The Greater Philadelphia chapter of Voice of the Faithful is the subject of this commentary by Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
Voice of the Faithful is a dissident Catholic group that has now launched an agenda to manipulate priests and the public in the Philadelphia area. It recently sent a letter to the 900-plus priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia asking them to agree with its position that Pennsylvania lawmakers should abolish the statute of limitations for sexual abuse, opening a two-year window for civil suits.
The letter by Marita Green of the Steering Committee has the audacity to say that supporting its position is a “measure of integrity.” Included is a “survey” which asks priests whether they agree with its stance. To top things off, it explicitly says that “the number [of postcards] that are not returned will be recorded as votes against abolishing the statute-of-limitations shield.”
How cute. If priests do not agree with those whose goal it is to selectively bankrupt the archdiocese for incidents that allegedly occurred decades ago, they are to be branded heartless. That’s what this is all about. Voice of the Faithful is deliberately trying to engineer this “survey” so that it can go to the media “demonstrating” how few priests of “integrity” there are in the Philadelphia area. But it won’t work—the Catholic League has already sabotaged this effort.
After a priest sent us the correspondence from Voice of the Faithful last week, we mailed the 900-plus priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia a letter designed to short-circuit this agenda (click here). We are happy to report that several priests left messages on our answering machine over the weekend, and faxed us letters commending us for our work.
Catholics were rightfully angry when they learned about the sexual abuse scandal a decade ago. But now their anger is turning on those whose passion for revenge has nothing to do with justice; it’s all about settling old scores. We will fight these demagogues to the end.
