Posts Tagged USCCB
Austrian Reformist Priest Fr. Helmut Schuller Concludes U.S. Tour in Front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on August 14, 2013
Austrian reformist priest Fr. Helmut Schuller started his 15-city U.S. speaking tour, Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations with Helmut Schuller, in New York City July 16. He concluded his tour there Aug. 8 in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He brought his Roman Catholic Church reform message to more than 5,000 people during his tour and received a good deal of media coverage in the U.S. and Europe. After speaking to supporters in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fr. Schuller delivered thousands of actual and virtual red ribbons symbolizing the Holy Spirit and support for reform goals to the office of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He also delivered the following letter to Cardinal Dolan:
August 8, 2013
Dear Cardinal Dolan:
Over the past three weeks, I have met with thousands of Catholics – laity and clergy – in 15 cities across the U.S. to share experiences and to learn from one another. At each place I visited, participants in our conversations wore red ribbons, signifying the gift of the Holy Spirit given to all the faithful. These ribbons as well as nearly 2,000 online signatures have been collected, and we offer them to you as a sign of our commitment to our church, a community where the People of God should be represented at every level of leadership and decision-making.
I learned much during my conversations with American Catholics. I discovered very many who are working hard to meet the challenges facing us all and to give voice to their needs, as is their right and obligation under Canon 212. I also heard from many priests who are concerned about the future of their parishes and their ministries. Sadly, many do not feel free to speak openly about their concerns. This must be a matter of concern to you as president of the USCCB. I do not believe that there is any place for fear or intimidation in our Church, and yet I found it time and again in my talks with fellow priests. I also found this same intimidation in the attempts to prevent Catholics from hearing me in Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit.
My hope is that my visit contributed to an authentic Christian conversation that must take place across our Church in every country. As we all are inspired by the example of Pope Francis, we should engage in an honest dialogue about the challenges we must overcome in making our Church a sign of the Kingdom and a sacrament to the world of the 21st century. As you know, I and my fellow priests have been working in Austria and in other parts of Europe to cultivate this dialogue. We stand ready to assist you here in the U.S. in any way we can to encourage the same honest and fearless exchange of views.
In the peace of Jesus Christ,
Rev. Helmut Schüller
On St. Clare Feast, Catholics Support Sisters, Pray for Authentic Dialogue
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on August 7, 2013
Printed below is the news release disseminated by the Nun Justice Project, which is supported by Voice of the Faithful®, announcing that Catholics will pray in solidarity with the sisters this Sunday, Aug. 11, the feast of St. Clare, in advance of LCWR’s 2013 General Assembly next week, Aug. 13-17 (Download the Nun Justice Project prayer service for the feast of St. Clare by clicing here):
Contact: Erin Saiz Hanna 401-588-0457, Jim FitzGerald 773-404-0004
For immediate release: August 7, 2013
On St. Clare Feast Catholics Support Sisters, Pray for Authentic Dialogue
WASHINGTON D.C. – Next week, hundreds of Catholic nuns are expected to gather in Orlando, FL for the annual meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).
On August 11, 2013 in solidarity with U.S. women religious, thousands of Catholics will join in prayer [link to prayer] on the Feast of St. Clare.
“The pope intentionally chose St. Francis as his namesake, and he has shown himself to be open to dialogue” stated Erin Saiz Hanna, spokesperson for the Nun Justice Project. “St. Francis of Assisi’s sacred friendship with St. Clare is well documented. St. Francis worked collaboratively alongside his sisters rather than against them. We pray Pope Francis, and Archbishop Sartain, will not only speak but listen and authentically dialogue with the sisters as St. Francis did with St. Clare.”
LCWR, an umbrella group representing 80% of the 57,000 nuns in the United States, remains under scrutiny from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). In the spring of 2012 the CDF issued a statement accusing LCWR of promoting “radical feminist themes” and “corporate dissent,” causing outrage among Catholics around the globe.
LCWR responded that the CDF statement was based on “unsubstantiated accusations’ and the result of a “flawed process that lacked transparency.” Last August, the organization’s president, Sr. Pat Farrell, announced that “open and honest dialogue” would be LCWR’s next step with Archbishop Sartain who had been appointed to oversee the mandate.
Last summer, nearly 70,000 Catholics signed a Change.org petition and hundreds organized vigils to rally around the sisters.
“Catholics around the country have been inspired by the faith and work of the sisters and will continue to support them; we urge Pope Francis to recognize their commitment and contributions and dismiss the mandate,” said Jim FitzGerald, spokesperson for the Nun Justice Project.
