September 2002 Call to Action News

CTA backs Voice of the Faithful as 4,200 gather in Boston

"It is remarkable that this new group, using volunteers, could draw 4,000 people," CTA co-director Dan Daley told the press. "It is a wonderful coming of age of another strong lay voice in the reform movement."

He had just attended the July 20 inaugural convention in Boston of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), founded in a Wellesley, Mass., parish hall in February in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal. With a motto, "Keep the Faith, Change the Church," VOTF has attracted 22,000 Catholics to put their e-mail addresses on the roster of a movement with the threefold purpose of supporting the abuse victims, supporting priests of integrity, and "shaping structural change in the Catholic Church."

The vast majority of conferees July 20 were from Massachusetts, but over 600 came from 35 other states, mainly in New England. Over 70 parish-based local chapters of VOTF have formed, particularly in the Boston archdiocese where Cardinal Bernard Law has been in the eye of the sex abuse storm.

Hundreds of CTA members attended the VOTF conference. Jan Leary, coordinator of CTA in Massachusetts, has served on the VOTF founding leadership council.

CTA, VOTF eye collaboration

Daley and other CTA board and staff have met with VOTF leaders about future collaboration. "CTA and VOTF are united in working for strong lay participation in church decision-making, especially on local levels," Daley said. "But we each have distinct agendas which in the long run can benefit the overall reform movement." He gave some examples: "VOTF has chosen not to speak out on related issues that are contrary to Vatican positions, such as married priests, women priests, and birth control for married couples. CTA has a long history and current programs on such matters. And since over three-fourths of Catholics agree with us on these topics, they will be central to the overall lay emergence that is dawning. These are exciting times."

Survivors, priests, structures

The Boston conference addressed all three VOTF goals. Sexual abuse victims addressed the assembly, and two major survivor networks, SNAP and Linkup, played visible roles. Priests of integrity were honored. VOTF's first priest award went to Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, coauthor of a 1985 report to the U.S. bishops about the impending crisis. His brutally frank speech said some bishops have "an unbridled addiction to power," but held out hope that the disaster would cause real change via "a probing scrutiny of the governmental system that caused this to happen."

Toward VOTF's principal structural goal - lay voice in decision-making - the conference christened the new Voice of Compassion Fund, which will receive and redirect individual or group donations from people who wish to divert their support from Cardinal Law's annual appeal, or similar appeals in other dioceses. The Fund is administered by the National Catholic Community Foundation in Maryland. (Law immediately said archdiocesan programs like Catholic Charities would not accept money funneled through the VOTF pipeline, but the next day Catholic Charities board members said they would.)

At least two bishops - William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., and William Murphy of Rockville Centre (Long Island), N.Y. - have already opposed formation of VOTF chapters by forbidding their meetings on church property. Bridgeport's previous bishop, Edward Egan, now the cardinal in New York, is accused of covering up clergy sex abuse. Murphy is former vicar general in Boston and a co-defendant with Cardinal Law in sex abuse lawsuits.

For more information about VOTF, log on to http://www.votf.org