Can Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful get along?

Social justice news
April 2003

A battle of the church reform network stars?
American prison population surpasses 2 million
Congress urged to support lasting peace in Congo
CRS responds to humanitarian crisis in Iraq
Dispatches from the peacelines
VOTF meets with Francis Cardinal George

A battle of the church reform network stars?

Left to right (but not politically!): VOTF's Terry O'Connor joins CTA's Dan Daley and VOTF's Jim Muller and Steve Shimek outside the offices of the Archdiocese of Chicago on April 1.

Call to Action may be the granddaddy of Vatican II-inspired church reform efforts, but new-kid-on-the-block Boston's Voice of the Faithful has drawn most of the recent press attention during the church's clergy sex abuse crisis. VOTF is attempting to pull together a national network of mainstream Catholics calling for church governance reforms in the wake of the ongoing sex abuse scandal and cover-up.

Could the two groups end up diminishing the drive for structural reform of the church, diluting the energy and the pockets of Catholic reform activists and potential funders?

On April 1, CTA Co-Director Dan Daley waits outside the offices of the Archdiocese of Chicago for the start of a press conference called to publicize the outcome of a rare meeting between VOTF founder Jim Muller and Chicago's Francis Cardinal George.

"I don't see a conflict at all," he says. "We're very much in agreement with Voice of the Faithful on their concerns, issues around sex abuse and church reform, and the voice of laity in decision making, and we have been working cooperatively with Voice of the Faithful groups.

"We aren't tripping over each other's agendas, cooperate where we can, and have distinct purposes and positions," says Daley. "I, for one, am very supportive of Voice's attempt to bring together progressives and conservatives. We're all for that and would be happy to participate if called upon."

Daley denies that VOTF might drain reformist resources from CTA. He argues it is more likely that VOTF is expanding the potential base for reform as it educates more mainstream Catholics about some of the major issues facing the church in America. In a strategy meant to attract as many Catholics as possible to its aim of enhancing lay governance, VOTF takes no positions on controversial issues such as women's ordination and priestly celibacy, key CTA concerns.

"The formation of VOTF includes people from a spectrum of Catholic opinion," Daley says. "They want to stay focused on . . . decisionmaking in the church and the crisis of sex abuse and the support of survivors, and we are very clearly outfront on issues such as women's ordination.

"Voice has brought out folks who would never have heard of [CTA] or necessarily participated with us because [VOTF has organized] on the parish level and has really worked at . . . forming parish groups that represent a wide variety of perspectives that we would not have reached." As a result, Daley says, "The pie of Catholics who are saying, 'No more,' and 'Enough is enough' is getting larger.

As far as the likelihood of VOTF reaping any success in fields of reform already tilled by so many for so long, Daley remains guardedly optimistic. The unfortunate circumstances of the clergy sex abuse crisis offers reformers a unique, if depressing opportunity to change the way the American church constitutes itself. VOTF, he says, may prove just the force that could exploit that opening.

"This is an exciting time in the development of the movement of lay participation," he says. "[Lay Catholics are thinking]: 'Hey, maybe some changes will occur.' . . . People are getting involved at whatever level in whatever group."—Kevin Clarke

Back to page top