VOTF CONFERENCE DRAWS 1,500 CATHOLIC LAITY
DESPITE AD BANS
Mon., Oct. 27, 2003, Bronx, NY-Approximately1500 members of the Catholic laity from across the country gathered on the Bronx campus of Fordham University on Sat., Oct. 25, to discuss responses to the sexual abuse crisis affecting the Catholic Church in America and to explore avenues of cooperation between lay Catholics, clergy and hierarchy in repairing, healing and renewing the Church.
Entitled Being Catholic in the 21st Century: Crisis, Challenge, Opportunity, the full-day Conference was organized by Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) affiliates in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, with support from the VOTF national office. Attendees heard speakers-including survivors of abuse, prominent authors and academics, and members of the clergy-call for openness and accountability as a new generation of lay leaders steps forward to share the responsibility of building the Catholic Church in the 21st century.
The turnout was all the more impressive considering the resistance encountered by Conference organizers in the months and weeks leading up to the event. Five separate Catholic diocesan newspapers refused organizers’ requests to place paid advertising announcing the Conference to area Catholics.
The newspapers refusing to accept advertising for the Conference included Catholic
New York, serving the New York Archdiocese; The Holy Spirit, in the Metuchen Diocese of NJ; The
Beacon in the Diocese of Paterson, NJ; The Monitor in the Diocese of Trenton, NJ; and The
Tablet in the Brooklyn Diocese.
Highlights of the educational and prayerful day-long program included a probing keynote address by Eugene Kennedy, author of The
Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality, that challenged the audience to go beyond the headlines and understand the deepest roots of the sexual abuse scandal. Twenty sessions featuring nearly 100 speakers and panelists addressed the crises, challenges and opportunities facing the American Church. Session topics included: Restoring Trust and Credibility, Protecting Our Children, Responsibility of the Laity, Sexuality and the Modern Priesthood.
“We wanted this day to be as inclusive as possible, echoing the many voices in the rich mainstream of American Catholicism,” said Joseph F. O’Callaghan, chair of the Voice of the Faithful affiliate in the Diocese of Bridgeport. “Voice of the Faithful stands squarely at the center of the Church. We love our Church deeply and are ready to defend her if attacked, but we are also prepared to confront what must change. Catholics hold many positions on different issues, but when it comes to sexual abuse, we stand as one.”
The Conference featured a number of singular moments:
- The three Conference Co-Chairs, Maria Coffey of New York, Robert Mulligan of Connecticut and Ann Zouvelekis of New Jersey presented a collective communication they were sending on behalf of all Conference participants, calling on the bishops of America to welcome the laity as partners in building the American Church in the 21st century, as opposed to the active and passive resistance encountered by Voice of the Faithful to date in some dioceses as it pursues its work.
- The riveting testimony of survivors of sexual abuse, both in plenary sessions before all attendees, and in other interactions throughout the day.
- A powerful closing liturgy that concluded the Conference proceedings, in which laypersons, who are an essential part of the Body of Christ, rejoiced in their fellowship with clergy and hierarchy in the great task of building the Kingdom of God.
Open to all people of good faith, the Conference was the work of Voice of the Faithful, which took root in early 2002 in the wake of devastating revelations about the sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston, revelations that eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Law. As if echoing the first American Revolution, the reverberations of that event one year ago continue to be felt across the American landscape. The Conference today in New York is properly understood in the context of these earlier events.
Why diocesan newspapers, created to communicate with Catholics about news of interest to Catholics, would refuse to run paid advertisements for a Conference held at a Catholic university for the benefit of Catholic laity remains a mystery, even to Conference organizers. “We offered to alter our ad in any way in order to meet whatever objections they had,” said Marie Ford Reilly, Conference coordinator. “We were never told what their specific objections were. They just kept turning us down. Thankfully, the faithful Catholics of the tri-state area got the message in other ways, and we had an impressive turnout on Saturday.”
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