In a move reminiscent of the now infamous General Betray-Us ad which the liberal group Moveon.org ran in the New York Times, A Catholic lay group formed after the priest sex abuse scandal is raising money to run a full-page newspaper ad timed to the Pope’s U.S. visit, says the Boston Herald.
Hello, Pope Benedict Welcome to America!
The Voice of the Faithful says it wants to re-ignite a national dialogue among the laity and clergy by placing the ad in a national newspaper to coincide with Pope Benedict’s weeklong visit.
Methinks this has more to do with raising funds.
The group says the culture of secrecy in the church which helped lead to the clergy sexual abuse scandal still exists and has created financial scandals in some parishes.
Oh no. You mean there are still sinners in the Church? Oh no!
Look, the clergy abuse scandal was awful and I pray that it’s over and the Church has learned its lesson. I also try to remember to pray for the victims of the abuse. But this group which likely did some good when they first formed is now in search of a reason for existing.
I read somewhere recently that all great movements degenerate into businesses and finally into rackets. I fear that’s what we’re seeing here.
The Voice of the Faithful was formed in 2002 in Massachusetts amid outrage over the sex abuse scandal. Since that story has dropped on the national radar VOF then started asking for the Church to end the celibacy requirement and now financial scandals. This seems to me like a group looking for a reason to keep meeting and most importantly…to keep raising money.
April 1, 2008 at 4:17 am
How about “Pope Benedict Arnold”?
April 1, 2008 at 7:10 am
Voice of the Faithful is an oxymoron… If they were faithful, they wouldn’t be pushing a progressive agenda.
April 1, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I really don’t like the term “progressive.” Do you? I know it’s the word they use to describe themselves but I don’t like it. It’s as if standing up against them and you’re hindering progress.
I don’t like the term liberal or conservative when it comes to matters of faith either. There is just faithful or unfaithful.
April 1, 2008 at 1:57 pm
VOTF has never been completely honest about themselves.
At their first national convention in the summer of 2002, they invited as a keynote speaker, Ms Debra Haffner, former president of SEICUS (Sex Education and Information Council of the US), to speak on making parishes safer for children. Despite being shown documentation from the SEICUS website, that they promoted “consensual” sex between adults and children, including those of the same sex, the leaders of VOTF not only went ahead with the speaker, but shut down the online discussion forum where the material was presented.
VOTF’s leadership later acknowledged that this decision was a mistake. But was it merely a tactical error (in that it led to getting caught), or a betrayal of their true intentions?
To this day, they openly support the cause of a sympathetic dissident priest, Father Walter Cuenin, who later admitted to the misuse of $75,000 in parish funds for his personal lifestyle, including a new car.
None of the above has ever been denied. I know. I was there. The leaders of VOTF are not who they pretend to be.
April 1, 2008 at 3:24 pm
“But this group which likely did some good when they first formed is now in search of a reason for existing.”
Yup. you got it. It has built up a Centrifugal force, its own gravity. It has a leadership that draws its identity, and paycheck from this organization.
Once it’s original purpose for being formed having been achieved/satisfied/completed, it had to find a new reason to exist so as to continue.
The only thing that comes to mind, as a former Bostonian, is the Mass Turnpike Authority, which was set up to pay for construction of Interstate 90, which was paid off many, many years ago, but the tolls, and the Bureaucracy that goes with it, goes on, and on, and on…
Unfortunatley, VOF’s chosen alternate reason for existing, which COULD have been noble, but instead is an ignoble one. Funny that. Hmmm, kinda shows where their heads are at after all.