VOTF President Mary Pat Fox addresses SNAP National convention
July 22, 2006

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It is an honor to be with you today.

Voice of the Faithful, for those of you who are not familiar with us, is an organization founded because of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Our mission statement 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. Our goals are to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, support priests of integrity and to work for structural change within the church so a crisis like this could never happen again. As an organization we are growing; we have more members in every region of the US than we did just six months ago and we are also active in Australia, Ireland, and Canada.

In our support of survivors Voice of the Faithful partners with SNAP in many ways. You will see a number of ads in the SNAP book sponsored by both Voice of the Faithful National and a number of our affiliates from around the country. You will find VOTF members standing side by side with survivors in front of churches and cathedrals. In June, Barbara Blaine, Gaile Pohlhaus (VOTF Secretary) and I participated in a joint press conference at the Bishop’s Conference. And you will see many of us here today.

We are grateful to you for having the courage to speak out and make us aware of the abuse in our Church. The Catholic laity has for decades passively sat by. You woke us up. You made us understand all was not right with the world. And we had to do something in response. I believe that the laity in the Catholic Church must take on more responsibility – as Christians and as Catholics – within the Church and within society. We must work together to provide a safe environment for children today and for future generations.

Voice of the Faithful currently has two campaigns for accountability underway: Financial Accountability and Protecting Our Children (supporting survivors through legislative reforms). Our view is that if the laity were more involved in the finances of the Church we would have known about the crisis sooner and some children would not have been abused. VOTF is working in 19 states on legislation to improve the laws protecting children from sexual abuse; in some cases that is extending the statute of limitations and providing a look-back window; in others it is mandatory reporting. We are also working to provide our membership with the information needed to fight those opposing this legislation, so that at the local level people are equipped–when an article appears in their newspaper or on the radio or the subject comes up at a family picnic to debate the question–to tell the truth to power. SNAP is also working on legislative reform; we join you in your call for better laws to protect children.

Voice of the Faithful is also committed to working within the Church for change. Our Church has no future if it does not deal honestly with this crisis. For some the best healing takes place when they leave the Church and we understand and respect that. For Voice of the Faithful members we feel that we are the Church and we must make it right. The institutional Church will be around for a long time and we must make it a safe place for children.

I speak for all members of Voice of the Faithful when I say we have enormous respect for survivors and for SNAP and the work you do. We might take different approaches on individual situations to get to our goal of a safe environment for children but we do agree on the goal. VOTF represents many voices; in the situation in Chicago with Cardinal George we have five affiliates who wanted to first try and work with Cardinal George to see if they could work together to make change happen. If it doesn’t work they can still call for his resignation. But they will have done so after trying to work together. If we called for his resignation first we would not be able to even try to dialogue later. I know that many will say we are naïve. But we need to get more people up and out of the pews and to do this we must help them through the process you have already been through– to understand the truth. These affiliates have had one meeting with Cardinal George and are working on a second. They have had some positive responses to their demands and some not so positive. I can tell you this: These people are COMMITTED to providing a safe environment within their Church for their children. They are not letting up; they will continue to push until they see the change that needs to happen implemented and successful with or without Cardinal George.

In closing I can promise you that VOTF will continue to support survivors, individually, in groups and nationally. We will look to partner with you wherever we can. And we will continue to listen–to hear you and to work to bring about change, which will prevent what happened to you from ever happening again.

Thank you.