Church may face second reformation - Church Notes

Catholic New Times, Nov 3, 2002

NEW YORK -- According to the New York Daily News, some 160 Catholic priests and former priests from three New York dioceses got together in Manhattan, N.Y. on Oct. 7 in a private room just above an Irish saloon. There are probably quite a few cardinals and bishops who regard that meeting as, if not sinister, then certainly disturbing.

From their point of view, the prelates are right. The priests are only the latest bloc of Catholics who are no longer the obedient boys and girls of their parochial school days.

There is a crisis of authority in the church as a result of the way the hierarchy has handled recent sex scandals. The pay-and-obey attitude among parishioners has been replaced by anger, mistrust and a sense of futility. The rupture of trust between bishops and priests may take generations to heal.

The priests have chosen to call themselves the "Voice of the Ordained," a name that parallels the Voice of the Faithful, an organization of concerned Catholic men and women whose avowed goals are to "achieve a greater role in the guidance and governance of the church and to shape structural change within the church." From bingo to the barricades?

The local Catholic hierarchy is well aware of the upheaval on its doorsteps and is following standard operating procedure by ignoring or condemning it: Edward Cardinal Egan and Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Dailey say they have no official policy on these organizations, while Bishop William Murphy of Long Island, N.Y. has banned the Voice of the Faithful from meeting in any church or any other Catholic facility in his diocese.

Perhaps the three prelates cannot be blamed if they are a little frazzled by the sudden emergence of the Voice of the Ordained on their altars and the Voice of the Faithful in their pews. A falling-off in the collection basket is undoubtedly a very real fear for all three, as is the threat of legal action by priests against bishops for rights violations.

But what Bishops Egan, Dailey, Murphy and their peers should really be concerned about is the radical Change in attitude in today's Catholic Church. It is a change that is still evolving, based on a mood that is getting angrier.

The Catholic Church in America may be about to close one door and open another if the Voice of the Ordained and the Voice of the Faithful grow loud enough to be heard all the way to Rome.