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Contact: Suzanne Morse 617-680-2131, smorse@votf.org
For Immediate Release
Voice of the Faithful Calls on U.S. Bishops to End Secrecy
around Revised Charter
Organization Delivers Letter to Bishop Skylstad
Expressing "Grave
Disappointment"
June 15, 2005 - Newton, MA and Chicago, IL - Leaders of Voice of the
Faithful are calling on the U.S. Bishops to end the secrecy around the
review of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
Members of the organization of lay Catholics are asking for the Bishops
to be open about the content of the revised Charter, and the process
that the Bishops will used to approve it.
The U.S. Bishops have undertaken a review of the Charter that was passed
in 2002 in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. In January, members
of a Task Force assembled by Voice of the Faithful submitted suggestions
and recommendations to strengthen the Charter to Archbishop Harry Flynn,
chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse. The information sent to
Archbishop Flynn is available in full at Voice of the Faithful's web
site.
The organization expressed their concerns in
a letter to Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, by Voice
of the Faithful president James E. Post. "It was in this month,
three years ago, that the landmark Charter and Norms were created to
protect children in Catholic parishes across the country, and to hold
accountable those responsible for the creation of the clergy sexual abuse
crisis that has so damaged the Catholic Church," said Post. "The
2002 conference in Dallas marks the only time that the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops has heard directly from the survivors of clergy sexual
abuse. The Charter that passed at that extraordinary event represented
the highest hope our Church has had in repairing a wounded community.
Thus, we have felt grave disappointment in the process for review of
the Charter, which to date has not been transparent or inclusive of survivor
and lay input."
The letter was hand-delivered to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops being held this week in Chicago, IL, by Gaile Pohlhaus,
national secretary of Voice of the Faithful. "We remain concerned
that the Bishops have taken this opportunity to weaken the provisions
of the Charter," said Pohlhaus. "That Charter represented the
first step that the Catholic Church in this country took to create meaningful
child safety protections and to hold accountable those who are responsible
for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. As Catholics concerned about the
future of the Church, we must be advocates for a strong Charter that
promotes accountability and justice for the survivor community."
"The Bishops have to continue to work to restore trust in their
leadership," said Suzanne Morse, Communications Manager for Voice
of the Faithful. "The proposal to go to a system of total self-reports
and the weakening of the language around the Bishops role in the clergy
sexual abuse crisis has been a grave disappointment. All Catholics want
to heal from this experience, but healing only comes through identifying
the underlying causes and then taking constructive action to address
them."
//end
About Voice of the Faithful: Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is a worldwide
movement of concerned mainstream Catholics formed in response to the
clergy sexual abuse crisis. The group's mission is 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. Its
goals are to support victim/survivors of abuse, support priests of integrity,
and shape structural change within the Catholic Church in full accordance
and harmony with Church teaching. VOTF's supporting membership exceeds
30,000 registered persons from 50 U.S. states, 39 countries and 207 Parish
Voice affiliates throughout the world.
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