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Minutes from the Regional meeting North Babylon High School North Babylon, New York May 8, 2003

 

The meeting was opened with a Welcome by Sheila Peiffer.

The opening prayer was led by Eileen Weidig. The prayer follows.

Mary is the Virgin Mother of God. When we read Mary’s story in the Bible, we discover many ways that she cooperated fully with God’s plan for our salvation. She is the mother of Jesus, our Savior. She is our mother too. We look to her as the greatest model in following Christ and in living a holy life; Mary calls us to be faithful to her son.

There are times in our lives when we are troubled and afraid. We know that God is with us, but we do not know what God wants us to do.

When the Angel Gabriel came to may and announced to her that God had greatly blessed her, Mary was afraid. When we are afraid, we can turn to Mary and ask her to help us. Mary will always understand and intercede for us.

Sometimes we have questions. We wonder why certain things are happening to us and in our church, Mary had questions, too. There may be times when we find it hard to say yes to what God is asking of us. Mary is our model of saying yes to God.

Everyone experiences some kind of suffering in life. Mary, too, experienced great suffering in her life. As she stood at the foot of the cross and watched her son die. We sometimes forget how painful it must have been for Mary to watch Jesus suffer and die. When we are sad or hurting, we can turn to Mary. Mary will comfort us in all of our sufferings.

The last thing we read about Mary in the Bible was that she prayed with Jesus’ friends as they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Mary is the model of what we, the Church, should do. We, too, come together tonight with Jesus’ friends to pray and be filled with the powers of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray and respond "Pray for us"

Let us recall the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary and pray a Hail Mary while the Rosary is being presented to Mary to remind us to pray the Rosary.

Let us stand and pray:

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To you we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then most Gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, shown unto us the Blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us, Holy Mother of God that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

 

 

Sheila Peiffer introduced Sr. Margaret Mayce, the evening’s speaker.

 

I’d ask that our attentiveness to the Word of God, and to Easter hope – be our prayer as we begin – keeping in mind that the message of Easter hope, and transformed life that we have received, came to us through the voices of the lay faithful – women and men – who looked into the darkness of an empty tomb – and saw not death – but new life.

In the April 25th edition of the NCR, the cover article reads "Priesthood Considered – A Common Ground Initiative." This initiative was begun in 1996 by the late Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, and Msgr. Philip Murnion, director of the National Pastoral Life Center – New York City – it is an effort to address differences among Catholics in a constructive fashion, by attempting to reverse "the polarization that inhibits discussion." The Initiative’s document, entitled "Called to be Catholic" lists a number of topics that might be addressed – including ineffective religious education; the morale of priests; church governance; and the role of women in the Church.

At this year’s annual conference, the crisis in our Church was described as "a time of darkness." And some participants expressed concern that once the crisis leaves the public eye, complacency may set in – unless Catholics actively work to address the problems that have surfaced regarding the accountability of priests to the laity. Father Donald Cozzens – author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood and Sacred Silence: Denial and Crisis in the Church – suggested a reluctance to look into the meaning of the crisis – "because we fear it might take us to some kind of structural change that we’re not willing to take a look at."

What is basic to this Common Ground initiative is listening – in the words of New Mexico’s Bishop Ricardo Ramirez – a member of the Common Ground initiative, "Listening is one of the great gifts that a person can give to another person. Because when you really listen, you expose yourself to the possibility of changing your point of view."

This act of "really listening" bore fruit in the Brooklyn Diocese just last week, as Bishop Daily lifted his ban on the use of parish property for Voice of the Faithful meetings – a wonderful sign of Easter Hope.

"Listening," however, is asceticism and can never be coerced. Sincere efforts have been made to engage in dialogue about the crisis in our Church today, and the role of the lay faithful in helping to address them. But when these efforts are given only a perfunctory hearing, the consequent polarization is a source of profound frustration and indicative of the "time of darkness" in which we find ourselves as Church.

