The lay Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful has garnered many supporters (see "Voices of the Faithful," August 16) as well as some significant critics. Bishop William F. Murphy banned VOTF from meeting in his Rockville Centre, New York, diocese, as did Bishop William E. Lori in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Bishop Joseph J. Gerry, of Portland, Maine. (Bishop Emilio Allue, an auxiliary bishop of Boston, has ordered one of his pastors not to allow VOTF to meet in a parish, citing VOTF’s "hidden and open issues.") Bishop Murphy, Boston’s former vicar general, told the Long Island Catholic (September 18) that he sees no need for VOTF because a diocesan synod is being planned. He expressed doubts about VOTF’s goals, questioning how "a group of lay persons or any group can announce that they are going to care for the victims of sexual abuse"; and he queried the meaning of "supporting priests of integrity." VOTF’s motto also came under scrutiny: "’Keep the faith’ and ’change the church’—I don’t know what that means....we’re not naive—we know that in the church today there are people who disagree with things that the Holy Father teaches and which it’s necessary for a person to believe." "I made a judgment," Murphy concluded: VOTF "should not be setting the agenda for the good people in the Diocese of Rockville Centre."

In an August 13 press release, Bishop Lori explained, "I cannot support an organization like VOTF, which appears to promote dialogue and cooperation, but which in reality prosecutes a hidden agenda that is in conflict with the Catholic faith." What is this "hidden agenda"? Bishop Lori hasn’t responded to my queries. He did note in the press release that VOTF "espouses views similar to the international dissent movement We Are Church, including the rejection of church teachings on sexual morality and celibacy, and a view of conscience contrary to the traditions of the church."

Perhaps he had read the story about We Are Church in the Archdiocese of Boston’s weekly newspaper, the Pilot, "Boston Reform Movement Inspired by Dissident International Group." The editor Antonio Enrique mentions VOTF once and briefly quotes Thomas Arens, international coordinator of We Are Church, who spoke at the July 20 VOTF convention. But the article offers no evidence for the headline’s assertion. An editorial in the same issue also claims that VOTF is "inspired" by the "dissident" We Are Church.

Editorial talk of divisiveness and episcopal warnings of "dissent" may be rhetorically effective, but are they true? VOTF says no: "We do not advocate the end of priestly celibacy, the exclusion of homosexuals from the priesthood, the ordination of women, or any of the other remedies that have been proposed across the spectrum of Catholic thought. We do not endorse any organizations or interest group" (www.votf.org). This clarification wasn’t enough for the Pilot. An editorial (September 6), "You Are Known by the Company You Keep," reprints statements by the Reverend Walter Cuenin from Paul Wilkes’s New Yorker profile (September 2). Cuenin laments the silencing of priests on birth control, second marriages, and the ordination of married men and women. He also says that gays and lesbians should "not [be] told their lives are ’basically disordered.’" The Pilot editorial concludes, "While the leadership of VOTF may assert that they take no position on most matters of change in the Catholic Church, it is clear their backers do." In other words, you are known by the company you keep. The Pilot should know. Its publisher is Cardinal Bernard Law.

Related: VOTF Un-banned, by the Editors
Setting a Narrow Table, by the Editors