A Closer Look at Voice of the Faithful By: Kevin Symonds, Steubenville, OH

Š the gates of hell, under the guise of VOTF, will not prevail against the Church.

The Bishops are the ones who have been given care of the Catholic Church

by Christ Our Lord, not the laity.

 

    I was sitting at the computer the other day when I checked to see if there

were any new articles here at http://www.faithfulvoice.com and I noticed that

indeed one was.  It was about a new interview that Mr. Jim Muller had given the

Cincinnati Enquirer fairly recently.  I clicked on the link and began reading the

information.

    I had read several articles by Voice of the Faithful in recent months, even

commented on a couple of them, but I was very shocked at this latest one.  Mr.

Muller was much freer in his language and wasnıt hiding the fact that he wants a

more democratic Catholic Church.  As a practicing Catholic, I am appalled at

statements in this interview.  I am appalled at his assertions, logic, and

overall point of view.  After reading it, I have come to the conclusion that Mr.

Muller is out for one thing‹power.  I canıt sit back and watch such an insult to

the Church, so I want to comment on Mr. Mullerıs interview.

 

The Interview:

Reading the first paragraph, two sentences jump out at me:

-1.) ³We want to provide a voice for the people of the church so they can

actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Church.²

-2.) ³Šwe think the root of the problem [is] the Churchıs structure.²

 

    Mr. Muller gets straight to the point here.1  The problem with the first

sentence is that Mr. Muller assumes the laity have a right to participate in the

governance of the Church. 

 

    They donıt.  This is a fine point that has been hammered out throughout the

2000 years of the Catholic Church, and I wish to reiterate it here.  The Bishops

are the ones who have been given care of the Catholic Church by Christ Our Lord,

not the laity.  For Mr. Muller to argue this is to argue against Scripture, the

Apostolic Tradition, even the Magisterium itself.  To argue those three, is to

argue against the Deposit of Faith, which is what comprises Divine Revelation as

given us by God.

 

    Next, in the second sentence, Mr. Muller connects the problem of the scandals

to the structure of the Church.  I mentioned that Christ gave the Church this

structure.  To argue that the problem is the Churchıs structure is, once again,

to argue against Christ.  To borrow from C.S. Lewis, ³Jesus Christ was either

Lord, Liar or Lunatic.²  I wonder which of these three Mr. Muller thinks of Our

Lord.

 

    In the following paragraph, Mr. Muller then goes on to argue that the early

American Catholic Church was more democratic.  I do not know if that is even

true, but even taken at his word, what he proposes is absurd as seen in the

ignorant ending sentence of the paragraph; ³We need to return to those early

models.²

 

    What Mr. Muller apparently forgets is that there was 1700 years of Church

history before this.  He proposes for us a model for the Universal Church and

promotes it as the Œrightı one.  One can only be appalled at the audacity in such

a statement.  It completely forgets history, not to mention Divine Revelation.

 

    Following this, Mr. Muller says that he told Archbishop Pilarczyk of

Cincinnati that ³VOTF could help with common ground conversation in the Church

and that a dose of democracy for the laity would be good for the Catholic

Church.²  Mr. Muller is pulling for power here by trying to get his group into

it.  The real problem, then, is that VOTF has no power (and indeed it doesnıt)

and Mr. Muller thinks the Bishops do, so he is going after them, using the

scandals as an excuse/leverage. 

 

    What Mr. Muller doesnıt realize is that the Œpowerı he seeks from the Bishops

is not based from a piece of paper.  The Œpowerı of the Bishops resides in being

successors to the Apostles via the Apostolic Succession as demonstrated in the

Book of Acts, the Pauline Epistles and explicitly taught by Pope St. Clement I.2

For Mr. Muller to be making these pleas for Œpower-sharingı is then truly an

affront to the sacerdotal dignity of the Bishops, who possess the fullness of

(Apostolic) Holy Orders.  This is a very subtle maneuver, and Iım not even sure

if Mr. Muller is aware of it.  Regardless if he is, the fact still stands that it

is an affront to the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

 

    Which leads me to the opening statement of his next paragraph, ³We are not

out to change the core doctrine of the Church.²  This is ridiculous.  An attempt

at manipulating the Sacrament of Holy Orders (which is what connects the Church

with the Divine 3) is going on, yet he is not about changing the core doctrines

of the Church? 

