By Dick Ryan
(NY) Daily News
October 10, 2002

http://www.nydailynews.com/10-07-2002/news/ideas_opinions/story/24772p-23466c.html

Some 160 Catholic priests and former priests from the three New York dioceses got together in Manhattan on Thursday in a private room just above an Irish saloon. There are probably quite a few cardinals and bishops who regard that meeting as, if not sinister, then certainly disturbing.
From their point of view, the prelates are right. The priests are only the latest bloc of Catholics who are no longer the obedient boys and girls of their parochial school days.

There is a crisis of authority in the church as a result of the way the hierarchy has handled recent sex scandals. The pay-and-obey attitude among parishioners has been replaced by anger, mistrust and a sense of futility. The rupture of trust between bishops and priests may take generations to heal.

Revolution is too strong a word for what's happening, but reformation may describe it. Does the name Martin Luther ring a bell?

The priests at Thursday's meeting have chosen to call themselves Voice of the Ordained. The name parallels Voice of the Faithful, an organization of concerned Catholic men and women whose avowed goals is to "achieve a greater role in the guidance and governance of the church and shape structural change within the church." From bingo to the barricades?

The local Catholic hierarchy is well aware of the upheaval on its doorsteps and is following standard operating procedure by ignoring or condemning it. Edward Cardinal Egan and Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily say they have no official policy on these organizations, while Bishop William Murphy of Long Island has banned Voice of the Faithful from meeting in any church or other Catholic facility in his diocese.

Perhaps the three prelates can't be blamed if they are a little frazzled by the sudden emergence of Voice of the Ordained on their altars and Voice of the Faithful in their pews. A falling-off in the collection basket is undoubtedly a very real fear for all three, as is the threat of legal action by priests against bishops for rights violations.

But what Egan, Daily, Murphy and their peers should really be concerned about is the radical change in attitude in today's Catholic Church. It is a change that is still evolving, based on a mood that is getting angrier.

The Catholic Church in America may be about to close one door and open another if Voice of the Ordained and Voice of the Faithful grow loud enough to be heard all the way to Rome.

Ryan is editor of the anthology "Straight From the Heart: Reflections of Twentieth Century Mystics."

Originally published on October 7, 2002