Voice of the Faithful advisory board member Paul Lakeland, Ph.D., has been elected vice president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. VOTF is the Catholic Church reform movement started in 2002 at the height of the Boston, Mass., clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Lakeland was elected during the society’s 2016 annual meeting, which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He serves as vice president for the next year. In June 2017, he will become president-elect and then president in June 2018. In 2019, he will be past president for a final year in his four-year presidential service.

Lakeland is the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., chair of Catholic Studies and director of Fairfield University’s Center for Catholic Studies, Fairfield, Conn. He has written and taught Catholic ecclesiology, liberation theology, and religion and literature for more than 30 years. Among Lakeland’s several Catholic Press Association awards is one for best book in theology for The Liberation of the Laity. Fairfield University awarded him the Robert E. Wall Faculty Research Award for the 2015-16 academic year.

“We congratulate Dr. Lakeland on his election as vice president and president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society of America,” said Mary Pat Fox, VOTF’s president, “and we feel fortunate and honored to have such an internationally renowned scholar and theologian advising us on Catholic issues. Over the years, he has been most generous with his time and talent on behalf of VOTF.”

VOTF’s Advisory Council advises its board of trustees on issues relative to the organization’s mission and goals, offers analysis and recommendations as solicited by the board, and counsels the board on issues it feels are pertinent to VOTF’s success. Council members combine their knowledge and experience in theology and institutional church dynamics with a unique understanding of VOTF’s origin, development and purpose.

The 1,300-member Catholic Theological Society of America, founded in 1946, is the largest professional society of theologians in the world and promotes theological research in the Roman Catholic tradition that is attentive to contemporary problems faced by the Church and the world.

Voice of the Faithful® is a worldwide movement of faithful Roman Catholics working to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, support priests of integrity, and increase the laity’s role in the governance and guidance of the Church.

(Photo at Fairfield.edu)