Faithful
St. Louis [
VOTF St Louis ] by Women for Faith
& Family
VOTF and company must not be permitted to mount in their
destructive crusade unopposed.
A
local effort
to spread dissent in the Church, "Faithful St. Louis", is a spin-off
of a "reform" coalition of dissident Catholic groups organized in
Boston
in the heat of the clerical sex-abuse crisis, "Voice of the
Faithful". VOTF claims to "represent the `great middle' of the
Catholic Church -- `the people in the pews'". Its slogan "Keep the
Faith, Change the Church" is deliberately ambiguous. VOTF proclaims it
holds a "Centrist Philosophy", and that its goal is "rebuilding
the Church, not tearing it down".
The
VOTF web site also states, "We have no alliances with issue-oriented
interest groups. Our call for lay participation in the governance and guidance
of the Church is based on the clear teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
... We believe that working with the hierarchy to create structural mechanisms
(`structural change') through which lay Catholics can influence the temporal
governance and guidance of the Church -- including ... administration at all
levels -- will help restore the Church to spiritual and moral health."
VOTF
plainly does have "alliances with issue-oriented interest groups" --
it is a revived coalition of dissenting Catholic groups and individuals that
have openly proclaimed their intention to demolish the present hierarchical
structure of the Church and to change her most fundamental teachings. These
"alliances" are revealed in news accounts of VOTF.
Since
VOTF's widely-publicized Boston meeting in July, where it is reported that 4,000
people gathered in a church basement in to organize it, there have been efforts
to establish chapters in all parts of the country. At least one bishop, Bishop
William Lori of Bridgeport, made clear his objections to VOTF, and has
forbidden the group to meet on church property. They have encountered less
opposition elsewhere.
In
St. Louis, a meeting of "Faithful St. Louis" ("Claim the
Promises...Explore the Possibilities") is explicitly aimed at forming a
chapter of the dissident VOTF coalition. Some presenters at the St. Louis
gathering, "Ways to Create a Healthier Church", to be held September
21, at Harris-Stowe State College in midtown St. Louis, are high-profile
dissenters.
None of the sixteen-member steering committee is known for faithfulness to
Church teachings.
Sister
Louise Lears, coordinator of the steering committee of "Faithful St.
Louis" and of the conference, is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati who
teaches health-care ethics at St. Louis University. She is also coordinator of
the recently combined St. Louis leftist groups, Center for Theology and Social
Analysis and Catholic Action Network for Social Justice, whose address is the
same as "Faithful St. Louis".
Sister Louise was among the "women's ordination" protesters during the papal visit to St. Louis in 1999. The radical Call to Action group publicizes this protest on its web site:
"CTAers
were among 550 Catholic in a candlelight prayer vigil outside the St. Louis
cathedral January 25, the eve of the pope's arrival. Their banner read:
`Catholic women for Justice', a coalition begun by area women after their
return November 1 from the CTA conference in Milwaukee. Prayer rather than a
protest was chosen in order to be `lovingly confrontational', said Sister
Louise Lears, one of the leaders. But the prayers called for full participation
of women in all ecclesial roles, and an end to sexism in the Church. ... The
event was widely covered on television news in St. Louis and Chicago, and
picked up by ABC and NBC national news programs. Press accounts appeared in
major dailies coast to coast, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles
Times, the Kansas City Star and the Dallas Morning Herald.
"While women's issues
were central, the prayer vigil also reminded the news media of other church
reform goals" treatment of church employees, participation in selecting
church leaders, and remedying the priest shortage. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
headline read, `Group seeks democracy within the Catholic Church.' Local groups in the
coalition included Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity [FOSIL]; the Sisters
of Loretto, and the Center for Theology and Social Analysis. National groups
with representatives at the vigil included CTA, the Association for the Rights
of Catholics in the Church, the Women's Ordination Conference, and
CORPUS."
[CTA
web site:www.cta-usa.org/watch2-99/inmexico.html]
Catholics for a Free Choice web site also quotes Sister Louise from the Los Angeles Times, "It was...not a protest rally but a candle-lit prayer meeting intended to quietly underscore the hope that their church will one day admit women to the Roman Catholic priesthood. ...
`You
might call it lovingly confrontational'."
[www.cath4choice.org/spanish/new/inthenews/013099ReverentialTreatmentOfJP2.htm]
Robert
Schutzius,
an ex-priest and a founder of the radical dissident group, Association for
Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC), been pushing a radical agenda for
"restructuring" the Catholic Church for 30 years.
ARCC's
June 17 statement on the Dallas bishops' meeting published on its web site
states its concern that the bishops' charter "[reduces] all sexual abuse
to the same level. This kind of draconian implementation violated the basic
Christian principle of forgiveness and will result in harm to good men who have
sinned and reformed".
"We
are concerned by the lack of debate concerning the annulment of ordination. We
are concerned at the relatively minimal involvement of lay people in bodies
called to establish policies and effect structural changes. These bodies must
be independent of all hierarchical ties and have real authority."
(emphasis added. http://arcc-catholic-rights.org/dallaspress.htm)
ARCC
also proposes an 8-page "Constitution of the Catholic Church" on its web
site (http://arcc-catholic-rights.org/constitution.htm). Extremely ambitious
and sweeping in its objectives for "radical equality" in the Church,
the 1994 "Constitution" proposes that the pope be elected for "a
single ten-year term by Delegates ... chosen as representatively as possible,
one third being bishops."
