Contact: Suzanne Morse 617-680-2131, smorse@votf.org

Voice of the Faithful
Press Conference
Washington, D.C.

For Immediate Release
Communications Office
November 15, 2004

Remarks by Suzanne Morse, Voice of the Faithful Communications Manager

Thank you all for coming this morning. I am Suzanne Morse, spokesperson for Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic reform group that formed in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis and is interested in meaningful lay involvement in the governance and administration of the Church. I am here this morning with Kristine Ward, national Vice President of Voice of the Faithful, to discuss this week’s annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This week marks a pivotal moment for the life of the Catholic Church in the United States. After almost two and a half years of crisis in connection to clergy sexual abuse, and now with concerns about the financial health of dioceses across the country, the Catholic Bishops have a choice – to continue the methods of the past that have alienated thousands of Catholics in the U.S. or to adopt policies and processes of accountability and transparency that will restore trust in the Church.

The new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will be elected this week, will have to face the legacy of 5 decades of sexual abuse. Future generations will judge him on whether he is able to sustain a commitment to justice for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, to accountability and transparency within the Catholic Church, and to increasing meaningful lay participation. If he is unsuccessful at any of these endeavors, the Church will continue down the painful road of anger, frustration, and decline. We believe that the next president, whoever he is, will have to promote an agenda that includes the above three components if he expects to preside over a period of renewal, rather than decline, in the Church.

The good news is that the next president of the USCCB does have this historic opportunity to learn the lessons of the last disastrous few years, and to turn them into constructive action to heal the Church. Voice of the Faithful believes that this is a unique moment in the Church’s history to turn the concept of Episcopal Accountability into something more than mere words, but actual fact. On September 11th of this year, Pope John Paul II released a statement that called on the U.S. Bishops to make “a commitment to creating better structures of participation, consultation, and shared responsibility.” Seven days later, Voice of the Faithful’s representative council passed a resolution that stated the organization will continue to advocate for Bishops’ Accountability.

It is clear that the Catholic Church in the U.S. needs for its leaders to be held accountable – at all levels. Therefore, today, we are calling on the next president of the USCCB to put into place processes and mechanisms for accountability within the Catholic Church. Without these processes, not only is it likely that another member of the clergy will be able to abuse another young person, it is also likely that another Bishop will succeed at covering it up.

That framework of accountability must include financial transparency. In the past 6 months, three dioceses (Portland, Oregon, Tucson, Arizona, and most recently, Spokane, Washington) have declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A fourth, the archdiocese of Boston, has undergone a massive and painful parish closing process that has resulted in several parishes undergoing round-the-clock prayer vigils to prevent the closure of their churches. While these bankruptcies may be financially necessary, they have created an unfair wedge between the survivor community, who rightfully seeks justice, and lay Catholics, who are left in the dark about the future of their faith communities. Furthermore, they will have an impact on the public as a whole, as the Catholic Church is still one of the largest providers of social services in the country – dioceses in financial distress will put an additional strain on social welfare, education, and public health systems.

The next president of the USCCB must respond to this crisis by committing to financial transparency and disclosure. Catholics deserve the right to know where their donations are going – and it is only by having this information that the Church will reverse the declines in donations. We are asking the next president to put in place effective mechanisms for monitoring how money is being spent. One way for the Bishops to achieve this financial transparency is for them to voluntarily agree to the financial reporting requirements of non-religious non-profits.

In both of these instances, Voice of the Faithful, as an organization of lay Catholics committed to being a part of the governance and guidance of the Church, stands ready to assist the new president, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the body of bishops as a whole. Our members are not only active members of their parishes across the country, they are also talented and experienced men and women who can use their professional expertise to help the Church heal in constructive, substantive, and meaningful ways. With the sense of “shared responsibility” that the Pope called for in September and the participation of the whole Church - lay men and women, clergy, and the hierarchy – the Catholic Church can move forward and focus on promoting Christ’s message of love, hope and peace. Our members will continue to find ways to take responsibility for God’s Church – it is our belief that with a renewed sense of accountability within the body of Bishops, the relationship between the hierarchy and lay women and men will become productive and geared towards promoting the true mission of the Church.

I will now introduce Kristine Ward, who is National Vice President of Voice of the Faithful, and co-founder of our chapter in Dayton, OH.