BishopAccountability.org
	VOTF Heeds "Call to Action" By Francis X. Fay Jr. The Hour January 10, 2009 http://www.thehour.com/story/463011 Voice of the Faithful members of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport took heart this week from an address by Paul Scarbrough of Norwalk, a member of the national board of "Call to Action," an organization that has been seeking church reform much longer than VOTF. They took heart because Scarbrough told them that they are in a typical stage in the development of social movements. "Your organization has reached a period after seven years where membership has plateaued, media interest has faded and a general feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness has raised the potential for burnout," he told the 38 members attending the session in the First Congregational Church on the Green in Norwalk. "The power structure and media claim your movement has failed and some of the public may be turned off by your rebelliousness. It seems like the end, but in fact, it is the just the beginning." Scarbrough outlined three more steps that could gradually evolve for VOTF toward achievement of the goal of wresting control of the church away from the bishops appointed by Rome to bishops elected by the faithful. VOTF believes this is essential if the institution is to regain the vibrancy it exuded at various epochs in its history. Scarbrough's talk inspired considerable soul-searching by the VOTF membership, who discussed ways in which the organization could attract minority members and younger people while becoming less lily-white and more youthful. The speaker born and raised in the Philadelphia area has been a Norwalk resident for more than two decades after coming here to work with Jaffe Acoustics in South Norwalk. Now on his own, he recently completed the acoustical design for Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville, TE. He has been active in church reform since joining the national CTA board in 1990. CTA is an independent national Roman Catholic movement of more than 25,000 people in 53 local chapters working for equality and justice in the church and society through the JustChurch strategic vision. It draws its mission from the United States Catholic Bishops' 1976 Call to Action Conference. Scarbrough has also been active with Dignity/USA, an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Roman Catholics, where he has held a variety of local and national leadership positions, including service as co-chair of the 1997 Dignity National Convention in Boston. VOTF will next meet Feb. 5 when Carmine Galasso, senior photographer for The Record of New Jersey will speak on his book "Crosses: Portrait of Clergy Abuse." The work contains portraits of survivors' struggles to seek justice from a church intent upon covering it up.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.