Letters to the Editor

Responses to last month’s What Do You Think? In the January issue of In the Vineyard, we published a response from College of Holy Cross professor David O’Brien to a letter written by three priests in the Fall River, MA. The priests’ letter questioned VOTF’s Catholicity.

“I’ve contributed hundreds of dollars to VOTF without getting directly involved, but this exchange of letters reassures me that I made a good decision to become a contributor, and will continue to do so.

We now have a pastor at St. Denis in Hanover, NH where there is a highly educated congregation. The pastor has an ‘I am in total control here’ attitude. His idea of lay involvement in parish matters is for us to baby sit in the basement during the 11:15 mass. Nothing wrong with that, but it reveals his limited view of involvement by the laity in parish administration. He is a Holy Cross graduate, former Fidelity investment employee, former chaplain in the military, and now our pastor. Sorry to say, his attention to every little performance detail that goes on during Mass creates a similarly mechanical response from those in attendance.

As a 71 year old, cradle, life-long practicing Catholic, I now realize that the real beauty of the Catholic Church is in its sacramental nature, i.e., our religious experience is not dependent on the words or actions of any one particular priest, pastor, bishop or pope. Our relationship with God through the sacraments supercedes whatever clerical disappointments or issues we must endure at any particular time or place.

Of course, it would be nice to see the talents, education, and experience of the laity put to good use inside the Church instead of being applied to more welcoming service organizations outside the Church as I now must do. I doubt that I¹ll see any change in my lifetime, but will keep supporting VOTF in the hope that some future generation will see the vision and changes VOTF is working towards.”

Jay Davis

“ Regarding last month’s letter from the three Fall River, MA priests, how can anyone follow such men after all they have to say about the Church crisis in their long diatribe about how awful VOTF is that ‘the scandals… grew within a general culture that was taking its moral obligations before God less seriously.’ They blame it all on the outrageous culture in which we live but they live in it too and are just as responsible as we are.

Leaders do not blame others and threaten - they ask questions and listen. Imagine what these men would have to do if they had to make a decision by themselves and stand up for themselves. ‘Embrace authentic Catholic teaching’ to them means follow, don't think and certainly don't lead. We can do so much better than that. VOTF has given me the opportunity to thoughtfully assess my faith, what it is and what it means – it has been the most exciting opportunity in my faith life!”

Kathy Mullaney, Wayland, MA

”I keep asking myself why I made no response to stories of priest abuse, which I became aware of many years ago. What did I think? Did I assume the Church had resolved those problems? Did I think they were isolated cases? Did I not care enough to try to become more knowledgeable? I do feel so ashamed. I now do my small part for VOTF. I will never understand how so many people can still remain complacent around the recent events, programs, settlements, etc., promoted by Catholic bishops to resolve the Church crisis. It is equally difficult for me to understand some others who are openly hostile to VOTF. I'm grateful for Mr. O'Brien's response and hopeful that there will be some enlightenment. If it weren't for VOTF, I'm not sure I would still be a practicing Catholic.”

Gail Collins

“Those who don't attempt to understand our outrage can never be reached. The President of Holy Cross College said recently, ‘Don't be afraid of the truth; it comes from God.’ It is not the responsibility of VOTF to prove its legitimacy. It is the responsibility of the complainers to prove that VOTF is not orthodox. Professor O'Brien speaks to the point better than I.” Ken Furlong

”O'Brien (who doesn't appear to have been too successful in reforming the behavior of a significant number of the students at HC) fails to address the strong tilt towards ‘liberal’ ideologues at various VOTF meetings. As the folk mass crowd disappears, so will VOTF.”

Vincent

And more letters:

”I joined VOTF because I had too many decades of this same ‘blather’ (we want the laity to participate, to contribute and to do as they are told.) It is going to be difficult change an institution that is organized like an army, but at least you are trying. The days of ‘who are you to question me? I am the PASTOR’ should be over; but it will probably be another generation before we really get renewal. Keep up the good work.”

Harold Wilkinson, New York City, NY

“I logged onto your site for the first time in a while and noticed two great improvements. First, the format is so easy to use and crams in such variety. Second, the content is right on and comprehensive, and is not afraid to publish contrarian views. This is the best way to challenge the claim that we are just another Call to Action group. Stick to this approach and the grass-roots members will either eventually follow or fall away, which is OK too.”

Bob

“I just want to say 'thanks' again for the great new-year newsletter! It has so much information and gives us ideas to pursue here in the ValleyVOTF. At the same time it keeps me connected to the home base and broader community. Jim Post has just the right way to say things to be positive and at the same time honest as to what is needed – an uphill hike-shaping the future.”

Suzanne Battos

”I remember VOTF in prayer, with gratitude in my heart.

I understand that any crusade has to be limited in its scope, yet priest/clergy sexual abuse is far from the only clergy abuse experienced in the life of the Church. How many teachers, principals, religious education directors, and other parish ministers have experienced faith-rending pain at the hand of the same ministers who have turned their faces away from the tears of anguish shed by sex abuse victims?

