Posts Tagged The Boston Globe
Pope Francis’ Lay Finance Expert Vows ‘No More Scandals’ (Study says 85% of American dioceses discovered embezzlement) / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Church Finances, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on March 10, 2014
A Maltese economist tapped by Pope Francis to help lead a new finance council says the pope’s reforms will ensure that the sort of scandal which erupted last summer, involving a Vatican accountant allegedly enmeshed in a John le Carré-esque plot to smuggle millions in cash, becomes a thing of the past …
“Observers believe Francis’ efforts to promote financial glasnost are important not merely for the Vatican but to set a tone for the wider Catholic church, where accounting practices often remain informal and subject to abuse. A 2007 study by Villanova University, for instance, found that 85 percent of American dioceses had discovered instances of embezzlement within the previous five years.”
By John L. Allen, Jr., The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Movement of Catholics Motivated by Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal Gathers for 2014 Assembly in Hartford, April 5
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Voice of the Faithful on February 26, 2014
Voice of the Faithful®, a movement of Catholics started in 2002 at the height of the Boston, Mass., clergy sexual abuse scandal, will hold its “2014 Assembly: Turning Talk into Action” on Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford. Registration is $80 per person, and lunch is included.
Guest speakers will be John L. Allen, Jr., and Fr. Thomas Reese. Allen, associate editor for Catholic news and analysis at The Boston Globe and founder of the Vatican beat for National Catholic Reporter, will offer “Perspectives on Pope Francis and a Climate of Change.” Fr. Reese, National Catholic Reporter’s senior analyst, former associate editor of America magazine and author of The Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, will discuss “Jesuit Spirituality.”
Six afternoon workshops, each presented twice, will help participants “turn talk into action”:
- Parish Level Financial Accountability: Tools for Securing Collections – What simple steps can be taken to secure Sunday collections from basket to bank and all points in between?
- Diocesan Level Financial Accountability: The Montana Hustle Case Study – How one Parish Finance Council doggedly pursued their bishop after their pastor misused funds and how new tools VOTF is developing will help monitor a diocese’s finances.
- Clericalism – What is clericalism and how are the signs recognized? Participants will learn how this primary obstruction to collegial lay participation in the Church could be removed.
- Priestless Parishes: There IS An Answer – How can the doors to optional celibacy be opened for a priesthood embracing the celibate and the married, so availability of the Eucharist is ensured?
- Female Voices – How can women change the equation in a Church that too often positions them only in a mother or helper role? Today’s realities and future potential will be discussed with four women who serve as pastoral associates and in ministry positions.
- Survivor Support: Spirituality & Trauma – Despite sexual trauma and clergy betrayal that leave scars that may involve rejecting church hierarchy and structure, the need for non-clerical spirituality continues, and Fr. Thomas Doyle will explore ways of healing and fulfillment.
An expert panel also will discuss Pathways to Healing and Reform, ways in which participants might help restore the Church. Panel members will include Fr. James Connell, canon lawyer and retired pastor who helped found Catholic Whistleblowers; Prof. Thomas Porter, trial lawyer, mediator, Methodist minister and teacher of restorative justice in Boston University’s School of Theology; and William Casey, coordinator of a restorative justice program at the Northern Virginia Mediation Service and former VOTF board chair.
Interested individuals may register online for the VOTF 2014 Assembly, download a printable registration form, make hotel reservations or get more information at www.votf.org.
Voice of the Faithful®: 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 governance and guidance of the Church. More information is at www.votf.org.
Pope Set to Open Meetings on Vatican Finances, Family / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on February 18, 2014
Meetings this week between Pope Francis and his cardinals will deal with some of the thorniest issues facing the church, including church finances and the rejection by most Catholics of some of its core teachings on premarital sex, contraception, gays, and divorce.
“Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany, who has called for ‘‘changes and openings’’ in the church’s treatment of divorced and remarried Catholics, will give the keynote speech Thursday (Feb. 20) to the pope and cardinals attending a preparatory meeting for an October summit on family issues.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, in The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.
No Excuse for Priestly Child Abuse / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on February 10, 2014
On the question of how far papal authority extends, the canon law of the Catholic Church could not be clearer: ‘The vicar of Christ … possesses full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.’ (Can. 331) Note that canon law does not say, ‘except in cases of priestly sex abuse of children.’ Canon law does not say that priests and bishops are independent contractors. Canon law does not say that what happens in Catholic parishes and dioceses around the world has nothing to do with Rome. In fact, another canon reads, ‘By virtue of his office, the Roman pontiff not only possesses power over the universal church, but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them.’ (Can. 333)
“How to square that sweeping papal power with the shameless dodge put forward by the Holy See in this era of church disgrace — the claim that, when it comes to protecting children from abuse, the Roman Catholic Church is legally responsible only to safeguard those living in the confines of Vatican City, a tiny city-state that would fit inside New York’s Central Park eight times …”
By James Carroll, The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this column.
UN Report on Clergy Sexual Abuse: By Wading into Culture Wars, UN May Muddy Its Message / The Boston Gobe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on February 6, 2014
Because the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has no police power, it relies on moral pressure to get member states to adopt its child protection recommendations. That is obviously what it hoped to accomplish with Wednesday’s report on the Vatican and the child abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism over the last dozen years, issuing a stinging indictment of what it called a culture of “impunity” for perpetrators. There is a strong possibility the fusillade from the UN panel may backfire, however, by blurring the cause of child protection with the culture wars over sexual mores.” By John L. Allen, Jr., The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this analysis.
