Voice of the Faithful Facing Financial,

Membership Woes

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Voice of the Faithful, the church reform movement begun in 2002 in reaction to the nationwide clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, is now in a financial and organizational crisis, according to a report recently posted on its Web site.

Twenty-two people, including officers of Voice of the Faithful and members of its National Representative Council from across the United States, met in the Boston area April 27-29 for its semi-annual gathering.

Among the attendees were Bill Casey, who chairs the organization’s board of trustees, and Mark Mullaney, interim executive director.

According to an account of the meeting posted on the organization’s Web site at www.votf.org, “Both Bill Casey and Mark Mullaney described the financial shortfall VOTF will face in the coming months. Although the number of individual contributors has increased, in the past year or so the number of major donors has declined. VOTF must reverse this trend to erase a projected $100,000 deficit in the next fiscal year.”

National Shrine in D.C. Will Build Italian Chapel

WILMINGTON, Del. – The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington contains chapels representing many Catholic ethnic groups in the United States – with one big exception. “Where is the Italian chapel?” Wilmington Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli has often asked.

That very omission is why he, a cardinal and three other bishops of Italian descent are leading a campaign to build an Italian chapel in honor of Our Lady of Pompeii.

Italian-Americans are “as strong as any other ethnic community,” Bishop Saltarelli said, noting that the lack of an Italian chapel at the national shrine seemed curious at first to a group of bishops including Brooklyn-born Cardinal Anthony J.

Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia; Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington, Va.; Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio; and New York Auxiliary Bishop Robert A. Brucato.

The Italian chapel in the Washington shrine, designed by the Rambusch Decorating Co., will be located in the basilica’s west foyer and will be completed in fall 2008.

Contributions marked “Italian Chapel” may be sent to: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Ave. N.E., Washington, DC 20017.

Latin American Bishops Challenged to Be Creative

APARECIDA, Brazil – The sweeping scope of Pope Benedict XVI’s speech opening a major meeting of the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean left the prelates free to address the banes and blessings of the modern world.

The question is whether the pastoral guidelines they are crafting will enable the Church to confront the region’s challenges prophetically, with creativity and courage.

The first draft of the document that will be one legacy of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean is an encouraging, though disorganized, step in that direction.

Distributed to the bishops May 24, it is still rough and is expected to undergo three more revisions.

The bishops are grappling with the fundamental question of how to inspire Catholics to take ownership of their faith, seek a personal conversion that leads them to follow Jesus, and live out that commitment in the church and the world.

The church leaders must candidly examine trends in both society and the church that lead some Catholics to join evangelical groups while a much larger number remain Catholic in name only.

Bishop Wenski Testifies on House Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON – The problem that must be solved by immigration reform “is not the immigrants” but “the broken system,” the former chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration told a House subcommittee.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., urged lawmakers to produce legislation that would reform the current immigration system and respect the dignity and rights of immigrants and migrant workers.

He spoke on behalf of the U.S. bishops about comprehensive immigration reform, joining representatives of other religious denominations in giving testimony to the subcommittee.

Before the hearing, Bishop Wenski said that one of the most important aspects of immigration reform is to ensure that policies would help unite families and not divide them.

He expressed concern in his testimony that the current Senate bill would separate families by replacing the family preference system with a merit-based system and by capping the number of visas for parents of U.S. citizens.

N.Y. Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund Gets $22.5 M Donation

NEW YORK – A New York philanthropist has donated $22.5 million to the Archdiocese of New York for its inner-city scholarship program.

The donation, from former Wall Street investor Robert Wilson, will enable 3,000 children to attend Catholic schools in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island through the scholarship program launched two years ago to provide needy students with partial- or full-tuition grants. Catholic schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens are not included.

Wilson, an 80-year-old atheist, told reporters after the donation was announced that he had no problem supporting a fund for Catholic school students.

“Shunning religious organizations would be abhorrent,” he told Bloomberg News.
“Keep in mind, I’m helping to pay tuition. The money isn’t going directly to the schools,” he pointed out.