Letters to the Editor
Members Speak Out In Letters to Local Papers
VOTF member, John Ryan, submitted the following letter to several Illinois papers:
In January 2004, the National Lay Review Board established by the Catholic Conference of U.S. Bishops and chaired by now Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke counseled the bishops as follows:
“Many diocesan attorneys counseled Church leaders to not meet with, or apologize to victims even when the allegations had been substantiated on grounds that apologies could be used against the Church in court. The Review Board believes that offering solace to those who have been harmed by a minister of the Church should have taken precedence over a potential incremental increase in the risk of liability.”
Such counsel fell on deaf ears in the case of Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky. Just months later he adopted a policy of not meeting with victims, refusing to negotiate settlements, and relying upon statutes of limitations to prevent victims from litigating.
Read the rest of John’s letter
VOTF member, Janet Hauter’s letter was published on 2/3/2009 in Chicago’s Daily Herald (Suburban edition)
Headlines are filled with corruption after corruption incidents in our state. Will it ever end? I subscribe not until the citizens of this great state say "Enough!"
The recent decision allowing records to be sealed in yet another tragic case related to convicted pedophile and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack is evidence of the continued insensitivity of our Cardinal and his staff. The majority have retained positions or been promoted and this case did not demand sealed depositions - unless there is more to hide.
I am incredibly disappointed in this decision as it shields us again from corruption in this Archdiocese.
Read the rest of Janet’s letter
Voice or Renewal/Lay Education Lenten Reflection
Submitted by Anne Southwood
As we did during the Advent season, VOR/LE (Voice of Renewal/Lay Education Working Group) will again do a Sunday Gospel Reflection Series during Lent. You can join VOR yahoo group discussion list members, offering reflection on how each Lenten Sunday gospel speaks to you by subscribing to the VOR/LE list:
VOR_VOTF-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
The Teutonic word Lent has been used since Anglo-Saxon times to translate the Latin term/concept quadragesima (of forty days). Results below of a simple online search of Lent reflect different approaches this pre-Easter season:
In the time of Gregory the Great (590-604) there were apparently at Rome six weeks of six days each, making thirty-six fast days in all, which St. Gregory, who is followed therein by many medieval writers, describes as the spiritual tithing of the year, thirty-six days being approximately the tenth part of three hundred and sixty-five. At a later date the wish to realize the exact number of forty days led to the practice of beginning Lent upon our present Ash Wednesday.
From Catholic Encyclopedia, www.NewAdvent.org
Since the Church has restored the rite of initiating adults into the Christian faith, Lent has taken on a different meaning—one that goes back to the fourth and fifth centuries. At that time, the 40 days before Easter were the final stage of preparation for those about to be baptized. The rest of the Church prayed and fasted in solidarity with them.
Today, with the presence in most Catholic parishes of a group of adults visibly making ready to receive the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil, Lent has regained that "baptismal" emphasis. We still can decide on a Lenten observance—fasting, prayer, almsgiving—but we do it with the purpose of recalling our Baptism, of deepening our commitment to Christ. And we do it in solidarity with those preparing to be baptized or received into the Church.
From www.Franciscan Radio.org
From the 2009 Benedict XVI Lenten message:
‘In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who ’sees in secret, and will reward you’. He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’. The true fast is thus directed to eating the ‘true food’, which is to do the Father’s will. If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat’, the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy .
From www.usccb.org
