NAPLES (FL)
Naples Daily News
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Those in power should open their ears to those in the pews.
That was the message at an annual Mass organized by the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, a national group formed by lay people to respond to priest sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Rev. Thomas Glackin of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church celebrated Tuesday’s 3 p.m. Mass at his North Naples church.
“We pray that the bishops will open their ears, minds and hearts to hear different voices,” Glackin said, standing with five priests from Naples, Marco Island and Fort Myers before churchgoers. ...
“Most people look at someone in a Roman collar and they wonder, ‘What’s he been up to?’ They suffer the shame of that,” she said. “The vast majority of priests are attempting to minister as Christ wanted them to minister.”
The Rev. Lorenzo Gonzalez, who celebrates Masses in Spanish for three area churches, said he supports all movements connected with the Catholic Church, including the Voice of the Faithful. Parishioners should be reminded not every priest is implicated in scandals splashed in headlines, he said.
“What we had a couple of years ago was like a revelation for the world about something we didn’t know, but is a reality,” he said. “But these cases do not represent the main attitudes, actions and convictions for the Christian priests.”