How many have experienced behaviors from their priests and bishops that are illegal in the real world? Public schools (because of union pressure) treat their employees with more justice and fairness than Church schools. In the real world people being ‘terminated’ are frequently escorted off the employer's property, their door locks are changed, and they are given an hour to clean away personal effects. But we aren't working for the real world; we're working for the Kingdom. We should be better than that, expect better than that, and do better than that. These behaviors are inexcusable. When are those-who-would-be-shepherd going to place more importance on pastoral care than fear of lawsuits? In my experience, it has been difficult to continue any semblance of full active participation in the Church. This is due in part to my understanding of Church – that we are the Church, the People of God.

While the ‘CEO's’ of the Church act with impunity, the Church has sat back and allowed it to happen. Sadly, I, too, saw the abuses for years and felt powerless to do anything about it. Then it happened to me. Now I don't know if I'll ever be able to stand at the table again with people who may not stand with me when I need them the most. And in my heart, I know you, VOTF understand the pain and emptiness of a heart once burning in the service of the Lord.”

William Farrand

”Congratulations on the content and quality of the January issue. Good coverage, interesting reading, fair reporting.”

J. A. Butler, Maryland

“It is really pitiful that so many of the bishops and priests still do not get it. Fr. Doyle and the NCR warned the bishops almost 20 years ago. They did not pay attention. How can these priests talk about sexual morality when too large a number of their confreres did terrible things to children, many priests covered up for their fellow priests and the bishops ‘for the good of the church’ did such a terrible service to the ‘simple laity’ or the ‘children of the church ‘ as they liked to refer to us. It will take many years for trust to be established. After all, the Reformation started just because indulgences were being sold. This is much worse.”

”I think VOTF would be making a big mistake and shortening its existence if it only concentrates on the pedophile scandal. Don't get me wrong, this was your shining moment and if you hadn't taken the lead on this issue, it still might be under the rug.

However, I think this scandal will subside. We as Catholics, however, must stay vigilant about it and never let it happen again. There are other things we can and must do.

We must hold the Church to strict accountability on its finances. In this age of high taxes and financial pressures, people want to know where their money is going. As we learned in the pedophile scandal, priests have the same frailties that we all have and they need our help as much as we need theirs. We would be letting them go down the path of destruction again if we don't monitor their finances.

This includes the Vatican. We all want the Papacy to be a highly respected and admired institution not because of its material beauty but because of its inner beauty. As good a man as this Pope may have been, he did not show good leadership in the pedophile scandal. Only God can judge him but we need to be concerned with how God will judge us as individuals and how we monitored the Church's activities will be one of those judgments.”

Vincent Curcuru

”The thoughts shared by Bill Breidenbach (In the Vineyard, January 2004, “Letters to the Editor”)are powerful not only in their specifics, but in their general proposition that the road to ‘process improvement’ (to borrow from many management science texts) begins in openness. Approaches such as honest surveys – not concocted questions, carefully structured to yield the author's desired results – and open dialogue are a minimum beginning, but they must feel extraordinarily threatening to a hierarchy just waiting for all this to ‘blow over.’

We can see parallels in the business world. Openness is fraught with enormous risk in the minds of those frozen within the autocratic model. Scott Adams has enormous fun with this fear in ‘Dilbert.’ But beneath Adams’ humor rests such unsettling truth that we (worker and manager alike) truly shudder as we read. From our observations of business hierarchical foibles, however, I wonder if we can't draw some understanding and perhaps even Christian empathy for the Church hierarchy. The question becomes, how can men who just don't get it and are fearfully hanging on by their fingernails be moved?

I think the answer rests in lay persistence. Sending a clear message up the ‘ladder’ that we are here and are forever changed, having been awakened from child-like acceptance of all hierarchical pronouncements by the recent disclosures and Church's shameful non-response until pressured by the laity, the media and the courts. As mature adults, we see a hierarchy that is, after all, just human, in spite of vestments and ceremony, just as it has been throughout Church history. The hierarchy contains elements of greatness and failure, of humility and hubris, of poverty and avarice.

‘Church’ is an inclusive, searching and learning community, not a totalitarian state of a subjugated citizenry under a ruling class. We seek learned wisdom and guidance in our difficult faith journey, and accountability, not angry pronouncements and admonitions that are self-serving.

There is not just one problem, and a pay-off won't make it all go away – things can not silently go back to ‘before.’ The monetary award is only a partial compensation to those unspeakably wronged.

We must support the brave priests, alone in their struggle to save the Church, Christ's way and the faith of their flock. Can we imagine how far out on a limb they must feel?

More than anything else, we must show our bishops loving persistence and steadfastness of purpose to lead them away from hubris and towards self-questioning and spiritual (rather than political) discernment. In the end, they must come to internalize the need for change, and truly believe in their hearts that either they, or their replacements, must learn that power flows upwards from the community and not down from an alleged authority. At the same time we in VOTF must also listen and not be guilty of hubris ourselves.”

John Cadigan

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