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AFFILIATE
NEWS
VOTF Tucson, AZ says “Let
the Parishioners Decide” – press release distributed by Frank Douglas, VOTF
Tucson and NRC member for Region 13
As part of its agreement
with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Tucson diocese is planning to incorporate
74 parishes as separate non-profit corporations. Each parish will have a
five-person board: the bishop, the vicar general, the pastor, and two lay
people, both of whom the pastor will appoint.
The plan calls for the
bishop and his priests, who have taken a vow of obedience to the bishop,
to retain management and financial control of all parishes. Thus, after the
parishes are incorporated, there will, in effect, be no genuine change. We
will still have the same system of church governance we have today.
It’s a system that has
covered up child sex-abuse crimes by clergy. It’s a system that has contributed
to a large number of Catholics leaving the church. It’s a system that has
cost Tucson parishioners at least $36 million ($22 million in 2005 plus $14
million in 2002) in settlements to survivors of clergy sex abuse. It’s a
system in which lay people provide the money but have no decision making
say in the finances and management of their parishes. In effect, it’s a system
of taxation without representation.
VOTF-Tucson believes it’s
time for a fundamental change. We believe now is the time for parishioners,
who contribute their hard-earned money to their church, to begin to make
the key parish management and financial decisions that affect their religious
lives. We believe parishioners should vote for the members of the new parish
boards.
Therefore, we call for
parishioners to conduct an open and fair election for all members of their
new parish board.
We do not challenge
the authority of the bishop as spiritual leader of the faithful. But we cannot
accept the current system of governance, which has failed us significantly
and repeatedly in the past.
All we ask is: Let
the parishioners decide.
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