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	Voice of the Faithful: Dissenters, Plain and Simple By Andrew Piacente Journal News April 29, 2008 http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/OPINION/804290305/1076/OPINION01 I am submitting this in response to Peggy Cashman's April 17 Community View, "Plea to pope: Send a message of compassion." Cashman is chairwoman of Voice of the Faithful Southern Westchester. The Journal News and other publications have, over the past couple of years, given publicity to a group who think they are affiliated with the Catholic Church. This group is called Voice Of The Faithful. VOTF began in January 2002 as a support group for parishioners who wanted to express their concerns about the sex-abuse scandal in the Church. What started in one church basement in Wellesley, Mass., has now grown into a full-blown organization with a contact list of over 22,000 names. Many of those associated with its leadership are involved with other dissenting groups, like Call to Action and We Are the Church. If one hears these names - run! Beware of this group. They are an anti-Catholic group of dissenters. Some names of prominent members follow: James Carroll - Carroll is a columnist for the Boston Globe who calls himself a Catholic. He was ordained a priest in 1969 but left the priesthood in 1974 and married before his laicization, effectively excommunicating himself. His columns in the Globe confirm that he believes in contraception, abortion, and women's ordination. Additionally, he rejects numerous fundamental Church teachings, such as the divinity of Jesus Christ. Dr. Thomas H. Groome - Dr. Groome is professor of theology at Boston College, has said of ecclesial hierarchy: "I would love to see an overhaul in how our bishops are chosen because right now they're chosen by a kind of subterfuge - a kind of backroom politics." Dr. Leonard Swidler - Dr. Swidler is professor of Catholic thought at Temple University. He stands for a more "democratic" church which includes the proposal for elected leaders, term limits for those leaders, a legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Many bishops around the country have banned this group from their parishes. Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport banned Voice of the Faithful from meeting in parishes in the southwest Connecticut diocese. His action followed that of Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, who barred the group from meeting on church property in the Long Island diocese. Bishop Lori states, "I cannot support an organization like Voice of the Faithful, which appears to promote dialogue and cooperation, but which in reality prosecutes a hidden agenda that is in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic faith." Bishop John J. Myers of Newark banned Voice of the Faithful from archdiocesan property as he called the organization "anti-Church and, ultimately, anti-Catholic." There are too many more to list. What it boils down to is this: Voice of the Faithful is simply another group of dissenters, plain and simple. It parades under the false guise of being centrist, apolitical, and faithful to the magisterium. They are wolves in sheep clothing. They rely heavily on the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium to support their push for a more "democratic" Catholic Church. It quotes the following passage in support of greater lay governance in the Church: "Thus every layman, by virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness, a living instrument of the mission of the Church herself." However, lay involvement is quite a different thing from the kind of "democratic" Church that VOTF wants. The establishment of a democratic Church was not the intent of Vatican II, as a later passage in Lumen Gentium explains: "The laity should promptly accept in Christian obedience what is decided by the pastors who, as teachers and rulers of the Church, represent Christ." This kind of selective reading of Church documents can be dangerously misleading. This is what they do. Mislead. VOTF is paving the way for a separate American Catholic Church based on popular public sentiment. The conclusion is inescapable: These activists are not Catholic in spirit, word, or intent. They are a force for anti-Catholicism parasitically existing within the technical boundaries of the Church. They have remained in the Church, to borrow again from Lumen Gentium, "'in body' not 'in heart.'" They have come full circle. They are now persecuting the same hierarchical Church for which many of their own immigrant ancestors suffered persecution, as stated by author Oswald Sobrino.
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