Analysis
A two-year study conducted by Catholic University of America found that VOTF members "share a deep and highly involved commitment to their Church." and the group has been endorsed by a number of American Catholic theologians. An article in Commonweal called the group "one of the most interesting and hopeful developments to come out of the Catholic Church’s sexual-abuse crisis."
Since its inception, many have questioned whether VOTF is, as it claims, operating within the law, doctrine and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. The group has hosted many speakers not in favor with the hierarchy, such as Eugene Kennedy, a long-time observer of the Roman Catholic Church, professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago and author of the book "The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality"; and Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.C.D., an advocate for obtaining justice for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, who has been reprimanded for failing to implement liturgical guidelines.
Some feel that ongoing publicity, prosecution and high profile legal settlements related to sexual abuse by priests, such as the July 2007 Diocese of Los Angeles settlement, point to the group's continued influence. Other reports, however, say that the group is broke and facing an identity crisis.
In his 2008 book Here Comes Everybody, author Clay Shirky studied VOTF as an example of an activist group for which the communication possibilities of the Internet were essential; contrasting its success with an "almost identical" 1992 case of a pedophile priest in the same diocese, also under Bishop Law and reported by the Boston Globe, but before widespread adoption of the Internet.
In her 2011 book Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful Is Changing the Church, author Tricia Colleen Bruce offers an in-depth look at the development of Voice of the Faithful and its struggle to challenge church leaders and advocate for internal change while being accepted as legitimately Catholic. Drawing on three years of field observation and interviews with VOTF founders, leaders, and participants, the book explores the contested nature of a religious movement operating within the confines of a larger institution, an example of what the author calls an intrainstitutional social movement.
Read more about this topic: Voice Of The Faithful
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