The poet W.B. Yeats has words which aptly describe these times in which we live – in his poem "The Second Coming" – Yeats writes, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold – Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, and everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is drowned. Surely, some revelation is at hand."

Yes, surely some revelation is at hand. Wasn’t that true for Mary Magdalen in the garden and for Peter and his companion who arrived at an empty tomb, early on the first morning of the week, while it was still dark.

Things had fallen apart for them – what they thought was their centre, was gone, their hearts were broken, their spirits defeated, by an utterly tragic turn of events. And yet as they looked into the darkness of an empty tomb – the trappings of death were clearly there – the linens that enshrouded a broken body, a cloth that wrapped a head, but death itself, was nowhere to be found.

When they looked into the darkness of an empty tomb and let the event speak to them deeply, they encountered the God whom neither tomb – nor institution – could contain – a revelation – given to them – to bring to others.

The Voice Of The Faithful knows well, that things have fallen apart and that what we assumed, for so long, to be our centre, the Church can no longer hold – the way it is. You also know that hearts have been broken, innocence has been drowned, and spirits have been defeated by an utterly tragic turn of events. As you look into the darkness of this moment in our Church, the trappings of death are clearly there:

These trappings of death are clearly there but if you listen with your hearts – as Mary in the garden, you too, will realize that death, itself, is nowhere to be found – but only the One whom neither tomb – nor institution – can ever contain – the Risen Christ – who cautions us not to cling to what was, but to live into what can be. Surely some revelation is at hand – might it be given to you, to bring to others?

I don’t make that suggestion lightly – in fact, "revelation" may well be one of those topics that we are not supposed to be discussing. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit breathes wherever she wills – and if, indeed, the divine spark is in us all, the Holy Spirit has outrageously free reign to inspire, to inspirit, to embody the will of God anywhere and in any one. Your Mission Statement "To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit . . ." places squarely on your shoulders a terrible, grace-filled burden – for it is nothing less than a commitment to profound listening – a listening that has the power to foster a change in the pattern of relationships within the Church, a change that will, in turn, set the stage for a new way of "being church" – a way that is appropriately inclusive, and accepting of the gifts and the leadership of the lay faithful as exquisitely clear expressions of the Spirit’s abiding presence among us.

At the root of the utterly tragic reality of sexual abuse in our Church, is the abuse of power – an abuse that permeates the structure, and taints the way "we are Church" for one another, and for the world. But even as we challenge this reality within our Church, we acknowledge that this certainly isn’t a problem unique to the Church. We need to ask the difficult questions. We need to pose the challenges, and take appropriate action. However, the way we do this, is of paramount importance. For you/I are as susceptible to mis-using power as any member of the hierarchy or the clergy.

In her book entitled Job’s Daughters: Women and Power – Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister reflects on psychiatrist Rollo May’s 5 kinds of power – each of which presents us with a choice for – or – against a holy future. It is one thing to talk about democracy and collegiality; about equality and the priesthood of all believers; about opportunity and grace. It is another thing entirely to develop a theology of power that will honestly enable the accomplishment of these concepts. She then proceeds to focus on the concept of integrative power.

Integrative power would be based on structures of collaboration; the ability to work with others as equals; the intention to listen and to learn from one another. In integrative power, one element does not consume, or control the other. They both become something new, something beyond themselves, and they do this together. Integration depends on an ability to see all of life as graced, all of life as important, all of life as containing a bit of the truth.

 

She concludes by reminding us that power is a complex quantity, a charism to be used with care, and a quality to be rigorously evaluated. The problem is that power is seldom evaluated at all – and is often, more likely to be called "God’s will." It is a boundary not to be tampered with.

