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Please
send comments and inquiries to pthorp.ed@votf.org.
“If
the unfinished business of the sexual abuse crisis in Roman
Catholicism had to be expressed
in one word, a theologian and a canon lawyer agreed today,
it would be ‘accountability.’” From National
Catholic Reporter coverage of Catholic Theological
Society
of America meeting.
NATIONAL
News
Good
news in Delaware: A landmark win for protecting
children in Delaware arrived as the state senate passed
SB 29 unanimously.
See DIOCESE/State Watch below.
Survivor
Community Notes: It’s not too late to attend/support
SNAP’s annual convention. Go to snapnetwork.org for details. [Also, see what a few seconds and a few clicks
can do for survivors – Ohio SNAP leader and VOTF
member Claudia Vercellotti shares an idea in Survivor
Community News in this issue.] 
SAVE THE DATE: The
2007 VOTF convention, “Disciples
in Action,” October 19-21 in Providence RI. Watch
the July issues of In the Vineyard for program, speakers
and registration information.
Read the recent VOTF
letter to US bishops and the Summer/Fall
action plans from the 2005 Convocation Implementation Team. VOTF
president Mary Pat Fox’s statement
to membership on the Sunday June 24 New York Times coverage
of the VOTF
call for ecclesial review of mandatory celibacy.
[Subscribers can access the NYT text
here; the text is also available here.
What can VOTF learn from the Catholic Worker
Movement? See VOTF Cleveland Jack Rakosky’s Book
Review in this issue.
-
Want a jump start on summer reading AND a short course
on the Catholic intellectual tradition? You can do
no better
than the excellent current issue of Resources – the
Boston College Church in the 21st Century Center’s
publication. See more in Summer Reading suggestions.
Literally, VOTF was “at the
table” on June 9 for the Fordham University conference
on “Leadership in the U.S. Catholic Church”.
Voice of the Faithful was the only reform group represented
on the dais with two places on the agenda: VOTF president
Mary Pat Fox participated in a panel on the clergy sex abuse
crisis alongside the researchers conducting the “Causes
and Context” study; David O’Brien, VOTF Trustee
and Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the College
of the Holy Cross, was a panelist on “New Movements”. Click here to
read Mary Pat’s talk; also read another
take on the conference from Fr. Paul Berube, “Discoveries
in the Bronx,” in Commentary.
DIOCESE/State Watch
Good
news in Delaware: A landmark win for protecting
children in Delaware arrived as the state senate passed
SB 29 unanimously.
See the joint VOTF Delaware and National statement and the
details of this success story at delawareonline.com.
- Also
note the VOTF resolution for the “reform
of laws to strengthen the protection of children from sexual
abuse” at the VOTF
web site; NRC Representative Bob Schwiderski adds, “The
VOTF affiliates in Minnesota also have a legislative initiative
for protecting our children in support of HF 1239 and SF
1096 addressing sexual abuse recovery and prevention.”
- As
reported in an earlier issue, the USCCB National Review
Board has a new chair: "Judge Michael
R. Merz, of Dayton, Ohio, has been named chair of the
National Review Board (NRB) by Bishop William S. Skylstad,
president of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Merz's appointment became effective June 1. He succeeds Patricia
O'Donnell Ewers, Ph.D. as chair. He
was named an NRB member in 2004. For details click here.
DIOCESE/State
Watch inside: Portland OR archdiocesan
release of previously unavailable documents relating to
clergy abuse
of children; abuse charges against a New Jersey priest cleared
by the Vatican; the Los Angeles diocese ordered to release
documents; the Cleveland OH diocese ordered by a federal
judge to release documents; VOTF Long Island NY saddened
by allegations against a priest whose support was singular
and valued in the Rockville Centre diocese; a retired Vermont
priest testifies to the longtime diocesan policy of protecting
pedophile priests from prosecution and protecting itself
from lawsuits; VOTF Chicagoland press release on principal’s
termination.
| Reminder: The Vineyard will be covered for the months of July
and
August by VOTF vice-president Sally Vance-Trembath.
Until September, please send your comments, inquiries
and concerns to Sally at svancetrembath@votf.org. Happy
Summer ’07 to all! PLT
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For
subscribers to National Catholic Reporter: The Catholic
Theological Society of America (CTSA) has picked
up their own drive
for financial accountability among
our bishops but its outgoing president
warns against CTSA’s public criticism of Vatican
and bishops John Allen
provides comprehensive coverage of the CTSA meeting.
Thought-provoking commentary in Newsweek magazine by Marcus Borg: "
Without questioning, faith is idolatrous. Just as patriotism
without questioning risks becoming idolatrous nationalism,
so faith without questioning risks becoming idolatrous religion.
To explain: when faith is defined as unquestioning acceptance
of 'tenets or traditions,' whether drawn from the Bible or
doctrine or both, then the object of
faith is no longer God, but the tenets and traditions themselves.
Something other than God has been given an absolute status
- which is what makes it idolatrous."
Book
Review - Cleveland VOTF’s Jack Rakosky reviews
Mark and Louise Zwick’s book The Catholic Worker
Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah,
New Jersey, 2005.
QUOTE
for our time: “Tradition is the record of a
community’s conversation over time about its meaning
and direction. A living tradition is a tradition that can
raise questions about itself.” Margaret Steinfels,
as noted in Resources, Spring 2007.
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