Washington, D.C. Metro Voice of the Faithful, to Sponsor Symposium to Assess the Catholic Church's Response to the Sexual Abuse

On the eve of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Voice of the Faithful affiliates in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. are sponsoring a symposium "Are the Wounds Healing?" The symposium will assess the Catholic Church's progress of reconciliation and healing since the clergy sexual abuse scandal became public. The participants will describe what is critical for genuine healing with respect to survivors, bishops, clergy, and laypersons, and evaluate the progress.

The principal speaker will be David J. O'Brien, Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. O'Brien will be followed by Barbara Blaine, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Reverend Donald Cozzens, pastoral theologian, psychologist and author, and Jim Post, president of Voice of the Faithful.

The symposium, open to the public, will take place on Sunday, November 14, 2004, at 1 p.m. at the National 4-H Conference Center located at 7100 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland. A donation of $10 is requested.

For more information, please contact Joe Maher at (301) 963-8165 or jrmaher1@aol.com , Evelyn Mercantini at (703) 620-9295 or esmerc48@comcast.net , or Judy Miller at (301) 330-4211 or chuck-judy@starpower.net .

You can ensure that this important event is a success in the following ways:

Please Join Us. Your participation is critical to making this an engaged and informative discussion.
Please forward this e-mail to at least 5 friends and family members who are also concerned with addressing this important issue facing the Catholic Church.
Please support this event - If you are interested in making a donation to support this symposium, please send it to Evelyn Mercantini, 2212 Spinnaker Court, Reston, VA 20191.
Hope to see you in DC!