In the Vineyard :: October 30, 2017 :: Volume 17, Issue 19
News from National
Peeking in on a Board Meeting
Twice per year our trustees gather for a face-to-face Board meeting, to allow for more in-depth discussions and the sort of personal interactions that are limited in monthly two-hour conference call meetings. But when distance prevents “in person” attendance at a face-to-face, technology helps us span the continent. That’s our trustee from Montana, Sandra Guynn, in a video chat link on the laptop screen (at the end of the table so she can see all of us on her own screen).
Trustee Michael Ryan took the photo, using the time-delay setting on his camera. Mike is the lone male in the room. Illness prevented the attendance of Phil Megna of New Jersey, and devotion to Notre Dame football kept our Midwest trustee, Larry Mulligan (Secretary), limited to conversing by telephone on his drive to South Bend IN.
Other in-person attendees at the October 27-28 meeting, held in a room at the parish hall of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton MA, were trustee Margaret Roylance, sitting to the left of Michael, and, continuing clockwise, Donna Doucette, our Executive Director; Treasurer Anne Southwood, sitting across from Donna; Mary Pat Fox, Board Chair and VOTF President; and Alice Campanella from the national office, who serves as the scribe for the board meetings.
Join Us for the Presentation “Inside a Healing Circle”
Want to learn more about Healing Circles and how they work? Join us November 7 at the Paulist Center in Boston for “Inside a Healing Circle.” Restorative Justice specialist and former VOTF board chair Bill Casey and former VOTF trustee Jayne O’Donnell, who have facilitated more than a dozen Broken Vessel™ Healings Circles around the country, will talk about how Broken Vessel™ Healings Circles can open a pathway towards healing.
November 7 at 7 p.m. in the 3rd floor library, Paulist Center, 5 Park St., Boston (next to the Boston Common and just down the street from the State House). It’s free, and light refreshments will be served. Please SPREAD THE WORD with our flyer.
Healing Circle Invitation
Voice of the Faithful invites you to participate in the next Healing Circle, which will take place on Saturday, November 18 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in the parish hall of Holy Name of Mary Church, 110 Grand St., Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. Breakfast and lunch are included. There is no charge to attendees.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Bill Casey at b13909@comcast.net or (703) 568-3438 to register.
Total confidentiality is honored at all Circles.
VOTF’s Broken Vessel™ Healings Circles are a practice of Restorative Justice that relies on story-telling and story-listening to foster healing for those who suffer from serious harm. The VOTF model can open a pathway towards healing for those harmed in any way by the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal: victims/survivors of physical abuse; their parents, spouses, children and siblings; Catholics who are struggling to remain in the Church; Catholics who could no longer remain in the Church; faithful clergy; and Church workers who experienced retaliation for speaking up.
Here’s how one Healing Circle participant felt about the experience: “On February 6, (2016), I attended a Healing Circle in Philadelphia. As a survivor of clergy abuse, I highly recommend that victims and those concerned with victims and how the Church has dealt with us or not dealt with us attend one of these sessions. The caring, love and expressions of support I received at this circle will remain with me forever. As someone who cannot enter a Catholic Church without suffering flash backs the circle was therapeutic, welcoming and intensely spiritual. If you get the opportunity, please attend. It will enhance your journey towards healing.”
Click here to read more testimony from past Broken Vessel™ Healing Circle participants.
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Pope Francis Speaks with Astronauts
Pope Francis conversed with astronauts orbiting earth on the International Space Station on Thursday (Oct. 26). Asking weighty questions like, “What is your thought on man’s place in the universe” they discussed questions as diverse as man’s place in the universe, the fragility of life and the planet, and international cooperation.
American astronaut Randolph Bresnik said that what gives him the greatest joy in space is being able “to look outside and see God’s creation maybe a little bit from his perspective. People cannot come up here and see the indescribable beauty of our earth and not be touched in their souls.”
There’s an incredible peace and serenity to our planet when you see it in orbit, he said, and there are “no borders, no conflict, it’s just peaceful.”
He also said that from space you can see “the thinness of the atmosphere, and it makes you realize how fragile our existence here is.”
To read more about the Pope’s conversation with the six astronauts, use this Catholic News Agency link.
TOP STORIES
Pope Francis rebukes Cardinal Sarah on liturgy
“Pope Francis has publicly corrected Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in a letter released by the Vatican on Oct. 22, 2017. In that letter, the pope informs the cardinal that the commentary attributed to Sarah on the motu proprio ‘Magnum Principium,’ regarding the translation of liturgical texts, is not a faithful and correct interpretation of that papal decree.” By Gerard O’Connell, America: The Jesuit Review
Francis corrects Sarah: liturgical translations not to be ‘imposed’ from Vatican, By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
Pope tells Sarah power is indeed shifting from Rome to the bishops, By Crux Staff on Cruxnow.com
Expert says on liturgy, Pope isn’t settling scores but harvesting fruits, By John L. Allen, Jr., and Ines San Martin, Cruxnow.com
Clerical sex abuse disclosures skyrocket in Pope’s Argentina
“Karen Maydana says she was 9 years old when the Rev. Carlos Jose fondled her at a church pew facing the altar. It was her first confession ahead of her first Holy Communion. She blames the trauma of that moment in 2004 for a teenage suicide attempt. And yet she never spoke about it publicly until this year. After hearing that two women who attended her school in the Argentine town of Caseros were allegedly abused by the same priest, she joined them as complainants in a case that in July led to his arrest for investigation of aggravated sexual abuse.” By Luis Andres Henao and Almudena Calatrava, Associated Press
Ex-president of Vatican hospital convicted of abuse of office
“The former president of a Vatican-owned hospital in Rome on Saturday (Oct. 14) was convicted of abuse of office for diverting nearly half a million dollars of funds to renovate a top cardinal’s luxury apartment. The Vatican court, a three-judge panel, gave Giuseppe Profiti a one-year suspended sentence. The prosecution had asked for three years for the former head of the prestigious Bambino Gesu hospital. It also reduced the seriousness of the charge against Profiti to abuse of office from the initial embezzlement. Massimo Spina, the hospital’s treasurer, was acquitted.” By Philip Pullella, Reuters, in U.S. News & World Report
Pope Francis endorses internet safety resolution
“For three days last week (Oct. 3-6), about 150 experts in technology, child safety, medicine, mental health and theology gathered in Rome at the Child Dignity in the Digital World Congress to talk about how to keep kids safe online and protect children from sexual exploitation. On the final day, the group had an audience with Pope Francis, who endorsed the Declaration of Rome, a 13-point manifesto that outlines the group’s goals for keeping children safe.” By Larry Magid, The Mercury News
Click here to read the rest of this issue of Focus …
Looking for a Good Movie?
America magazine reviewed “Lady Bird” and called it “the first love letter to Catholic education that (they) have ever seen on film.” Portraying a Catholic school as many of us remember it, as “brimming with kindness, weirdness, friendship and rebellion,” the film is out in theaters now.
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.
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