The Nun Justice Project is a grassroots movement supported by the following organizations: American Catholic Council, Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, Call to Action, Catholics for Choice, CORPUS, DignityUSA, Federation of Christian Ministries, FutureChurch, New Ways Ministry, Quixote Center, RAPPORT, Voice of the Faithful, WATER: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual, and Women’s Ordination Conference.
For more information, visit www.nunjustice.org
Why Aren’t Errant Bishops Held Accountable?
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on June 12, 2013
Voice of the Faithful® has called repeatedly over many years for accountability for bishops who have covered up clergy sexual abuse. Why? Read Nicholas Cafardi’s article Accountability Gap, which appears in the June 11, 2013, issue of Commonweal magazine. Cafardi is a civil and canon lawyer, dean emeritus and professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law and one of the original members of the USCCB’s National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth.
When the spotlight of the national press was on them, it appeared that the bishops had acted responsibly. But, as an inaugural member of the bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth, I had a different perspective. When the board went looking for national data about the phenomenon of sexual abuse by clergy, the California bishops, led by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles (now retired), strongly resisted the audits. By Nicholas Cafardi, Commonweal
Read Cafardi’s entire article in Commonweal by clicking here.
Voice of the Faithful Urges Pope Francis to “Act Decisively” Regarding Bishops, Clergy Sexual Abuse & His Message to Vatican Congregation
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on June 6, 2013
Pope Francis has recommended that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse prosecutorial arm, “act decisively with regard to cases of sexual abuse.” Currently, three cases in the U.S. provide an opportunity to see whether decisive action also will include holding accountable bishops who fail to act when sex abuse is revealed:
- Newark Archbishop John Myers has allowed a priest who had admitted groping a boy to continue working with children in violation of an agreement that barred the priest from ministering to children or holding any position involving children.
- Retired Los Angeles archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony, implicated in covering up clergy sexual abuse based on formerly secret archdiocesan documents, ignored a directive from present Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez and has continued to preside at Confirmation and other public ceremonies.
- Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn remains in office despite his conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse.
Each of these bishops apparently has violated the Essential Norms of USCCB’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which have the force of canon law. In the most recent of these, although several lower-level diocesan employees have “resigned,” Bishop Myers, who several months ago had erroneously described the abusing priest in the case as having been acquitted, has not resigned.
If Pope Francis wishes to demonstrate that the Church will, at last, “act decisively” in matters of child sexual abuse, these are clear instances where he can hold accountable the bishops who fail to act in such cases. Voice of the Faithful® urges Pope Francis to call for investigations under canon law or to censure these bishops directly. He is the only person in the Church who can do so.
Voice of the Faithful®: Voice of the Faithful® is a worldwide movement of concerned 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 about Voice of the Faithful is available on its website by clicking here.
What could new USCCB doctrinal head mean to future theological debate?
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on May 31, 2013
New Doctrinal Watchdog: Theological Intervention Sometimes Necessary, by Joshua McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
The new head of the U.S. bishops’ office that has in recent years attracted controversy for criticizing theologians has said he hopes to be in dialogue with those theologians but may sometimes have to make interventions to ‘make sure that the faith is being handed down intact.'”
USCCB 2012 Audit Shows Major Weaknesses Remain in Child Protection Process
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on May 10, 2013
The Catholic Church’s process for protecting children from clergy sexual abuse still has major weaknesses.
Annual audits assessing compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People still do not allow fully independent auditors complete access to all information. And auditors still are discovering weaknesses in compliance at the parish level. Everyone knows it, and no one is doing anything about it.
In a news release today, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops outlined the results of its 2012 annual diocesan audit, from which the folling is taken:
StoneBridge (Business Partners) cited limitations, including “the unwillingness of most dioceses and eparchies to allow us to conduct parish audits during their on-site audits.” It said that “the auditors must rely solely on the information provided by the diocese or eparchy, instead of observing the program firsthand.”
Another limitation is staff turnover in diocesan child abuse prevention programs. As a result, “records are often lost, and successors to the position are often placed in key roles without formal orientation,” StoneBridge reported.
Al J. Notzon, III, chairman of the National Review Board (NRB), which oversees the audits, echoed StoneBridge concerns in a letter to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Notzon highlighted the importance of good record-keeping “and the great significance of involving parishes in the audit process.”
Voice of the Faithful® began calling for fully independent audits with full access to all information soon after the Charter was promulgated in 2002. And VOTF’s early child protection efforts saw the same problem of compliance in parishes cited above, where already overburdened staffs were hardpressed to assume the paperwork burden required by new child protection guidelines and programs.
