Archbishop in Newark bans group Organization formed following sex scandal

New Jersey Star Ledger ^ | October 11, 2002 | DAVID GIBSON

[ZULU]

With a sharply worded rebuke, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers has barred from church property the New Jersey chapter of a national lay reform group that started in Boston following the clergy sexual abuse scandals and now includes members across the country.

[ZULU]

"He said the true purpose of the group, which goes by the acronym VOTF, is "to act as cover for dissent."

Some people never learn from history. Dissent was what Martin Luther and the Reformation was all about, only THIS time, the "dissent" is from Catholics who maintain their Catholicism and object to the tyranny of a Medieval Hierarchy whose only apparent goal is to protect and preserve its own interests and not consider the welfare of the "flock" whose "shepards" they have been entrusted to supervise.

The Catholic Church, and a number of other mainstream Christian faiths are anachronisms in a modern world in whcih they are becoming increasingly irrelevent. Like dinosaurs oblivious to an approaching asteroid, they plod on, arrogant, conceited,self-centered and full of their own importance.

While all of Christandom is threatened by the most dangerous outbreak of militant Islam since Mehmet the Great, these people are concerned with social issues which have no connection to the purpose and function of an organized church, and assiduously protect their "right" to exist as the sole still functioning absolute monarchies.

Disgraceful.

[wideawake]

Your claims about the Church are not only inaccurate (I would surmise willfully inaccurate) and offensive.

The VOTF is nothing but a cover for anti-Catholic doctrinal agitation.

RCF (Roman Catholic Faithful) is an organization which has long campaigned for a reform of the seminaries and was instrumental in exposing much of the malfeasance which has scarred the Church. They did so without calling into question the Church's doctrine, focusing instead on the administrative failings of those who permitted abuses to occur.

Your post is extremely hypocritical, as well as disgraceful and disingenuous. By calling the largest and most vibrant Christian Church on earth an "anachronism" and "medieval" is not only ridiculous but INTENTIONALLY DIVISIVE.

We are in a struggle against worldwide Islam. The Catholic Church, historically, has been the most successful bulwark against the menace of Islam. Your badmouthing and second-guessing of Catholics marks you as part of the problem.

[Texbob]

Ahh! come on guys, is it not the proper thing for your priest to be a Queer?

[Desdemona]

PING!!!!!!!

This is a HALLELUJAH ping. Big time. VOTF is being outed by the bishops, one by one.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Some people never learn from history.

Include yourself in that group of people. Inability to control his libido coupled with major psychological problems; read his schizophrenic correspondence with Pope Leo X, Wenceslaus and Spalatin as examples, were what motivated Luther. Revolution was his driving force not reform.

VOTF has already been exposed as wolves in sheep's clothing who want to change Catholicism to suit their inability to accept the Church's doctrines and disciplines. They are free to go elsewhere and many Catholics wish they would.

[ZULU]

"RCF (Roman Catholic Faithful) is an organization which has long campaigned for a reform of the seminaries and was instrumental in exposing much of the malfeasance which has scarred the Church."

My guess is Archbishop Myers would be as receptive to RCF as to the other group.

As for "vibrant" how come church attendance in the mainstream Christian Churches is down, and recruting new priests and pastors has become so difficult?

I have no problem with Christian, or even basic Catholic theology. My problem is with the use of Churches as a political forum for left-wing agendas, and the incredible arrogance of the Catholic hierarchy over the issue of pedohiles and homosexuals in the clergy. The overwhelming number of priests are not homosexual or pedophilic. The actions of their superiors have unfairly sullied all them in public opinion.

[ultima ratio]

This is still another example of how these bishops operate. First they exempt themselves from their own zero tolerance policy, then they strong-arm grassroots movements of fed-up Catholics. Won't work. These prelates have about as much credibility as Saddam Hussein. Notice how speedy they are to react to the laity. Where were they for the last twenty or thirty years when reacting to the priest-predators was imperative? Ah, but then the wheels of the Church move slowly, don't you know--except in the case of uppity lay persons.

[Cicero]

The scandal in the Church was caused entirely by sexual and theological dissenters and by bishops who either were themselves dissenters or who were unwilling to discipline dissenters in their bureaucracies and seminaries.

Voice of the Faithful is part of the problem, not an honest solution. It is a group of dissenters who want to take advantage of a scandal they themselves were partly responsible for making, in order to forward their liberal agenda.

Faithful Protestants should not make the mistake of imagining that anyone will benefit by the corruption of the Catholic Church by liberal dissidents.

