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  Familiar Face Back in Lynn

By James Haynes
Daily Item [Lynn MA]
September 15, 2005

LYNN - For some attending his speech at St. Pius, Voice of the Faithful's national Executive Director Ray Joyce might have looked oddly familiar.

A former Lynner and one-time congregant at St. Pius, before moving in his teens, Joyce returned Thursday to the church's lower hall, where he remembered taking CCD classes, to meet with members of the Lynn-Area VOTF affiliate and the curious among Lynn's laity.

Heading an organization that is viewed by some as a much-needed progressive voice in Catholicism, and by others as a radical group that spoke out against the Boston Archdiocese, getting out amongst the faithful and explaining what VOTF is working for is an important part of Joyce's activism.

"A big part of what we are doing now is education," said Joyce. "For the laity on the whole, there is much more we could know about our faith. To have the confidence to speak up and speak out, you need to have that basis and familiarity in our faith."

Formed in the basement of a Wellesley parish in February of 2002, VOTF quickly rose to prominence in the Boston area during the height of the priest sex abuse scandal - Lynn's affiliate formed only a month later - and has consistently called for transparency and accountability within the church, and pushed for a greater say in church affairs for the laity. The movement has spread throughout the United States and beyond its borders.

But with the furor over abuse slackening in the wake of an $85 million settlement in December of 2003, and the uproar of parish and school closures also tapering, Joyce, and others in the group, are working hard to keep VOTF relevant to mainstream Catholicism in the Boston Archdiocese's post-scandal era.

"Everything we're talking about is geared toward rebuilding trust in our church. The discoveries everyone made about problem priests being moved from parish to parish—it's terrible that happened—but it did and a lot of people's trust was injured or lost." said Joyce. "But in many of these cases, people are committed to their faith. They are not leaving the church, they want to stay and help."

Broadly, the current effort means supporting the "good priests" and survivors of sexual abuse, and establishing a productive dialogue with church leadership after several adversarial years.

How successful that dialogue will be, while VOTF continues lobbying state legislators and voters to support a Senate bill requiring religious organizations to file annual reports with the Attorney General disclosing financial holdings, remains an open question.

It also means trying to meet with as many of those who are undecided about what role VOTF should play in church reform. The organization, Joyce argued, works for change within existing Catholic doctrine and has avoided hot-button issues like priest marriage or women in the priesthood.

But in an area of life where questioning the accepted order is not always encouraged, and fighting against sometimes ambivalent public perception -former Cardinal Bernard Law banned many of the groups affiliates from using Archdiocese property or materials - it can be an uphill battle.

"It's almost a cultural issue. As Catholics, although we were encouraged to question some social orders or governments, it feels wrong to question the Church. There's an old saying 'Pray, pay and obey,' but once you start talking with people, it's often possible to get over that cultural gap," said Joyce. "We're not against the church; we are trying to spread the good news. We feel with more laity involvement, with more accountability and transparency we will have a more welcoming and vibrant church."

 
 

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