That was more than a decade ago. Heightened awareness and attempts to create more secure environments may have made children safer, but while these discrepancies in the Church’s audits remain, what are we to believe when Cardinal Dolan says in USCCB’s news release, “We seek … to assure that our audits continue to be credible and maintain accountability in our shared promise to protect and our pledge to heal.”
Bishops Investigating U.S. Nuns Have Poor Records on Sex Abuse Cases / GlobalPost
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on December 19, 2012
Cardinals and bishops involved in the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) investigation have suffered no discipline for their blunders in their handling of clergy pedophiles, according to news reports and legal documents …” By Jason Berry in GlobalPost.com
Former Head of US Bishops’ Diaconate Office Banned in Philadelphia Over Women Deacons
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on December 7, 2012
A former key U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference staffer has been told he is not allowed to speak publicly in the Philadelphia archdiocese because he co-authored a book investigating the possibility of ordaining women as deacons. William Ditewig, a theologian and deacon who previously served as the head of the bishops’ secretariat for the diaconate, has been told his public presence in the archdiocese would cause ‘doctrinal confusion.'” By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
USCCB Should Dis-invite Bishops in Sex Abuse Cases from Conference
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Voice of the Faithful on November 14, 2012
“This week, all of America’s Catholic prelates are invited to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Almost all of them will certainly show up. But because of their recent recklessness with children’s safety, some don’t deserve to be there. They should have the decency to stay home. More importantly, leaders of the conference should have the courage to dis-invite them.” By David Clohessy, Snap Executive Director, in National Catholic Reporter.
Convicted Prelate Apparently Not on Bishops’ Agenda in Baltimore This Week
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on November 12, 2012
Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri stands convicted of covering up for a priest caught with thousands of images involving “child sex” on his computer. That this is a travesty is an understatement. That Bishop Finn has not resigned or been removed or even censured by his brother bishops is abhorrent. As U.S. bishops gather for their Fall General Assembly, Nov. 12-15, in Baltimore, Bishop Finn’s situation appears not to have made the agenda.
Bishop Finn’s conviction is the most significant example of how Roman Catholic bishops have exempted themselves from the requirement to follow their Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Over the decade since this Dallas Charter was adopted, bishops have failed to report allegations of clergy sexual abuse, have kept accusations from their own review boards, and in at least one instance, have simply decided that the Charter does not apply to them at all. The U.S. bishops’ own National Review Board, which conducts audits to ensure bishops are carrying out the Charter guidelines, even warned them against “complacency or Charter drift” in its June 13, 2012, 10-year report.
Although Voice of the Faithful® is disappointed at the relative inaction on this issue by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at previous national meetings, we call for them to act immediately at their present Fall General Assembly by doing the following, which would put teeth into fraternal correction and make the USCCB position on child protection absolutely clear:
- When USCCB learns a bishop has engaged in activity that would be prohibited by the Charter, or
- When USCCB learns a bishop has disregarded the principles of the Charter and has failed to take the actions required by the Charter, or
- When USCCB learns a bishop has made public statements indicating his disagreement with the Charter’s principles or his unwillingness to take the action the Charter requires,
- Then, after notifying the bishop and after the bishop fails to take corrective action within 60 days,
- The bishop shall be excluded from USCCB activities and the USCCB’s action shall be reported to the Papal Nuncio and be the subject of a USCCB press release.
Voice of the Faithful® believes the threat of exclusion and public disapprobation will encourage USCCB members to implement the Charter more vigilantly, and resolving the above is a viable way to ensure this.
Our request for this action follows up on formal recommendations to tighten NRB audits that Voice of the Faithful® representatives made in April 2011 shortly after meeting with the then heads of the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection and NRB, Teresa Kettelkamp and Diane Knight, respectively. We are convinced the actions we propose would enhance protection of children and help restore bishops’ badly damaged credibility. Those recommendations included:
- Fully independent audits, with no restrictions on access to individuals or records;
- Independent diocesan review boards;
- Insulation of victim assistance programs from chancery officials, diocesan law firms or insurance companies;
- Listening sessions around the country to hear lay Catholics’ reactions to the abuse/cover-up revelations and their expectations for resolving them; and
- Formal support for Statutes of Limitations reform to provide victims/survivors with redress through civil authority.
Voice of the Faithful® has written NRB Chairman Al J. Notzon, III, regarding the above, and will be anxiously awaiting the outcomes from the USCCB’s Fall General Assembly.
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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Voice of the Faithful ® 