What real purpose does Voice of the Faithful serve?

A recent letter to the editor entitled, "Joining Voice of the Faithful will strengthen the Church," prompts me to write with a word of caution.

Last fall, we priests in New Jersey received a mailing from a local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, the Boston organization founded by a group of lay people in response to the clergy scandal in that archdiocese. While individual members of VOTF may be well-intentioned people who truly care for the Church, I do not trust any group that calls for the restructuring of the Church along democratic lines as well as a redefinition of our traditional understanding of Church governance.

The Code of Canon Law does indeed permit a well-trained laity to exercise leadership roles in the Church. Our diocese has, for example, a fine female canon lawyer serving as diocesan chancellor, a position once occupied exclusively by priests.

What disturbs me about VOTF, Call to Action and similar groups is their strong Congregationalist tone. Christ founded his Church as a hierarchically-structured society. The classical Catholic understanding of governance places it in the hands of the ordained cleric because our Lord placed it in the hands of his Apostles.

Even if VOTF were not the suspect group I believe them to be, what purpose do they serve anyway? When St. Catherine of Siena sought the restoration of the Church, she didn’t found a group to demand change. She instead begged the pope to abandon Avignon and return to Rome and exert his rightful authority from the See of Peter. Our best response to the clergy scandal is acts of reparation and prayer for our bishops to be the courageous shepherds we need them to be.

Opinions expressed in this section are those of the letter writer and do not necessarily reflect Church teaching, nor the position of The Catholic Spirit or the Diocese of Metuchen.

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