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Please
send comments and inquiries to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
“There
is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed and nothing
hidden that will not be made known. What you have said
in the dark will be heard in the daylight and what you
have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be
proclaimed from the roofs.” Luke 12:2-3 is the
inscription on an Iowa monument to survivors of sexual
abuse. Follow the photos below.
| NATIONAL News
CONVENTION
2007 Update – VOTF
vice president Sally Vance-Trembath frames the upcoming
VOTF Convention
in Providence RI October 19-21. See the Convention
Update page.
WORKING Group Updates:
John Ryan, chair of the VOTF National Priest Support
Working Group, is one of two VOTF members managing
a VOTF booth at the annual National Federation of
Priests’ Councils conference in Tampa, FL.
See the Priests
Support Working Group Update for
impressions from Day #1.
AFFILIATE
Highlights: Three states,
three VOTF affiliates, three windows into Church
operations in this issue.
The VOTF Bridgeport CT/Fairfield University conference “Follow
the Money” considers parish and diocesan finances
that continue to plague Catholics in the pews; the
Philadelphia
PA gathering focused on church finances;
and the Long
Island NY Faith Convention provided an
opportunity to learn more about our faith community.
The Book Review in this issue is another window into
the workings of our Church.
On the fifth VOTF anniversary, the bi-annual National
Representative Council meeting was held in MA April
27-29 bringing representation from 11 states -- Fl,
IL, ME, MD, MA MN, NY, OH, PA, TX and VA -- in good,
ol' pre-email style. Hospitality was provided by Boston
VOTF. Read the meeting recap
here. (Note the prayer
written by Bud Bretschneider on Sunday morning for
the Council's closing sesssion.) NRC minutes will be
posted on our website over the next two weeks.
 SURVIVOR
Support, Anyone? SNAP is holding its annual
convention July 20-22 in Washington DC. Visit the SNAP
web site for registration information
and/or to see how you might help. Survivor
Community News: Read
the story behind this
photo.
See OFFICE
Notes: VOTF welcomes Michael Rafferty to
the Development Office; the Executive Director Search
continues. Recent VOTF press releases are here.
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DIOCESE/State
Watch: (See
inside pages for follow-up items on San Diego bankruptcy;
Rockville Centre NY diocese abuse trial; Spokane WA settlement;
the recent VOTF Long Island NY Faith Convention; VOTF
Bridgeport CT conference; Phila. PA meeting; and more.)
Boston
MA: Financial transparency in the Boston archdiocese
is becoming even more transparent, read
more. The boston.com web site reports: “The
release of financial information, which is voluntary
but arrives after considerable public pressure and a
failed attempt last year by some legislators to mandate
financial disclosure by religious organizations, largely
fulfills a pledge by O’Malley to share financial
details with area Catholics. Some other big-city archbishops
are now doing the same, but others, most notably Cardinal
Edward M. Egan of New York, have declined to do so.” Read
more. By contrast, note Cardinal Egan’s
remarks on the front page of the New
York Times (subscription required). When asked
why the archdiocese of NY doesn’t release financial
documents as is being done in other dioceses, he replied, “I
am transparent to the best possible people,” he
said in a rare interview in his 20th floor office on
First Avenue in Manhattan. “So when you say, ‘We
don’t know,’ well, my ‘we’ knows.” (NYT April
23, 2007)
The VOTF
Bridgeport CT and the chair of Catholic Studies
at Fairfield University presented “Follow the Money:
Financial Accountability in the Catholic Church” on
Saturday April 28. Dan Sullivan provides a recap (see
DIOCESE/State
Watch page) and excerpts from Joe O’Callaghan’s
presentation, which will be on the VOTF Bridgeport web
site in the upcoming weeks.
Portland
OR: From the Portland Tribune: “The
Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon plans to release to
the public internal documents about church personnel
accused of child abuse over the last 50 years as part
of its recently approved bankruptcy settlement, church
officials and lawyers for sex abuse claimants announced
Tuesday.” Read
more.
SITE-Seeing,
Etc.
Two items
in the Monday April 23 issue of the New York Times – a
front page piece on Cardinal Egan of the Archdiocese of
NY as he submits his pro forma resignation to the Pope
and a David Gibson Op-Ed on Pope Benedict XVI on the Pope’s
second anniversary – are worth reading. Subscribers
may access
here and here.
- Also
note an Associated Press item in the April 17 issue
of the Washington
Post.
Fr. Tom
Doyle has assembled a bibliography on clergy sexual
abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. It is available
at “Voice
from the Desert."
A National
Catholic Reporter editorial sees “little
genuine progress on sex abuse."
- The current
issue of NCR focuses on priests and
their particular challenges over the last five years.
QUOTE
for our time: To paraphrase poet Gerard Manley
Hopkins, “The just person justices.”
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