Summer Action: Ask Your Bishop for New Pastoral Provision
Recently Voice of the Faithful sent a petition to U.S. bishops asking that they seek a new pastoral provision to ordain married Catholic men. Such a provision, already extended to married ministers who convert to our Roman Catholic religion, would go a long way towards addressing significant problems in the 21st century Church: dwindling number of priests, closing and merged parishes, clericalism, lack of access to the sacraments...

Now it's your turn.

Organize a few friends in your parish this summer, use the materials and guidelines we provide, and ask your bishop for a meeting to discuss a new pastoral provision. All the ingredients you need are here, in the Action Plan for 2013. Just add people!
Also be sure to let us know your progress -- when you request a meeting, what the response is, what happens during the meeting. (You will find details in the Action Plan for sending the information to us.)

VOTF Joins in Sponsoring Catholic Tipping Point
Fr. Helmut Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, a movement organized in 2006 to address an increasing shortage of priests, will be on a national speaking tour this summer.

His “Call to Disobedience,” signed by a majority of Austrian priests, has brought new attention and momentum to addressing the problems in the Catholic Church. Today, he leads a movement that recognizes the Holy Spirit among the laity and the necessity of reforming church governance. Join Helmut Schüller and Catholics across the country in a
new season of dialogue.

VOTF is one of the sponsors of the tour. For information on the national tour:
http://www.CatholicTippingPoint.org

Affiliate News

Submitted by Clare Keane
Each year since 2002, the Winchester Area (MA) VOTF affiliate has celebrated its continued existence during the month of May, roughly the time frame in which it held its first meetings. Over the years, we have welcomed to this anniversary meeting outstanding speakers, VOTF officers, academics, priests of integrity, who have all reminded us why we are here and urged us to keep the faith and change the church. 

This year, 2013, we opted for something different. To mark the 10-year anniversary of VOTF, the national organization solicited reflections from members and collected them in the remarkable volume Voices: Telling Our Stories. In preparation for our anniversary meeting, we asked our members to select a favorite passage from the book, written either by themselves or by somebody else, and read it aloud to the whole group. 

What transpired that night was an extraordinarily sacred hour during which we heard words of inspiration, courage, and comfort from our fellow Catholics. It felt like a retreat, a guided meditation, a prayer service, and it certainly bonded us as a group.

We are thankful to all of the gifted writers who submitted these powerful passages.  We urge other affiliates to try something similar at a meeting. You might read your own story or a passage by someone else which affected you deeply. The exercise will validate why you persevere, and reinforce the conviction that we do not travel this road alone.

Commentary
By Donna B. Doucette, Executive Director

On July 1, the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) published an “advanced unedited version” of “issues to be taken up with the consideration of the second periodic report of the Holy See” on its progress meeting the aims of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. CRC was established to monitor the progress of those who signed the Convention, as the Vatican did, on meeting the obligations undertaken via the Convention.

If the Vatican actually responded with information to meet the request, it would easily provide the most complete current record of the child sex abuse perpetrated worldwide by clergy, brothers, and nuns, as well as the hierarchy’s response to that abuse.

But the scope of the request stands in stark contrast to the reporting format the CRC specified as well as the time limit for the response. Taken together, the scope and time limit leads one to wonder whether CRC seriously expects a response. Specifically, the CRC itemizes 11 different categories of information it requires but the response is supposed to be only “30 pages maximum,” and it all should be submitted by Nov. 1, 2013.

How absurd are the length and time limits? You can judge for yourself by reading the full list of what’s requested. But here are two examples. Item 8 calls for a complete report on the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland—and there are three sub-categories that say the proceedings and names plus all compensation must be detailed. Another item, #11, is even more comprehensive. It calls for details on all abuse cases, reports about those cases, penal actions and the proceedings conducted under canon law, steps taken to cooperate with civil authorities, instructions given to all levels of clergy to ensure the abuse is reported properly, and so on through six subsets of detailed information. All in a maximum of 30 pages.

Even if the Vatican provided the requested information, it still would leave shrouded any such cases that occurred prior to the “reporting period” (roughly this century, as opposed to the 20th century). Nevertheless, if the Vatican does reply with the requested data, it would be an enormous step towards finally acknowledging and addressing the harm done by secret transfers, failed accountability, and cover-ups in the clergy sex abuse scandal.

For an OpEd by an attorney who has conducted cases for the CRC, see this web page.

Pope Francis and the “Globalization of Indifference”
Pope Francis's first official visit outside of Rome was to the poor. He recently visited the island of Lampedusa, just off Sicily, which has become the first port of refuge for thousands of North African refugees, seeking a better life.