The Voice of the Faithful is situated on this age-old boundary of who holds and exercises power in the Church; and lived experience makes it clear that this is a boundary that disempowers the lay faithful; destroys innocent lives; and impedes the healthy growth of the Body of Christ. To push the boundary, is risky. To walk the boundary line, is to be challenged by both turbulence and opposition; but it is also to engage wholeheartedly with the dynamics of transformation. Whenever there is a change in depth, there will be turbulence. As you probe more deeply into who the Spirit of God calls us to be as Church in this our time, you will need to risk the turbulence – but it is a holy place to be.

At your April meeting, it was commented that "your strength lies in your finances and the media; that you need to operate from a position of strength, and be activists." It was also pointed out that you "need to have more prayer and liturgy." It would be my hope that you consider this as your point of strength – prayer – personal and communal;

deep prayer – that will hold you steady in the turbulence; deep prayer that will strengthen you to do the small things that add up to not simply a cosmetic change in the structure, but rather a profound transformation in the way we relate to/with one another as members in good standing of the Body of Christ.

It is prayer that will remind you of your holy accountability to deep listening – even as you challenge others to theirs.

We would be naive to think that the level of transformation needed and desired will happen quickly. The road will be slow and painful; there will no doubt be set-backs along the way. However, this could well be a clear sign that your work is of God, because in some way, it is a participation in the Paschal Mystery itself – your very first "statement of belief" – a belief in "the unity of the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Our Lord."

When Mary, Peter, and the beloved disciple probed the darkness of an empty tomb, the trappings of death were clearly there, but death itself, was nowhere to be found – but only the One whom neither death, nor tomb, nor institution could ever contain.

Yes – things have fallen apart – the centre as we have known it, can no longer hold; surely, some revelation is at hand –

What you need to do – above all – in the words of Jesuit mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin –

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God"

We are impatient of being on

the way to something unknown,

something new,

and yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability —

and that it may take a very long time.

Your ideas mature gradually —

let them grow. . .

Don’t try to force them on. . .

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Let God lead you and accept the anxiety of

feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

But above all – trust – in the slow work of God that has so clearly taken root in you.

 

Margaret Mayce, OP

May 8, 2003

 

 

Gail Mahabirsingh, Membership.

Happy Easter to all!

Isn’t it wonderful that we get to celebrate Easter for 50 days?

A time for the spirit to continue its miraculous works and for us to rejoice in our commitment to "Keep the faith and change the Church"!

We are changing the Church. For the first time in recent history the laity is standing up and demanding that their voice be heard by our hierarchy.

Today in the New York Times it was revealed that the Archdiocese of Boston will post a detailed account of its budget online in an effort to win back the trust of parishioners.

The Brooklyn Diocese has seen Bishop Daly rescind the ban on VOTF meeting on church property.

It is the Spirit alive and well in our church pushing our brothers and sisters in Boston, Brooklyn, Queens and here on Long Island to press for accountability and responsibility in our church.

Accountability and responsibility start on the home front. It begins at the parish level

That means together we must continue to build our membership, grow the number of local parish voice affiliates and become an intrinsic part of our local parish for implementing pastoral councils, finance councils, and safety committee.

How many here tonight have a pastoral Council, in their parish?

How many have a finance council

How many a safety committee?

There is much to be done.

In our diocese on May 13th and 20th, there will be a workshop for Pastoral Councils. We have a flyer with the information so you can register for this workshop. It is not too late.

A Pastoral Council is meant to be a visionary body that assists in developing the vision and mission of the parish.

Workshops like this will empower the laity on the parish level. Sign up and take your pastor with you.

For those that are new here tonight, you may ask "Why a Parish Voice Affiliate?"

Our Parish Voices are a place for everyone to be heard.

Our Parish Voices are opportunities for discussion, education, planning and collaborating with our Pastors and parish staff for the future.

Our Parish Voices are where we can work to restore unity and trust in our parish and ultimately in our diocese.

Our Parish Voices are where we can work at the collective goal for all the faithful – a place at the table.

How many here tonight belong to a local Parish Voice Affiliate?

