NATIONAL News
Indianapolis Convocation
Update
Our keynote speaker in
Indianapolis is the Church historian Francine Cardman from Weston Jesuit
School of Theology. Francine is an Associate Professor of Historical Theology
and Church History. Her expertise in early Church history, early Church leadership,
the history of Christian spirituality, and ecumenism promises to inform and
energize.
The title of Francine’s
talk is “Re-membering the Church: Participation and Structure Then and Now.” I
asked Francine for her thoughts on that hyphen and her reply “re-minds” all
of us that we are both old and new in this faith. “Re-membering: 1) to call
to mind, to know again, to make a part of oneself in being and doing; 2)
to bring together again, to rejoin separated parts or members, to re-form
and reintegrate, to renew and make whole.
Re-membering is an organic
process of incorporating past and present, the many and the one, both in
oneself and in other bodies of which we are a part. Re-membering the Church
recalls who and how we have been, reviews who and how we are, and re-visions
who and how we might be as Church. The process of re-membering the Church
calls into communion the lost and silenced voices, the forgotten possibilities,
the necessary alternatives from every age so that we might faithfully pray,
think, and witness together as Church for the sake of the gospel and the
life of the world.”
As we have been saying,
you will want to say that you were “there” when Voice of the Faithful gathered
in Indianapolis in July of 2005. Register and
check out additional details on the Convocation
pages at www.votf.org.
“Breaking Up Is Hard To
Do”
Since distributing the
Convocation program, members and registrants have been intrigued by the Saturday
afternoon breakout sessions. We thought it a good idea to provide some guidance
on the format of these breakouts and answer some of the very practical questions
that have surfaced. So, below is our first Q& A assembled by Aimee Carevich
in the Parish Voice office. If you have additional questions, please go to
the web site and
identify the contact person (under Contact
Us) most likely to be able to help you OR write to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
1) How many breakout sessions
can I attend during Saturday afternoon?
Every attendee will choose
only ONE of the nine breakout sessions to participate in for the time between
2:20-5:10pm on Saturday July 9th. Please indicate your first choice session
on your registration form. Each person will receive confirmation about the
group to which they have been assigned at the registration table in Indianapolis.
We will make every attempt to assign people to their first choice sessions,
but we may need to make adjustments due to space constraints.
2) Why can't we participate
in more than one breakout session when we care about more than one of these
issues?
At conferences and conventions
(sponsored by VOTF and other organizations), the intention is for the membership
to absorb information from speakers and trainers and take it back home with
them. At that kind of event, you want to learn as much as you can, and that
means attending as many sessions as possible. At our convocation and leadership
meeting in Indianapolis, the intention is slightly different - for the membership
to do the work of VOTF visioning and strategizing.
The convocation committee
has identified these nine breakout questions as topics people care deeply
about, but we need to know what outcomes we should seek as a national organization,
and how we might get there. This will take the full three hours and will
involve both small and large group discussions and decision-making. To have
people move from one breakout session to another will only postpone our ability
to make decisions, and make it very difficult to emerge with clear, concrete
resolutions for the Sunday plenary. Therefore, we encourage each of you to
choose the topic you are most passionate about and dig in! We need you!
The full Convocation program
is on the web site,
along with accommodations, registration and suggested reading information.
*****The Convocation
Committee welcomes greeters, lectors, singers and Eucharistic Ministers. You
are needed! If you would like to be part of VOTF’s “prayerful voice,” please
be in touch with Susan Troy at prayerfulvoice1@yahoo.com
*****Voice of the Faithful
is eager to have women and men religious join us in Indianapolis, as so many
did in our early days! Please contact Evelyn Mercantini at esmerc48@comcast.net for
special registration information.
Nominees for National Representative
Council
As many already know, the
current Representative Council has voted to re-constitute itself as a more
truly National Council. We have divided the country into 14 regions, following
the USCCB division. Nominees have been sought from each region and are listed
by region. Elections will take place by June 1, and members will vote only
for candidates within their own region. VOTF MEMBERS – HEADS UP!! You will
be receiving the list of candidates for the new National Representative Council,
identified by region, and links to their statements during the week of May
23 so that all voting is tallied by June 1.
[On the listings below,
the parenthetical numbers alongside the states represent the number of seats
available for that region.]
Region 1 – ME, NH, VT,
MA, RI, CT (5) Donna Doucette, Ron DuBois, Mary Freeman, Pat Gomez, Ed Greenan,
Mike Duhigg, Elia Marnik, Jane Merchant, Bob Morris, Bob Ott, Margaret Roylance,
Anne Southwood, Jack Whelan, Tony Wiggins
Region 2 – NY (3) Dan Bartley,
Mary Pat Fox, Phil Megna, Tom Myles, Sheila Peiffer, Ed Wilson
Region 3 – NJ, PA (2) Bud
Bretschneider, William Cully, Brenda Hackett, Susan Smith
Region 4 – DC, DE, MD,
VA (2) Evelyn Mercantini, Rich Moriarty, Bob Stewart
Region 5 – AL, KY, LA,
MS, TN (1) Anne Harrison, Cal Pfeiffer, Susan Vogt,
Region 6 – OH, MI (2) Mary
Collingwood, Edward Friedl
Region 7 – IL, IN, WI (2)
Janet Hauter, Mary Heins, Stephanie McElligott, Genevieve O’Toole
Region 8 – MN, SD, ND (1)
Shari Steffen
Region 9 – IA, KS, MO,
NB (1) David Biersmith, Bob Kaintz
Region 10 – AR, OK, TX
(1) Mark Bennett, Joe Turner
Region 11 – CA, HI, NV
(2) Jim Jenkins, Mary Jane McGraw, Hugh O’Regan, Kathleen Schwartz
Region 12 – AK, ID, MT,
WA, OR (1) Eileen Knoff
Region 13 – AZ, CO, WY,
NM, UT (1) Frank Douglas
Region 14 – FL, GA, NC,
SC (2) Dee Esteva, Margaret Lynch, Rosa Maria Montenegro
VOTF Names Executive
Director – I am pleased to announce that Ray Joyce has accepted the
position of Executive Director. He will begin serving in that role on May
9, 2005.
