VOTF National News

National Representative Council - the next monthly meeting of the Council will be held on October 16th at Our Lady Help of Christians, Newton, MA. Watch this space for Council updates as well as news from the VOTF National Policy Forum. The Forum is a regular conference call among officers and various affiliate representatives all over the United States.

Parish Voice Activity - Mary Ann Keyes and Suzy Nauman have returned from Wisconsin and Illinois with news of many meetings, often back-to-back, with groups of all sizes and several individual contacts as more and more concerned Catholics are looking for a role they can play in survivor and priest support as well as restoring trust and integrity to the Church.

Other developments include a change of hands in the Fall River, MA diocese. Chris Boyd has piloted VOTF through some of the stormiest seas anywhere in the VOTF family. As Regional Coordinator, his devotion and professional oversight were the very qualities needed and both will be missed. Chris' name will join many others as one of the cornerstones of our earliest days. Marie Collamore (mcollamore@msn.com) has volunteered to take on this key position. As Chris Boyd has said, "Marie is passionate and clearly has a zeal for supporting victims. I wish Marie great success in her leadership efforts, and offer my congratulations, assistance, and support during this transition."

Another MA change is afoot among the three Andover and No. Andover affiliates. Soon they will merge to become the Greater Lawrence VOTF with a long-term goal of attracting additional parishes and members from that vicariate. Mary Ann Keyes said, "There is no way to adequately thank the leaders of the three affiliates there for the work they have done in bringing the word and mission of VOTF to the members of their parishes and affiliates. Stacey Quealey and John Vellante at St. Michael's, Emilie Gilbert from St. Augustine and JoAnne Nowak from St. Robert Bellarmine - VOTF is forever grateful for the role you have played in supporting so many members as together we all seek to 'Keep the Faith and Change the Church.'"

Mary Ann and Suzy report increasing interest from the Deep South - we look forward to their voices!

National office support has been extended to the NY/NJ/CT tri-state conference on October 25, just "around the corner" (one of the conference coordinators Maria Coffey, NY VOTF Conference Chair, says, "REGISTER! REGISTER! REGISTER!" (LINK) and Cincinnati, OH will soon be reporting on their first regional conference on October 4 with Donald Cozzens as the keynote speaker on "The Scandal's Gift: The Emerging Voice of the Baptized." Watch the November issue of In the Vineyard for a recap of these key VOTF moments in "Voices, Voices Everywhere!"

VOTF National Elections - The Election Committee is forming and currently has representatives from New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Contact Jim Walsh if you would like to volunteer your help - rwalsh1140@msn.com

Structural Change Working Group launched the Structural Change Network or SCN on September 8th as scheduled. The network now has 75 members from across the country, and in the month of September more than 125 messages have been posted in an active discussion on a range of structural change issues. The SCN provides a forum for sharing insights about the state of our Church and successful strategies to enhance lay participation at both the parish and diocesan levels.

The following excerpt provides a good example of the reasoned and thoughtful exchange of views that can take place within the SCN:

Steve Bogner of St Robert Bellarmine parish in Cincinnati, OH wrote on Sunday morning 9/21/03:

"I have heard of, but not closely followed, the New York Stock Exchange's problems resulting from Chairman Grasso's incredible compensation. Today's' New York Times has an interesting article on corporate governance - citing the NYSE as an example - that I think also applies to our Church's broken governance, and VOTF's Structural Change objective:

'In its own description of its responsibilities, the exchange proclaims that its "ultimate constituency" is the investing public. Yet those investors do not participate in selecting directors, and because of the Big Board's limited public disclosures, they have little real knowledge of how the exchange is acting on their behalf.'

Applied to the Church, it might sound like this: In its own description of its responsibilities, the Church proclaims that its 'ultimate constituency' is the People of God. Yet those people do not participate in selecting Pastors, Bishops and Cardinals, and because of the Church's limited public disclosures, they have little real knowledge of how the Church is acting on their behalf.

Limited public disclosure, no participation in selecting the leaders who govern us, and no accountability to their 'ultimate constituency' - it all adds up to a dysfunctional governance structure that is prone to excess and secrecy. I'm a businessperson, so my MBA background tends to influence my thought on this - but I think we have some great lessons to learn from failed corporate governance. And those failures could give us ideas on how to repair our Church's governance."

Susan McCoyd of Immaculate Conception Parish, Diocese of Joliet, in Elmhurst, IL responded later that morning:

"Steve, I had just finished reading that New York Times article and was thinking the same. I then clicked onto our group and saw that you also saw the similarity. That is the beauty of this group - we can so quickly see and know what others from all parts of the country, not just our own parishes, are thinking on the same subject."

In addition to launching the SCN, this month the SCWG has added a Spanish translation of the Structural Change section of the VOTF website. We also have plans to propose a monthly structural change topic for VOTF affiliates. Each agenda will include a brief educational article, and an activity in support of Goal 3. If you wish to devote one of your meetings, or part of a meeting to a consideration of structural change, check the website for some ideas. This month we suggest that individual affiliates might address the survey on the status of parish pastoral councils, which will be sent to all affiliates and individual members of VOTF during the month of October.
Submitted by Margaret Roylance

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