How may need help to start their Parish Voice or to energize and grow their local Parish Voice?

We are here to help you!

We will continue to listen to your suggestions, respond to your needs and views.

In the next couple of months we will be having our second Parish Voice Forum that will be held in Nassau County.

Because of your feedback form the first forum, we will have a panel made up of people from existing Parish Voices that can give solid help in starting or energizing your Parish Voice.

In the meantime, all of us wearing name tags with orange borders can help you get assistance. Many of us go to the Parish Voices Meetings to help

.

We are getting there.

Because of you we have over 1100 regular members.

116 Parishes out of 134 in our diocese have members in VOTF.

56 parish Voice Affiliates meet in 32 locations throughout Long Island.

Your voices have been heard and we urge you to continue to participate in building our voices one parish at a time so that one day we can all have a place at the table.

Thank You

 

 

Jim Godfrey

I bring news from the boundary.

Dialogue.

Over the past few weeks we have certainly had what can only accurately be termed ‘dialogue’ with the Bishop of Rockville Centre.

This may sound a bit vague, or perhaps too politically correct, but the level and tone of the discourse held between LI Voice of the Faithful and William Murphy over the past month since our last meeting is difficult to describe. In an effort to bring out the high points of our efforts to date and his responses, I have put together a few excerpts of the conversation…….

During the last Regional meeting held here, the attendees were asked to provide their own thoughts to the Bishop by using a form that began…’Dear Bishop Murphy,’

A few of those letters offered the following thoughts…..

 

In an effort to demonstrate our solidarity and concern over the handling we’ve received at the hands of the Bishop to date, we packaged these letters up, and sent them as a single 148 letter package to the Bishop.

Approximately a week later we received a response. It read in part,

"Recently, I received 132 form letters to which people have added their own particular remarks, all expressing concern that I am not allowing VOTF to meet on church property.  I have noted these.

 

Please be assured that if I were to receive ten-times this number of letters, they would not be a cause for changing my mind." 

The Bishop’s response continued…

"I have taken this position not in any way to deprive anyone or to punish anyone but simply because, as Bishop, have reservations about certain aspects of the words and actions of the national group and the implications that may have in terms of our local church."

 

Imagine the shock and surprise in reading this response. We had been told that the thoughts and concerns of our members were of little consequence to the Bishop. We were informed that on balance, the concerns of ten times our number would not cause him to reconsider what we believed to be his ill-considered position.

Following this response, we decided to send a letter back to the Bishop describing our dissatisfaction with his efforts over the last ten months. We have been mindful of the calls at these meetings for greater emphasis on the Diocese’s foot dragging; for a stronger voice challenging the smug, patronizing responses we’ve received in our correspondence with the Bishop. With many of your voiced concerns in mind we sent the Bishop the following letter:

 