Ray is a seasoned manager
with 25 years experience primarily in the nonprofit sector. He has spent
the last 12 years at the WGBH Educational Foundation, one of the nation's
foremost public broadcasting stations. While at WGBH, Ray managed services
and programs of varying size and complexity, led strategic planning, fundraising,
operations and marketing activities, volunteered for leadership roles in
diversity and mentoring initiatives and distinguished himself as a change
agent whose interpersonal skills have been lauded by his colleagues. Early
in his career Ray worked in high technology, served in the Peace Corps as
a small business volunteer and led a college's development effort. He also
holds a B.A. from Merrimack College and an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management
from Boston University.
Ray and his wife Michele
have two young children. They are members of St. Zepherin parish in Wayland,
MA where Ray served as chair of the stewardship committee, which focuses
on sacrificial giving as well as increasing volunteers' commitment of time
and talent. He and Michele co-chaired the parish's renovation campaign alongside
pastor Fr. Paul Berube and Frank & Bea O'Connor to raise more than $1
million to completely refurbish the church building. As a Merrimack college
alumni council member Ray helped initiate alumni spiritual retreats. Additionally,
Ray has attended self-directed retreats at a local Trappist monastery and
participated in Cursillo.
Ray continues his involvement
at St. Zepherin with the RCIA team and as a Eucharistic Minister. He and
Michele also put their faith into action through Habitat for Humanity's programs
in Romania and Tucson and Merrimack College's campus ministry efforts in
the Dominican Republic.
Voice of the Faithful welcomes Ray, Michele, and their family!
Talking with the
Vatican - submitted by VOTF vice-president Kris Ward:
The Vatican indicated in
conversations during the interregnum, the time of the Vacant See, and the
early days of Pope Benedict XVI, that reasoned and informed communications
from the laity are considered within the Congregations of the Curia.
The cases for the defrockings
of priests against whom there are credible allegations of sexual abuse of
children and minors are sent by bishops to the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith. During the past year, two canon lawyers from the United States
were added to the staff to help with the workload.
Please consider using your
voice and the combined voices of your affiliate and region to enter into
communication with the Congregation regarding cases in your diocese that
have been sent to the Vatican and are awaiting action.
During the time I was in
Rome, I delivered letters from survivors in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati
with the belief that the Congregation needs to hear the voices of the survivors
themselves as decisions are made concerning the cases. Follow-up to these
letters will also be done.
Here is information on
how to communicate with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Father Augustine J. De
Noia, O.P. is the Under Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctine for
the Faith. He is an American. If you are able to receive Vatican Radio broadcasts,
interviews with Father Augustine are being broadcast this week through www.vaticanradio.com
The Secretary of this congregation,
Father Angelo Amato, may become a principal aide to Pope Benedict XVI as
he was at the Congregation. He has been seen close to the Pope during public
appearances since his election. There is speculation that San Fransico Archbishop
Willaim Levada is being considered as a candidate to head the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna
is the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Wiritten communciation may be addresssed to Father DeNoia and Monsignor Scicluna.
The mailing address is:
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffzio, 00193 Roma, Italy
The minimum postage is
60 cents for one ounce. The fax number from the United States is; 011.39.06.69.88.34.09
(fees will depend on your telephone service).
Additional information
regarding communications with the Congregation for Bishops concerning vacancies
in bishoprics will be available through In the Vineyard and also in discussion
at the Indianapolis Convocation July 8-10. You won't want to miss it!
SNAP National Conference,
June 10-12 – Message from SNAP’s Board
The board of SNAP met this
week and decided that although we do not have general scholarship money this
year, we would like to offer another way to reduce fees for members of SNAP.
If a member sells an ad for the SNAP ad book, which will be published at
the conference, they can request that 50% of the ad sale be reduced from
their conference fee. In other words, if a SNAP member sells a $100 ad, they
can request from the ad book coordinator that $50 be taken off their conference
fee. The entire $100 conference fee can be waived if $200 worth of ads are
sold. Of course, the checks for the ads must be received by SNAP before the
discount can be applied. All ads are due May 25th, so this fundraiser is
time limited. Go to the SNAP web site for additional information at www.snapnetwork.org.
Bishop accountability has
never mattered more – go to www.bishopaccountability.org and
sign up for their newsletter The Monitor.
|
