Notebook Voices of the faithful
Gallicho, Grant
NOTEBOOK VOICES OF THE FAITHFUL Some louder than others Twenty dollars got you in the door for a day-long conference on reforming a Catholic Church hobbled by its sex-abuse crisis. Five months...
...Voice sees itself as a centrist association...
...You have no right," he went on, "to judge them...or feel Catholically smug....All you get is the right to beg their forgiveness...
...Of the forty-two hundred participants, 623 hailed from outside Massachusetts...
...Catholic bishops...
...Austin's disturbing suggestion that only those "who know what it means to suffer" (namely, SNAP members) can make claims about what the church needs is a recipe for futility...
...As the Reverend William Kremmel began the closing Mass, he said that he was honored to have been invited, but that he hoped one day we'd see a married woman doing the same thing...
...The Voice of Compassion fund has thus far collected $10,000, which it was going to turn over to the Archdiocese of Boston through a nonprofit intermediary-though it would not pay diocesan "administrative" costs...
...Susan Renahan, a member of SNAP, closed the first morning session with an impassioned address, declaring, "We do not need your voice...
...Thirty-five states were represented, along with seven countries...
...Quo vadis...
...But however justified that estrangement is, this makes their relationship to and knowledge of the church limited and dated...
...By day's end, that excitement would be tempered by a strenuous challenge to VOTF's agenda issued by victims of clergy sexual abuse...
...Austin's speech was, in effect, an indictment of the VOTF project itself: multitudes gathered, he said disdainfully, "to honor your highly strategized, thoroughly debated, very quiet agenda...
...This did not go over well with an audience sympathetic to the victims of sexual abuse and outraged over the treatment they have received...
...VOTF leadership needs to navigate carefully if it wants to avoid the fate of other reform groups, dismissed as fringe liberals and marginalized within the church...
...Perhaps the biggest hurdle Voice faces in the long run is its promise to "support those who have been abused...
...This wasn't just a meeting...
...Just before lunch, goal three was discussed: the amorphous "structural change" issue...
...This will be difficult if those who have been abused aren't interested in supporting VOTF...
...Four thousand-plus people gathered to talk about what they could do to help govern the church...
...2. Support priests of integrity...
...The fourth was something else...
...It was a liberal house...
...In order to achieve that, the group has identified three goals for itself: "1...
...SNAP is composed of many justifiably disaffected Catholics...
...A five-person panel went to work on the big questions...
...it was a movement...
...The congregation laughed in agreement...
...On July 20, forty-two hundred Catholics showed up at Boston's Hynes Convention Center for VOTF's first convention...
...They picketed, he said, because they considered the VOTF meeting "too little, too late, and too much about you...
...The founding members recognized that the outrage ignited by the sex-abuse crisis cut across the usual conservative/liberal divide, and organized the group around that fact...
...Voice of the Faithful may have legs, but they aren't youthful ones...
...3. Shape structural change within church...
...A good question, and one that Voice of the Faithful must work hard to answer...
...Vigorous applause punctuated many of the addresses from a distinguished roster of speakers...
...There were practical offerings, too: the Voice of Compassion Boston Fund is an alternative vehicle for Boston-area Catholics to give to local Catholic charities...
...Not to mention the young and minorities...
...It includes a how-to guide, complete with a sample prayer, agenda, and action plan-and words urging measure and caution in proceeding...
...Support those who have been abused...
...Sensus fidelium-the sense of the faithful...
...Those goals made up the day's agenda...
...But movements must be defined, and VOTF has a number of hurdles to jump if it is to succeed in its mission: "to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church" (see www.votf.org...
...Austin finally asked his audience...
...Two days later, on July 22, archdiocesan spokeswoman Donna Mor-rissey announced that Cardinal Bernard Law would not accept the donation "because it undercuts [the archdiocese's] customary means of financial support," and does not "recognize the role of the archbishop and his responsibility in providing for the various programs and activities of the church...
...If Voice of the Faithful wants improved lay participation in church governance, it will have to reach out more vigorously to conservatives and it will have to be able to speak to and work with bishops...
...Yet, so long as its leadership can stay its center course, avoid the Gnosticism of a sufferers-only club, broaden its membership base, connect with young and nonwhite Catholics, and actually work out practical measures "to shape structural change within the church," this fledgling movement might have a chance...
...Arthur Austin, introduced as a "poet and a prophet," explained why SNAP members were protesting outside the convention center...
...Bridging that divide is still a work in progress...
...And there is another practical goal: to put a chapter of VOTF in every U.S...
...After months of shocking news of clergy sex abuse, this crowd of mostly white, late-middle-aged suburban lay Catholics was visibly excited to be doing something positive...
...The professionalism of the video presentations, lighting, and sound was impressive...
...Their "dilemma of conscience" has reduced pledges to the Cardinal's Appeal from last June's $7.5 million to this June's $4.3 million...
...Five months ago, Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) met for the first time in a church basement in a Boston suburb...
...According to Paul Baier, two-thirds of VOTF's time in securing conference speakers was spent trying to line up conservatives...
...The auditorium took on the air of a national political convention when VOTF steering committee member Paul Baier read off the most-represented parishes and states...
...Three of the presentations were moving, honest, and brief...
...Mid-morning brought the first Priest of Integrity Award to Reverend Thomas Doyle, O.P., who was one of three authors of a 1985 report on the problem of clergy sexual abuse that was circulated confidentially among U.S...
...The proceedings began and ended with presentations from members of Survivors Network of the Abused by Priests (SNAP...
...If members of SNAP (or other victims' groups) insist on scolding an audience full of supporters, Voice of the Faithful's days could be numbered...
...Grant Gallicho...
...Her own rage was barely concealed, and it felt like it was directed at the audience...
...A seventeen-page "Parish Voice Starter Kit" can be found on the Web site...
...It is an instrument that could help parishes and lay people assess whether their diocese is abiding by the rules the bishops adopted...
...At the final session of the day, four SNAP members spoke...
...parish...
...VOTF also unveiled a report card designed to evaluate a bishop's compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Young People adopted by the bishops' conference on June 14...
...It is time no longer to give sheep as the primary image of the laity in the Catholic Church," said Boston College theologian Stephen Pope...
...Some SNAP members seemed bent on needlessly shaming people, overlooking the fact that their own views of church reform can be quite narrow...
...You need ours....We don't want your voice unless you can express your rage...
Vol. 129 • August 2002 • No. 14