In his moving homily the Pope used the biblical example of Cain and Abel to remind us that God asks of us, “Where is your brother?” It is a question asked in the light of the plight of so many who suffer today. “This is not a question addressed to others,” said the Pope. “It is a question addressed to me, to you, to each one of us.” The pope inveighed against the “globalization of indifference,” which keeps so many people poor and marginalized. 

He added: “We see a person, on the brink of death, laying out on the street and we think ‘poor man.’ Yet we carry on with our day. We think, it’s not my responsibility ... and we feel justified by this notion. Who has cried for these people who lost their lives on a boat? For the young mothers who traveled with their children? For those men who are looking for means to support their families? We are a society that has forgotten the experience of shedding tears, of suffering amid the globalization of indifference.”

Finally, Pope Francis begged God for forgiveness for the indifference that the world often shows the poor: “O Lord, in this Liturgy, a Liturgy of repentance, we ask forgiveness for the indifference towards so many brothers and sisters, we ask forgiveness for those who are pleased with themselves, who are closed in on their own well-being in a way that leads to the anesthesia of the heart, we ask you, Father, for forgiveness for those who with their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!”

To see a video of Pope Francis at Lampedusa, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5HZhVm8jsM#at=55

Focus

Highlighting issues we face working together to Keep the Faith, Change the Church

TOP STORIES

Milwaukee Archdiocese Releases Details in Clergy Sex Cases
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has released 6,000 pages of documents related to clergy sex abuse, including the personnel files of more than three dozen priests and the depositions of church leaders such as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, former Milwaukee archbishop.
 -- A Church Coming to Terms with Abusers in Its Midst
 -- Weakland: Milwaukee Bishops Didn’t Disclose Accused Abusers
 -- Dolan Sought to Protect Church Assets, Files Show
 -- Milwaukee Documents Show Dolan Asked to Transfer Funds
 -- Cardinal Dolan and the Sexual Abuse Scandal
 -- Cardinal Dolan Hid $57 Million from Sex Abuse Victims
 -- Milwaukee Archdiocese Files Show Pressure on Dolan
 -- One Priest’s Sex Abuse Case Marked Turning Point
 -- 1993 Weakland Deposition Caused Sex Abuse Survivors to Unite
 -- Milwaukee Documents Show Church Was Slow to Act on Abusive Priests
 -- Archdiocese of Milwaukee Documents
 -- Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s Statement on Release of His Deposition
The Church’s Errant Shepherds
Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles. The archdioceses change but the overarching story line doesn’t, and last week Milwaukee had a turn in the spotlight, with the release of roughly 6,000 pages of records detailing decades of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests there, a sweeping, searing encyclopedia of crime and insufficient punishment.

Association of U.S. Catholic Priests Reform Group Charts Pragmatic Path
Rev. Dave Cooper, who leads the 1,000-member Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, said the middle course the 140 delegates charted during their second annual meeting last month reflected a goal of promoting dialogue, not laying down markers for a confrontation with the hierarchy.
-- Association of U.S. Catholic Priests’ Assembly Embraces Vatican II
-- Is a New Movement among Catholic Priests Growing Out of Seattle Roots?
-- Association of U.S. Catholic Priests Considers Resolutions on Church Renewal

Austrian Reform-Minded Priest to Embark on U.S. Tour
Fr. Helmut Schuller, a leader in Austria's call for church reform, is bringing his message to the U.S. this summer in his first American speaking tour. Schuller will begin his "Catholic Tipping Point" tour July 16 in New York and visit 15 cities coast to coast.
-- As Church Infrastructure Shrinks, Rebellious Austrian Priest to Tour U.S.
Read the rest of this issue of Focus by clicking here ...

Book Review
Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal by Michael D’Antonio.
Reviewed by Alice Campanella
VOTF Book Page

Comprehensive, well researched and very readable. D’Antonio describes in vivid and devastating detail the culture in the Catholic Church that allowed the sexual abuse to thrive.
The story begins in the mid ‘80s with a young monsignor, Tom Doyle, who was asked by the Vatican ambassador to the U.S., Rev. Pio Laghi, to look into a multimillion-dollar payment approved by a Louisiana diocese to settle law suits against a priest in Lafayette.  As Doyle delves into the case he finds that the situation in Louisiana is not an isolated case and attempts to warn the ambassador of the potential for law suits that could financially cripple the institutional Church. But the bishops were not ready to acknowledge the problem.

Much of this book is seen through the eyes of flamboyant lawyer Jeff Anderson, making this narrative a page turner. The facts lay the blame at the feet of the hierarchy and the clerical culture that allowed predator priests to use their status to commit crimes.

If you only read one book about the crisis in the Catholic Church, this should be your choice.

Questions, Comments?

Please send them to Siobhan Carroll, Vineyard Editor, at Vineyard@votf.org. Unless otherwise indicated, I will assume comments can be published as Letters to the Editor.