Your Excellency: Over the past ten months, the Long Island Voice of the Faithful has sought to engage you in dialogue regarding the sex abuse scandal and cover up that has rocked and divided our church. We have sent you letters as an organization on this issue as well as others. We have petitioned you individually and we have sought to enlist the assistance of our pastors and parish priests. Throughout this period, we have, as good Catholics, continued to pray. We have been met with varying degrees of disinterest from you and the Diocese after each attempt to develop some basic relationship and rudimentary understanding. At alternate turns we have been referred to as the "unfaithful", ridiculed as a group that seeks to advocate against the dogmatic teachings of the church, and recently even been referred to as "untrustworthy". Despite this we persevere. Within the last few weeks several leaders of our organization had occasion to meet personally with you in your residence in Rockville Centre. They had what can only be termed a frank discussion with you and your seconds. Afterwards, they reported back to our Steering Committee with positive news: the Bishop seemed to be ready to take positive steps toward many of the issues affecting openness in our Church! Long Island Voice of the Faithful is not unlike most groups or organizations made up of people working toward a common purpose. Some are optimistic, some are pessimistic, some are reactionary and some are conservative. We strive to listen to all opinions, give them weight and then, while keeping a strict eye on our mission, develop a consensus and ultimately a strategy. In the aftermath of our meeting with you, the group’s consensus was fairly clear: to take as positive the discussions which occurred during the meeting and to move forward with efforts to support those initiatives that matched our mission. And then something truly troubling occurred. When asked about the meeting that took place between our two organizations, your spokesperson, Ms. Navarro, denied that the meeting ever took place! It was rather, a meeting with "individuals", not Voice of the Faithful. Bishop Murphy, as a man once referred to by Newsday as the "Secretary of State" to Cardinal Law, we would have thought such obfuscation beneath you. It serves little purpose to ignore our organization. While it may have been customary at other times since your ordination as a priest to placate and mollify the sheep you sought to shepherd, this time we simply won’t forget. Things won’t go back to the way they were. The toothpaste has officially left the tube. To a man of your intelligence and experience, it should by now be clear that you are confronted by organized, prayerful resistance. We have listened patiently from the pews and have awaited anxiously your plan for a remade and trustworthy diocese. We have listened closely to your pronouncements and tried to read carefully between the lines, hunting for some nugget of remorse, of compassion, of healing. We are left wanting. The only conclusion we can draw from your actions and words over the past ten months is that you simply do not believe that anything is wrong. Is there nothing wrong with dwindling attendance in our parishes? Is there nothing wrong with a diminishing return from the collection plate? Is there nothing wrong with the looks we receive from our teenagers when we ask them to accompany us to Mass? Is there nothing wrong with the resignation in shame of one of the most beloved and accomplished clergymen of our generation, your friend and mentor, Cardinal Law? Trust. That is what is wrong. Cardinal Law was not trusted. Our Church is not trusted. And you, Bishop Murphy, are certainly not trusted. We will continue to pray for you and for the advancement of humility in your heart. We will pray for you to seek once again to shepherd as you may once have endeavored, prior to your appointment to the Church’s hierarchy. Lastly, we will pray for the victims and their families who bear their crosses in life thanks to your rationalization of policies in Boston. But first we will pray for our Church – That she will survive your tenure as our Bishop. Bishop Murphy, without credibility you cannot lead. In Perseverance, The Board of Directors Long Island Voice of the Faithful

 

Following this letter several things occurred. Some of us had ‘buyer’s remorse’, a condition which is best described by saying out loud, ‘Did I just do that?’ Some of us reread the letter and offered the concern that we did not go far enough.

All of us involved in the drafting of the letter did one thing; we prayed that it would have some positive effect on the present status of our beleaguered Church.

This week we have seen one specific response from the Bishop to our letter and one more general one. The specific response came addressed to no one in particular but showed up in our PO Box. It reads as follows:

 

"Dear Friends in Christ:

I am in receipt of your letter of April 28.  While it pains me to hear your message, be assured that I have read it closely and have brought it to prayer.

It has been, and will continue to be, my commitment to listen to ideas, suggestions and thoughts of every member of the Church on Long Island. I have tried to do that and regularly subject my ideas to the judgment of others, changing them when it seems best so to do and implementing other person's ideas when they are superior to my own. In that spirit, I have listened to you and invite you to continue to share your insights with me and with my colleagues.

With assurance of my prayers and best wishes, I am


                                                                   yours in Christ,


                                                                   Bishop of Rockville Centre

 


In a more general sense, the Bishop responded to our letter in an editorial in the most recent edition of the LI Catholic.

In this editorial, he makes reference to a phrase that he states he’d just read in one of the many letters that he’d seen this past week. That Phrase was ‘You do not believe that anything is wrong’. The following is an excerpt of his answer to this Phrase;

 

"Knowing that my colleagues are doing a good job in this painful and sensitive area, I personally might give the impression that everything is taken care of and we can go back to business as usual. If I have given that impression, I apologize because it certainly is not my position or my intent. That impression may well be heightened by my feeling that at times some of the media and others have unfairly cast some of the more upsetting and painful aspects of this sad scandal without recognizing the sincerity of the Church’s desire to address and correct them. That personal reaction of wanting to defend what we are doing now may also give the impression that I "do not believe that anything is wrong."