 

    Furthermore, the fact that VOTF has an extreme tendency to have people who

publicly dissent from the Catholic Church frequent their meetings does not say

much for Mr. Mullerıs statement of not being about changing core doctrines.4

Matter of fact, the ³Canon Lawyer² mentioned in this same paragraph is Fr.

Ladislas Orsy, S.J. who is not known for his orthodoxy to the Catholic Faith.

Muller, cleverly, doesnıt name him, although this information is readily

available from their ³Structural Change Working Group² document dated July ı02

and is available at http://www.votf.org.

 

    Mr. Muller goes on some more in his interview, but the ending is especially

captivating.  He creates an ³us-versus-them² mentality with the Bishops on the

short end of the stick.  He apparently thinks that since Vatican II, the laity

have had to fight for their rights, but he doesnıt realize that the Church is not

about these things.  To say, ³The Internet is a great equalizer agent against a

hierarchy² is clearly an evil, vindictive, and, quite frankly‹demonic comment

against the Bishops.  At the very end, Mr. Muller uses money in a very similar

fashion as the sword of Damocles‹he hangs it over the Bishopsı heads like they

were dogs on leashes with the laity holding the other end.

 

    Finally, the excerpt ends with Mr. Muller saying, ³People say the Church is

not a democracy.  I have seen meetings of Bishops that debate and vote and use

all democratic practices.²  This is very misleading and twists the truth around.

If youıll notice, Mr. Muller conveniently leaves out the fact that these meetings

are EPISCOPAL meetings.  In such meetings, the Bishops are the only ones who have

a say and however they do it is their decision‹NOT the laity.  The meetings that

he mentions are the right of Bishops to hold as taught by Vatican II.  He seems

now to want to have the laity at these episcopal meetings to vote alongside the

Bishops.  This is another attempt of Mr. Mullerıs desire for power.  I find it

very peculiar that Mr. Mullerıs group appeals to Vatican II and yet then turn

around and attack it.

 

Conclusion:

    VOTF is out for power and nothing else.  They are using the so-named

³scandals² as leverage to get it and they are misleading innocent Catholics.  I

deplore such actions and humbly ask the Bishops of the United States to exercise

their right to exercise their right to invite VOTF to come back to the unity of

the Catholic Church.

    I would like to end with a memorable line from Pope Pius VII:

Napoleon (proudly boasts): ³I will destroy your Church!²

Pius VII (looking at Napoleon boldly): ³If we Bishops and Popes couldnıt do it,

neither can you.²

  Neither shall the gates of hell, under the guise of VOTF, prevail against theChurch.

Peace!

-Kevin J. Symonds

B.A., M.A. (Candidate),

Theology

Steubenville, OH

Footnotes:

1.) I am glad in a way because the reader doesnıt have to go through mental

gymnastics to figure out what he believes and where he is coming from.

 

2.) Youıll find this in the 43rd chapter of his 1st letter to the Corinthians.

Clement was the same Clement mentioned by Paul in his letter to Timothy,

therefore making Clement a Pauline contemporary and therefore not to be taken

lightly.

 

3.) C.f. God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, Pg. 386.  This is

a fairly new book by Ratzinger and Seewald. 

 

4.) www.Faithfulvoice.com  has done an excellent job of keeping up to date with this

information as well.  I highly encourage the reader to look at the previous

articles, including the Archived ones, to see examples of such speakers.

 

RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

 

Return to main page

 

Date      Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:32:37 -0400 (EDT)

From     Ells

To         RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Subject  GREAT article

Parts

Message Source  

    Thanks for the GREAT article on the Faithful Voice website!  It's

very encouraging to see fellow Catholics defending the faith so well!

It inspires me to do the same!  God bless for your work!

Sincerely, Ells C  Erie,PA

 

Date      Sat, 13 Sep 2003 08:04:21 -0400

From     Richard Blanchard <rblan@trysb.net>

To         RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com

Subject  VOTF research

 

Kevin,

 

A job well done!  Thank you for your fine presentation and research on VOTF.

 

In the library at Franciscan University is a book titled--Spiritual Malpractice.  If you are still at the University and have time, would you look it up and peruse it? Then give me your thoughts.

 

Thank you,

Richard Blanchard.

 

Defend The Faith

http://members.trysb.net/dtf@trysb.net

Webpage Manager

rblan@trysb.net

 

RosaryCampaign@FaithfulVoice.com