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VOTF TRI-STATE CONFERENCE AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY IN THE BRONX
Oct. 25, 2003
Eugene Kennedy, author, The Unhealed Wound, gave the keynote address and set the tone for the conference.
Florence and I were told that we had traveled the farthest to attend the conference….which, while sponsored by VOTF leadership of New York , Connecticut, and New Jersey, had a distinctly national conference tone due to the presence of the outstanding cast of nationally known speakers (David O’Brien, Robert Kaiser, Tom Roberts, David Gibson, Barbara Blaine, Christopher Bellitto, etc.) plus Jim Post and Steve Krueger (President and Executive Director, respectively, of National VOTF).
At day’s end, while the Marlins were finishing off the Yankees just a few miles north , Florence and I had supper with Mary Ann Keyes (VP Affiliate Development) and Margaret Roylance (Chair: Structural Change Workgroup) in downtown Manhattan. The discussion over the food was lively, to say the least!
I learned a great deal about the strength and importance of this lay movement to bring a stronger lay voice to the table of Church governance. VOTF national is regrouping to make this the priority issue, in what one speaker described as a “…shift from the revelation to the accountability phase” in strategy and direction.
It was evident that the attendees are people who love and care for their Church…have decided to work for change from within rather than from outside…and who deserve to be heard by Church leadership.
Fr. McShane, in his welcoming remarks, observed that the Catholic lay retreat movement originated on the campus of Fordham in the early 1900’s. It is fitting, he remarked, that another great lay movement, Voice of the Faithful, gather on this site. AMEN!
Keynote speaker Eugene Kennedy
(left) gets a welcoming handshake.
Keynoter Eugene Kennedy (right)
in animated conversation with
National Catholic Reporter
editor Tom Roberts.
View of audience
from behind our talented ensemble.
David Cerulli, SNAP NY, moderates panel with
survivors and family members seated onstage.