038, lynchv@bc.edu. Additional information is at the web site.

EYES ON ROME Tom Reese, editor of America magazine, resigns under order of the Vatican – NYT coverage and NCR coverage at and Boston Globe May 10 coverage at and don’t forget Catholic News.

• Pope Benedict’s past is rich in progressive thinking and repressive actions. From The Church. Readings in Theology. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1963 we find a contribution by Josef Ratzinger: "Free Expression and Obedience in the Church," pp.194-217 gave us the quote on page 1 of this issue of In the Vineyard. “The servility of the sycophants (branded by the genuine prophets of the Old Testament as ‘false prophets’), of those who shy from and shun every collision, who prize above all their calm complacency, is not true obedience . . . . What the Church needs today, as always, are not adulators to extol the status quo, but men whose humility and obedience are no less than their passion for truth; men who brave every misunderstanding and attack as they bear witness; men who, in a word, love the Church more than ease and the unruffled course of their personal destiny.” The list of those who followed the intent of these words is tragically long and, more tragic, incomplete: Click here.

• For another perspective on Pope Benedict XVI, see the “Roman Working Paper on Episcopal Conferences” written by Joseph A. Komonchak|, professor of theology at The Catholic University of America and, interestingly, edited by Thomas Reese. Click here.

• “The Pope is Not the Church” by Eugene Kennedy

• Should you find yourself with something to say to Pope Benedict, his email address is benedictxvi@vatican.va.

• [For some current thinking about bishops, see the conversation with Jim Post and others. ]

Meeting the Press Sr. Mary Aquin O’Neill, RSM, PhD, Director, Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women, was asked by Tim Russert on “Meet the Press,” Sunday, April 24, 2005, “Do you think women should be able to be priests?” She replied, as do many who favor gender balance in the priesthood, that she hadn’t reached that conclusion. In her remarks, Sr. Mary added, “…my concern about it is that too much of the argument makes it seem that in order to prove our equality, we must be ordained. And that would mean that the ordained are somehow higher and better than the laity. That's a theology I do not accept. I believe that one of the most important things for this church now is to really act on Christifideles Laici, where we were told there's a complementarity between the laity and the ordained. Complementarity means one cannot trump the other. And so, in all the questions that the church faces, the laypeople and their experience and their insights have to have an equal place at the table with those who are ordained. It may be that we decide to ordain women. It may be that we decide to ordain married men. As Thomas Cahill said, he wants the church, the assembly, to be involved in it, and so do I.” For a full transcript of the program, click here.

The Boston showing of SHOWTIME’s “Our Fathers,” which was based on David France’s book about the sexual abuse crisis, offered a Q&A opportunity at the film’s conclusion. Attendees heard over and over again a plea from survivors and survivor support groups to focus on legislative changes in statutes of limitation that, in effect, keep victims silent and perpetrators on the street. Click here for SHOWTIME’s program schedule and additional information on the film “Our Fathers.”