Catholic laity organizes for reforms
By Richard N. Ostling
Associated Press
BOSTON — Operating on short notice with volunteer labor and a shoestring budget, the Voice of the Faithful staged an impressive debut rally.
The new group representing Roman Catholic laity agreed on ambitious goals and heard from respected speakers. The turnout of 4,000 followers punctuated last weekend's meeting with cheers and bursts of applause.
But in the long run, the Voice may have a tough time being heard.
Church leaders have already signaled opposition to reforms the group is pushing, and the organization is treading a fine line to avoid a liberal label that would blunt its impact.
Since emerging this year amid the fury over clerical sex-abuse scandals in the Boston Archdiocese, Voice says 19,000 supporters have joined, mostly via the Internet.
The group wants to plant chapters in every U.S. diocese and in other countries. Nearly a third of the rally's attendees came from beyond Boston, representing 35 states and seven nations.
Voice believes the laity should "actively participate in the governance" of the church, to make sure "these crimes and the abuse of power that made them possible will not happen again." Those words come from a petition to the Vatican that won unanimous support from Boston participants in a voice vote and was signed by 2,000 individuals.
The petition also asks Pope John Paul II to "hold accountable" bishops and Vatican officials who concealed abusers' crimes, and to approve the new sex-abuse policy the U.S. hierarchy issued last month.
Voice also announced three projects at its rally:
- Distribution of checklists that members can use to monitor each bishop's compliance with the policy provisions, which will be used for a report prior to the hierarchy's November meeting.
- A data bank to list abusive priests.
- A fund so Catholics who don't want to contribute to the Boston Archdiocese can still support worthy programs.
Cardinal Bernard Law's spokeswoman swiftly responded that the archdiocese will reject such gifts because Voice's fund "does not recognize the role of the archbishop" in raising support, though Catholic Charities says it may resist Law's edict.
This month, Voice also began organizing for the long haul, issuing a newsletter, planning a $500,000 budget, naming a new president (Boston University management professor James Post) and hiring its first full-time staffer (executive director Steve Krueger).
Protestants regularly form such independent caucuses. For instance, the evangelical Confessing Church Movement in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), launched last year, has won backing from congregations with 422,512 members.
