BishopAccountability.org
 
  Catholic Group Not Going Away
At Convention in Indianapolis, Voice of the Faithful Shows It's a Force Nationally

By Robert King
Indianapolis Star [Indianaplois IN]
July 11, 2005

One proposal wanted a push for laws that would allow Roman Catholic bishops to be prosecuted if they are a party to the cover-up of a priest sexual-abuse case.

Another suggested that people in the pews stop putting money in the collection plates unless bishops open up the church's financial books.

And one proposal recommended that, after 1,500 years of papal control, the authority for choosing bishops should be returned to regular Catholic churchgoers.

Voice of the Faithful, born three years ago as a grassroots response to the priest sex-abuse scandal, showed this weekend that it still possesses a sometimes angry voice of dissent within the Catholic community.

But the gathering of the group's leaders from around the country also tried to show that the movement isn't just a Boston phenomenon and that it will be a force the church must reckon with for some time to come.

The meeting brought 559 activists from 32 states together for the group's first session outside Boston.

"Voice of the Faithful is here to stay, not because it is an institution but because it has important work left to do," said James E. Post, the group's president, in closing remarks at the Indiana Convention Center.

That work began Sunday with the introduction of nine resolutions crafted over the weekend that call for a more democratic approach to church decision-making, sunlight on church finances and a push for new activism in state legislatures. Specifically, activists would lobby for laws that would hold church leaders criminally responsible for sex-abuse cover-ups and a relaxation of statutes that limit how long victims have to come forward with their claims.

The audience Sunday, the convention's final day, showed its support for the resolutions with applause, but with no formal votes of endorsement.

The resolutions are the beginning of a process that will likely spur action at Voice of the Faithful chapters around the country, Post said.

Victims of priest sexual abuse, their family members and supportive clergy members told several stories of how abuse complaints were ignored by diocesan leaders.

Such a lack of responsiveness led to the resolution calling for people in the pews to be allowed to elect bishops from among the priests in their diocese.

It also prompted the recommendation that Voice of the Faithful seek legislation calling for bishops to be prosecuted if they are complicit in sex-abuse cover-ups.

"We can talk and we can beg and we can plead, but the only way we can hold bishops of this country accountable is by changing the law," said Terry Staub, a Kettering, Ohio, grandmother who was abused as a child and whose daughter was abused as well.

Despite the recommendations, Post said bishops and other church leaders should not fear the average Catholic who supports Voice of the Faithful's goals and seeks greater openness.

"The laity is not the enemy. The laity is not the problem," Post said. "The laity may be the best friend the Catholic Church has."