Voice of the Faithful

Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is an organization of progressive Catholics, formed in early 2002 in response to the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases.

Founding, growth and mission
VOTF began when a small group of parishioners met in the basement of St. John the Evangelist church in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States, to pray over allegations that a priest had abused local youngsters. Its meetings soon became well attended, as well as attracting significant media attention. A conference it held in July 2002 attracted over 4,000 lay Catholics, victims of clergy sexual abuse, theologians, priests and religious from around the U.S. and the world. Less than a year after its founding, VOTF was able to claim 30,000 members worldwide. VOTF currently has members in all 50 states and in 21 nations, with over 150 Parish Voice affiliates.

Jim Muller, one of VOTF's co-founders and its first president, has written a book about the group's founding called "Keep the Faith, Change the Church."

VOTF's mission statement is: "To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church."

It has articulated three goals:

1. To support victims of clergy sexual abuse;

2. To support priests of integrity; and

3. To shape structural change within Church.

Positions
Voice of the Faithful works to support victims of clergy sexual abuse and advocates for bishops' fuller accountability for their handling of complaints of abuse by clergy. The group is partially credited with forcing the resignation of Boston's Archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, in December 2002.

Members of the organization have worked to extend the Statute of Limitations for allegations of abuse against minors. One of its more visible accomplishments was its involvement in the effort to extend the SOL in Massachusetts. The group leading this effort, called the Coalition to Reform Sex Abuse Laws, included many VOTF members.

VOTF advocates for structural change in the Church&mdash;in general, for lay members to have a greater administrative voice, especially regarding financial oversight, in their parishes and dioceses.

VOTF has recently taken a controversial stand in calling for the Vatican to review the requirement that priests be celibate. Jim Post, a former president of VOTF, stated, "We’ve repeatedly rejected that argument, saying that those are not our issues. Even I, from time to time, wonder whether we shouldn’t just declare victory and say a lot’s been done in five years."

Connecticut attorney Thomas Gallagher, a noted contributor to VOTF, was instrumental in writing proposed legislation, similar to the 1905 law in France, which would remove bishops' control of the dioceses and place them into the hands of laymen.

Leaders from VOTF have helped create the American Catholic Council, a group of dissident Catholics who want to reform the Church.

Analysis
A two year study conducted by Catholic University of America found that VOTF members "share a deep and highly involved commitment to their Church." and the group has been endorsed by a number of American Catholic theologians. An article in Commonweal called the group "one of the most interesting and hopeful developments to come out of the Catholic Church’s sexual-abuse crisis."

Since its inception, many have questioned whether VOTF is, as it claims, operating within the law, doctrine and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. The group has hosted many speakers not in favor with the hierarchy, such as Eugene Kennedy, a long-time observer of the Roman Catholic Church, professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago and author of the book "The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality"; and Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.C.D., an advocate for obtaining justice for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests,  who has been reprimanded for failing to implement liturgical guidelines.

Some feel that ongoing publicity, prosecution and high profile legal settlements related to sexual abuse by priests, such as the July 2007 Diocese of Los Angeles settlement, point to the group's continued influence. Other reports, however, say that the group is broke and facing an identity crisis.

In his 2008 book Here Comes Everybody, author Clay Shirky studied VOTF as an example of an activist group for which the communication possibilities of the Internet were essential; contrasting its success with an "almost identical" 1992 case of a pedophile priest in the same diocese, also under Bishop Law and reported by the Boston Globe, but before widespread adoption of the Internet.