LYNN (MA)
The Daily Item
By James Haynes
Thursday, September 15, 2005
LYNN - For some attending his speech at St. Pius, Voice of the Faithful's national Executive Director Ray Joyce might have looked oddly familiar.
A former Lynner and one-time congregant at St. Pius, before moving in his teens, Joyce returned Thursday to the church's lower hall, where he remembered taking CCD classes, to meet with members of the Lynn-Area VOTF affiliate and the curious among Lynn's laity.
Heading an organization that is viewed by some as a much-needed progressive voice in Catholicism, and by others as a radical group that spoke out against the Boston Archdiocese, getting out amongst the faithful and explaining what VOTF is working for is an important part of Joyce's activism.
"A big part of what we are doing now is education," said Joyce. "For the laity on the whole, there is much more we could know about our faith. To have the confidence to speak up and speak out, you need to have that basis and familiarity in our faith."
Formed in the basement of a Wellesley parish in February of 2002, VOTF quickly rose to prominence in the Boston area during the height of the priest sex abuse scandal - Lynn's affiliate formed only a month later - and has consistently called for transparency and accountability within the church, and pushed for a greater say in church affairs for the laity. The movement has spread throughout the United States and beyond its borders.
But with the furor over abuse slackening in the wake of an $85 million settlement in December of 2003, and the uproar of parish and school closures also tapering, Joyce, and others in the group, are working hard to keep VOTF relevant to mainstream Catholicism in the Boston Archdiocese's post-scandal era.