I don’t think Voice of the Faithful even tries to pretend that it is a “centrist” Catholic group (if there can even be such a thing) anymore. In Cincinnati, the local VOTF group is holding a conference.
When members of Voice of the Faithful gather today for their first conference in the Cincinnati area, they will spend much of their time talking about the sexual abuse crisis that plagues their church. But the conversation won’t end there.
Topics could include everything from women in the priesthood to married priests to new rules that would allow parishioners to choose their own pastors.
The ordination of women has been settled. It’s de fide. Doctrine. The Pope spoke ex cathedra. But yet it comes up again and again at VOTF meetings, as well as various other heterodox beliefs. That’s because, contrary to their claims, VOTF does not welcome orthodox voices in their fold and silences those who try to enter their supposed “big tent.”
But no one disputes the abuse crisis has given Catholics an opportunity to challenge their leaders in a way few could have imagined just two years ago. “The scandal has opened the door to a lot of hidden flaws in church governance, church administration and church culture,” said Luise Dittrich, a founding member of Voice of the Faithful’s first chapter in Boston. “We have seen the underside of this culture, and we don’t like it.” ...
They believe the abuse crisis is the product of an arrogant, out-of-touch hierarchy that has neglected the needs of rank-and-file Catholics. They want change and they want it soon.
Don’t kid yourselves. All the Scandal did was give them the opportunity to trot out their old tired rhetoric gleaned from Call to Action conferences under the guise of authentic reform. They want. They want. But no mention of the work of the Holy Spirit. No mention of the divinely ordered structure of the Church with the successors of the apostles as sherpherds. No mention of Divine Revelation. No, what we have is a bunch of people who want to structure a church from the bottom up, by imposing their desires, regardless of whether it is Divine Truth.
In other words, VOTF is the same old re-tread liberal ideology re-packaged for a new century.
If you’re not orthodox, then you don’t hold to the Church’s teaching and you’re putting yourself outside the Church. Orthodox means correct belief, i.e. believing according to the Truth given to us by Christ through his Church.
Now there are some things on which there is permissible diversity, which is fine, but some teachings are not negotiable. Watering down the Truth in order to appeal to a “cross section” of Catholics does nothing but perpetuate the idea that you can be a good Catholic and reject some Divine Truth.
VOTF resists allowing orthodox people becoming members of their group. Those who have tried have been shouted down or forced out, despite VOTF’s insistence it is a “big tent.” It should be opposed, or better ignored into oblivion.
Don’t look at my left hand, while I dazzle you with my right—the illusionist’s motto. I won’t deny that there may be good-hearted people in VOTF, but at its root, its foundational principles are heterodox and aimed at deconstructing the Church’s teachings, at least the ones that the Call to Action types don’t like.