BOSTON (MA)
National Catholic Reporter
Sep. 15, 2012
By Jerry Filteau
BOSTON – Some 450 members of Voice of the Faithful gathered in Boston yesterday (Sept. 14) to mark their 10th anniversary with a conference that featured new calls for deep structural reforms in the church, including election of bishops and ordination of women at least to the diaconate, if not to the priesthood and episcopacy as well.
“Your voice is uniquely American and it is uniquely Catholic,” said Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, keynote speaker at the opening dinner.
Burke, a former chairwoman of the all-lay National Review Board the bishops formed in 2002 to oversee its progress in combating clergy sexual abuse and promoting the protection of children, said the job of doing that is far from over.
“Without your voice, here in the United States everyone’s freedom as a Catholic would be even more threatened. Everyone’s liberty as a disciple would be more contained. We never needed you more,” she said.
“The formation of the Voice of the Faithful established a new American vocabulary for the truth,” she said.
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