The
"Charter of the Rights of Catholic in the Church", endorsed by a
spectrum of dissenting groups, is also published on the ARCC web. Among the
endorsing groups are Call to Action (CTA), homosexual advocacy groups
Dignity-USA, and New Ways Ministry, the Women's Ordination Conference, and
CORPUS, a national association for married priesthood.
On
the "Faithful St. Louis" web site, Schutzius "urges [people] to
spend some time exploring www.arcc-catholic-rights.org. There you will find,
among many other interesting articles, a list of Rights of Catholics in the
Church and a draft Constitution of the Catholic Church, (the idea was initiated
by Pope Paul VI), already adopted by European reform organizations, and
introduced at the Boston VOTF conference in July" (www.faithfulstlouis.com/forum4intro.html).
Schutzius
is hopeful that this St. Louis meeting will jump-start the ARCC goals :
"With
these rights and the draft constitution as a background, our forum will focus
very quickly on how to implement these rights and accountability on the parish
level through the parish council or a VOTF chapter if needed."
Among
"Objectives
for Discernment" Schutzius lists for his "Faithful St. Louis"
session include how to create an "effective and participatory parish
council"; "how to gain support for a parish constitution"; and
"Communication and interaction with the bishop."
Father
Charles Bouchard, OP, a steering committee member for "Faithful St.
Louis", is president of Aquinas Institute of Theology. Father Bouchard
publicly defends "gay" priests and seminarians. In a May 20 Newsweek
essay, "Gays and the Seminary", he reacted to Bishop Wilton Gregory's
comment that "there does exist a homosexual atmosphere or dynamic [in
seminaries] that makes heterosexual men think twice. Newsweek reported
Bouchard's dismissive quip:
"Such
complaints irritate gay clergymen and their defenders. `I think straight
priests and seminarians shouldn't be whining,' says the Rev. Charles Bouchard,
president of the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. `I just don't
think it's a big deal.'" (http://www.msnbc.com/news/751068.asp_)
Paige
Byrne Shortal, also a steering committee member and presenter of a session
"Lay Pastoral Ministers: Part of the Solution", a pastoral associate
in Washington, Missouri, once taught liturgy at St. Louis University, and is
locally known for her critique of Catholic teachings. She has publicly
criticized the bishops' policy toward sex-abusers as unforgiving. In a St.
Louis Post-Dispatch article March 12, she lays blame for sex-abuse by clergy to
the "private world of clerics" and "secret-society
mentality" that "fill priests with distorted ideas about a superior
calling". "Maybe the Spirit is leading us as church to create a new
kind of priesthood; a priesthood that is part of a ministry that is truly of
and for the people -- healthier for all concerned". Her words are
reflected in the title of the "Faithful St. Louis" conference, "Ways
to Create a Healthier Church".
Mary
and Jerry Wuller, who are also presenters, were organizers of a "Town
hall" session at Nerinx Hall school in suburban St. Louis following the
Dallas meeting that featured Sister Jeannine Gramick, founder of the homosexual
advocacy group, New Ways Ministry. Gramick defied both the Holy See and her own
religious order to continue her work for homosexual rights. (This summer she
left her order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, to join the Sisters of
Loretto.)
"She
essentially said it is time to speak truth to power", Mary Wuller said of
Gramick, as quoted in Webster-Kirkwood Times July 28-July 4, 2002.
Mary
Wuller is a local "expert" in lay ministry, who taught for 25 years
at the Paul VI Catechetical Institute, five years in the archdiocesan Lay
Ministry Formation program, and taught courses at Kenrick Seminary in St.
Louis, according to "Faithful St. Louis" (www.faithfulstlouis.com/forum8intro.html).
Among
the lay groups participating in the Nerinx Hall meeting were Catholic Women and
Men for Justice, Catholic Action Network and the Center for Theology and Social
Analysis, groups headed by Sister Louise Lears (among other core committee
members are Sister
Jean Abbott, CSJ, and Mark Chmiel, who teaches at St. Louis University and Webster
University.)
Steering
committee member Pam Schaeffer is a reporter for the militantly
"progressive" weekly, National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City and
former religion writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Also
on the steering committee of "Faithful St. Louis" is Monsignor James
Telthorst, recently appointed pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows, former pastor of
the St. Louis Cathedral and former director of Liturgy for the archdiocese. Monsignor Telthorst will celebrate Mass for
the "Faithful St. Louis" meeting.
Heading
the list of presenters at the St. Louis meeting is Barbara Blaine, one of the abuse
victims who testified at the Dallas bishops' meeting and president of SNAP, the
victims advocacy group whose demands for accountability from Church leaders in
the sex-abuse scandals has risen to prominence this year. What Ms. Blaine's own
views are on the other key doctrinal issues that are the target of the axis of
radical "restructuring" groups that form VOTF is unknown.
It
is by now clear that VOTF's agenda-driven coalition of groups and individuals
-- in St. Louis as elsewhere -- are cynically attempting to take advantage of
the grave wounds the Church has recently suffered to wreak even greater havoc.
They have moved quickly to capitalize on the dismay and confusion of many
Catholics over the dereliction of Church leaders in confronting the issues that
led to this crisis. One may hope that they misread the actual mood of most
Catholics toward the Church, and that their appeal will be mainly to aging
dissenters. But the Church does not need further assaults from within. VOTF and company must
not be permitted to mount in their destructive crusade unopposed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helen
Hull Hitchcock is founding director of Women for Faith & Family, a St.
Louis-based organization of Catholic women, and editor of the liturgical
journal, Adoremus
Bulletin.
mailto:Editor@wf-f.org to comment or join Women for Faith
& Family
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