[Desdemona]

how come church attendance in the mainstream Christian Churches is down, and recruting new priests and pastors has become so difficult?

Recruiting isn't the problem. There were/are plenty of candidates. It's the open dissent from church teaching inside the seminaries and the process that the liberals tried that's the problem. They weeded out a lot of young men who would have been very good priests.

VOTF is an evil, subversive group. Myers did the right thing.

[Desdemona]

Please, don't post to me anymore. You have demonstrated that you do not know how to think charitably of anyone who does not agree with you or toe the really rather stringent line you have set for yourself.

[taxcontrol]

[disclaimer - I'm Protestent]

I don't understand why the VOTF folks go and form their own church?

[Desdemona]

I don't understand why the VOTF folks go and form their own church?

Neither do we Catholics.

[wideawake]

You raise some important questions.

(1) Recruiting new priests is far less difficult than people would imagine. Hundreds of prospective seminarians have been turned away by the seminaries because they are "too rigid" and "lack empathy". That is, they take Church doctrine seriously and believe that sin is wrong and should be atoned for.

Nowadays, seminaries will not take a student unless a non-Catholic, outside psychotherapist has judged them to be "fit" for ministry. Apparently dozens of pedophiles qualify as "fit" in the minds of atheistic Freudians, while many orthodox Catholic believers don't.

(2) The Church is not merely manifest in America - the Church is gaining people for Christ in Africa and South Asia, openly challenging Islam on its frontiers and gaining hearts and minds. The only social force opposing the imposition of Sharia law throughout Nigeria, for example, is the large Catholic community.

The Church is vibrant there, if not here.

(3) The politicization of the Church for left-wing causes is slowly diminishing. Many of the relentlessly self-promoting liberal priests and bishops are products of the 1960s and the hippy mentality. They are happily dying out, and being replaced by saner people. I wish the Vatican would make the best of a bad situation with the pedophilia crisis and simply fire all the bishops and replace them with young, orthodox priests. I think the Vatican is missing a golden opportunity.

[ZULU]

Maybe you're right. I don't know anything about VOTF other than what I read in the article. I thought they were mainly concerned with the pedophile issue.

[wideawake]

Wow! You really are a dumbass.

[Desdemona]

I don't know anything about VOTF other than what I read in the article. I thought they were mainly concerned with the pedophile issue.

VOTF is using the "pedophile" (really homosexual) scandal to advance their adgenda of married priests, women priests, reversing church teaching regarding reproduction, further liturgical denegration, and a lot more.

I'm glad the bishops are calling them on it.

[Campion]

That's what VOTF wanted you think. What they have become is simply another recycled dissenter group, "Call to Action, Part Deux". Same cast of characters. Same Gramscian approach. They're left-wing CINO's, nothing more.

Why these people don't just go to the Episcopalian church, where they obviously belong, is beyond me. The ECUSA agrees with most of things they agitate for: priestesses, contraception, abortion, remarriage after divorce, "affirmation" of "committed gay relationships," etc.

Myers is a good bishop, one of the best we have. He's doing the right thing here, and right-thinking people ought to applaud him for it.

[ZULU]

"they take Church doctrine seriously and believe that sin is wrong "

This is rejected by the "feel good" Christians in the Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalian and Presbyterian Churches.
The latter are clearly wrong.

"seminaries will not take a student unless a non-Catholic, outside psychotherapist has judged them to be "fit" for ministry."

We have all seen the damge that atheistic, amoral psycholigists can due in criminal trials.

"The only social force opposing the imposition of Sharia law throughout Nigeria, for example, is the large Catholic community."


Didn't know this. They could use a few thousand crusaders to help them there. The Muslims are a bunch of hard case religious fanatics.

"The politicization of the Church for left-wing causes is slowly diminishing."

That's good news. I remember the let-wing drivel in publications like the Beacon.

"I think the Vatican is missing a golden opportunity."

That's an understatement. I think those Bishops and Archbishops who protected and excused these demons are more guilty than the paedophiles. They enabled them and allowed them to continue preying on innocent victims.

[ZULU]

"priestesses, contraception, abortion, remarriage after divorce, "affirmation" of "committed gay relationships," etc."

You forgot homsexual priests.

[BikerNYC]

VOTF is using the "pedophile" (really homosexual) scandal to advance their adgenda of married priests, women priests, reversing church teaching regarding reproduction, further liturgical denegration, and a lot more.

And that's "evil," as you say? You can certainly disagree with them on those issues, but I would think it wise to reserve the word "evil" for other things.