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VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL TO MEET IN NEWARK
ARCHDIOCESE DESPITE BAN BY ARCHBISHOP
Whippany, NJ – June 20, 2003 – Seeking to bring its message
to Catholics in Essex County, where it is banned from meeting on
Roman Catholic property by Archbishop John J. Myers of the Newark
archdiocese, Voice of the Faithful/Northern New Jersey (VOTF/NNJ)
announced today that it will hold its next meeting at Holy Trinity
Episcopal Church, 363 Hillsdale Avenue in Hillsdale on Monday, July
14, at 7:30 p.m. The featured speaker at the meeting will be Eileen
P. Flynn, Ph.D., a noted author and currently Professor of Theology
at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. This VOTF/NNJ event is free
and open to the public.
Voice of the Faithful is a Newton, MA-based organization, formed
in response to the clergy sex abuse scandals, of 30,000 concerned,
mainstream Catholics from across the U.S., who support the teachings
of the Church. 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.
The nearly 400 members of VOTF’s affiliate in Northern New Jersey
(VOTF/NNJ) have been actively involved in numerous efforts to achieve
the group’s three goals: to support victim/survivors of abuse, support
priests of integrity, and shape structural change within the Catholic
Church.
While he has never met with representatives of VOTF, Archbishop
Myers alleged in an October 2002 column published in the Catholic
Advocate, the archdiocesan newspaper of Newark, that VOTF is “presenting
an agenda that is anti-Church and, ultimately, anti-Catholic.” He
went on to ban the group from using “any archdiocesan or parish
property, facility or assets.” Members of VOTF/NNJ who belong to
parishes within the Newark archdiocese have been attending meetings
held at Catholic churches in the Paterson diocese, where there is
no ban.
Given this situation, VOTF/NNJ representatives turned to faith
communities outside of the Catholic Church in order to secure facilities
in which to meet within the Newark Archdiocese. Fr. John J. Negrotto,
Rector of Holy Trinity responded enthusiastically by inviting VOTF
to meet at his Episcopal church. Commenting on this situation, Fr.
Negrotto said, “It seems to me that Jesus would not only have found
a supper room for such a meeting, but also would have been physically
present there to hear the cries of His people. It is my pleasure
to make our facilities available. May this be the beginning of a
spiritual relationship between us which may help to bind the wounds
and heal the hearts of all those in need.”
At the meeting, Dr. Flynn will address the subject, “Catholic Crisis:
What Went Wrong?" A prolific author, as well as a respected educator,
her most recent publication is Catholics at a Crossroads: coverup,
crisis, and cure (Paraview Press, 2003), signed copies of which
will be available for purchase. Commenting on the subject matter
of her upcoming talk, Dr. Flynn noted, ”The major factors in the
crisis facing the Church—priest sexual abuse, hierarchical complicity,
and financial misconduct—are now well known. Today's pressing challenge
is to understand how this happened. The reasons for the crisis need
to be identified so that the Catholic Church can correct the corruption
in its own house.”
For more information regarding VOTF/NNJ and Dr. Flynn’s talk, please
visit the website at www.votfnnj.org
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