Also of interest — “UN Panel Assails Vatican on Priest Abuse,” by Michael Rezendes and Lisa Wangsness, The Boston Globe
Women Are Key to Pope’s Reforms / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on September 30, 2013
The Positive reception to Pope Francis from all quarters is itself almost as astounding as the man himself. A kind of global sigh of relief has greeted his humane and kindly manner, a signal that the human family, even in a secular age, longs for a rescue of transcendent value. The Catholic Church, for all of its problems, and if only because of its history as a pillar of Western culture, remains a universal object of fascination …
“… The pope aims to start “a long-run, historical process” on behalf of the poor. No one denies his seriousness on this issue — from the choice of his name, to the place where he lives, to his witness in Brazil. But the pope knows as well as anyone that the single most powerful engine drawing people out of poverty is improvement in the economic status of women, which can only occur within a larger cultural transformation. Education. Participation. Power. Reproductive freedom. Yes, women’s liberation. There can be no other strategy for ending poverty.” By James Carroll, The Boston Globe
Read the rest of Carroll’s commentary by clicking here.
Pope Francis’ Revolution
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on August 5, 2013
Some in the media are calling Pope Francis’ way of leading the Church a revolution, or at least a revoluton in the making. Here are three recent articles written from that point of view. To read each entire article, click on the title.
Revolutionary Pope Francis Gets Mixed Reviews
“The Francis Revolution is under way. Not everyone is pleased. Four months into his papacy, Francis has called on young Catholics in the trenches to take up spiritual arms to shake up a dusty, doctrinaire church that is losing faithful and relevance. He has said women must have a greater role — not as priests, but a place in the church that recognizes that Mary is more important than any of the apostles. And he has turned the Vatican upside down, quite possibly knocking the wind out of a poisonously homophobic culture by merely uttering the word “gay” and saying: so what?” By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press in The Detroit NewsA Revolution Underway with Pope Francis
“Revolutions can be hijacked by others, quickly become a smokescreen for hypocrisy, or fizzle out. It’s too early to know which trajectory will apply to the upheaval launched by Pope Francis, in part because at the level of structures and personnel he still hasn’t made many sweeping changes, and in part because the parallels are inexact anyway — Catholicism, after all, is a family of faith, not a political society.” By John L. Allen, Jr., National Catholic ReporterThe Pope’s ‘Culture of Solidarity’
“It’s not that Pope Francis speaks positively about gay people, as he did earlier about atheists. Nor is it his simple lifestyle, his accessibility to the press, or his personal modesty. The accumulation of surprises coming from the new pope points to something deeper: the possibility of historic change with implications reaching far
beyond the Catholic Church.” By James Carroll, The Boston Globe
Fr. Helmut Schuller Begins U.S. Speaking Tour
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on July 18, 2013
Voice of the Faithful® was the major sponsor of the first two stops, July 16 and 17, on reformist Austrian priest Fr. Helmut Schuller’s 15-city U.S. speaking tour this summer, “Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations with Fr. Helmut Schuller.” Here is are a couple of early news stories about his talk:
Fr. Helmut Schuller Kicks Off ‘Catholic Tipping Point’ Tour
Fr. Helmut Schüller should be on summer vacation right now. Instead, the Austrian priest, who gained international attention in 2011 for his “Call to Disobedience,” has chosen to spend his time off from parish ministry offering a presentation titled “The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations” in 15 U.S. cities. The tour kicked off Tuesday night at Manhattan’s Judson Memorial Church, a historic community in Greenwich Village with affiliations to the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Church.” By Jamie Manson, National Catholic Reporter
Read Jamie Manson’s entire article by clicking here.
Priest Says Grouping Parishes Will Weaken Church
An Austrian priest who advocates ordination of women and married men, a position that led Boston church leaders to bar him from speaking at a local parish, said Wednesday that plans like the one Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has put forward to group parishes and priests into clusters weaken the church rather than strengthen it. The Rev. Helmut Schuller, who has long been concerned about how power is concentrated at the top echelons of the church hierarchy, is organizing a major priests’ movement in Austria that grew out of priests’ opposition to parish closings and restructuring plans that require clergy to minister to multiple churches. He argues that expanding the priesthood is a better answer than clustering plans that spread priests too thin, undermining their relationships with parishioners. By Lisa Wangsness, The Boston Globe
Read Lisa Wangsness’ entire article by clicking here.
Hundreds Pack Unitarian Church to Hear Reformist Catholic Priest
Hundreds of people, most of them Catholic, turned out Wednesday night in Dedham to hear a Catholic priest — a reformist — from Austria. The Rev. Helmut Schuller was scheduled to speak at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, but was barred by Cardinal Sean O’Malley due to his positions on several issues which run contrary to official Catholic church doctrine. So the meeting was moved to a Unitarian church. By Fred Thys, WBUR-FM
Listen to Fred Thys’ entire story by clicking here.
Voice of the Faithful® and nine other Roman Catholic Church reform organizations have formed a coalition to support Fr. Schuller’s tour.
Cardinal O’Malley Bars Fr. Helmut Schuller from Speaking on Church Property in Dedham, Mass.
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on June 26, 2013
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley is banning an Austrian priest from speaking at a Catholic parish in Dedham because the priest advocates ordaining women and making celibacy optional, stances that place him in opposition to church teachings. The Rev. Helmut Schuller was invited to speak at St. Susanna Parish July 17 as part of a 15-city tour of the United States called ‘The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations with Helmut Schuller,’ sponsored by a coalition of reform-minded Catholic organizations, including Voice of the Faithful, based in Needham.”
You may read Lisa Wangsness’s entire article from The Boston Globe by clicking here.
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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