So here we are. The Bishop has engaged us now, directly, only after we have summoned the courage to take him severely to task. He has been at alternate turns dismissive of us and then apologetic.

He has still not sought to admit in public that we have begun a dialogue.

He still has not let us in our own Churches.

What we may have learned from this exchange with the Bishop is that he believes us to be adversaries. What we have tried to express is our desire to work within the framework of the Church.

 

Dan Bartley suggests that everyone should read the Long Island Catholic and the article written by Bishop Murphy. It is in the typical fashion of Bishop Murphy that the article is all about him. The self proclaimed "Mr. Fix It"

In spite of baffling decisions and behavior, maybe he is one big distraction. We have two challenges.

How to continue to dialogue with the diocese through Bishop Murphy.

How to move ahead without the Bishop.

Consider these two questions in groups and then we will report to each other and share our suggestions.

What suggestions do you have on how to accomplish our mission without Bishop Murphy?

What suggestions do you have on how to deal with Bishop Murphy in an ongoing dialogue?

The groups met for a period of 10 minutes and then representatives of some of the groups reported their suggestions.

These suggestions were as follows:

 

Dan Bartley announced that VOTFLI is in need of more volunteers. We need fresh ideas for future action.

There will be sign-up sheets in the front of the room at the end of the meeting.

Kevin Connors gave the report from the Finance Committee. (The complete financial report is available on the VOTF-LI website)

There were two financial questions from the last meeting. One was to inquire as to the exact cost of a full page ad in Newsday.

A full page ad is $25,000.00

A half page ad is $14,000.00

A quarter page ad is $6,000.00

Reach out to people in your parish. You are our best publicity. Spread the word.

The first series of contributions was sent to the thirteen previously approved charities in Voice of Compassion.

Three of these charities, The Christopher Residence, Regina Residence and Newman Residence cannot directly deposit funds. Their checks need to go through the Bishop. These three contributions were returned to us.

This money will be redistributed to the remaining charities.

Practicing Catholics want to give to charities but they were returned.

The second question was regarding diocesan collections. Of these collections, 10% is taken by the diocese as a collection fee.

Eileen Weidig reminded the membership that there will be a mass in Honor of Our Blessed Mother at The Shrine of Our lady of the Island, sponsored by Long Island Voice of the Faithful. Fr. Gerry Fitzsimmons will celebrate the mass.

Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend. Please bring a picnic lunch or buy lunch at shrine. Encourage your local Parish Voice to attend.

Phil Megna remarked that being Cardinal Law’s "Mr. Fix It" was nothing to brag about, but should be apologized for.

He introduced and reviewed the survey that will be integral to the Faith Festival on September 27, 2003 and asked everyone to take at least ten copies with them. Get your Catholic friends and neighbors to answer the survey. All Catholic opinions are important and need to be counted.

Fr Richard McBrien will be the Keynote speaker. Another speaker will be Sr. Pat Duffy. The Faith Festival will end with a mass.

Dan Bartley mentioned that there are fliers available with information about a SNAP conference.

Victim Support is available as they are at every meeting, in the front of the room at the end of the evening. Anyone who would like to speak with them is encouraged to do so.

Pat Paone from Publicity reminds the membership that an interview with VOTF individuals and representatives will air on National Public Radio. She supplies times and stations for the following day. The interviewer is Barbara Bradley Haggerty.

Sheila Peiffer Thanks everyone for their input and urges that serious consideration be given to signing up for a committee.

Publicity should be everyone’s job – spread the word.

Urge everyone to attend the Faith Festival.