July 22, 2003 - Response to James Post’s op-ed piece “O’Malley needs
to make peace,” in the Boston Globe
Mr. Post correctly states that one of the reasons Cardinal Law was
unable to accept money from the Voice of Compassion fund was that the
conditions placed on the donation interfered with the
traditional relationship between the bishop and his people. He, however,
incorrectly states that in doing so, “Law tried to define the laity
as the problem.”
Response: It is clear from the earlier sentence that Cardinal Law’s
reason for not accepting the money was not to “define the laity
as the problem” but to avoid separating the work of the bishop
from the work of the faithful. In addition, even if this were the case,
Mr. Post, once again, makes the mistake of equating the membership of
Voice of the Faithful with “the laity.” VOTF is a group of
laity within the Archdiocese. VOTF does not represent the laity nor does
it speak for the laity but only some members of the faithful.
Among Mr. Post’s steps for healing the Archdiocese is to “... be
transparent. Sunlight is essential to rebuilding trust in a failed institution.
Open the books, publish the audits, ...”
Response: Maybe Mr. Post missed it, but we’ve done just this.
The books and the audits are on the Archdiocesan
website and were published
in The Pilot
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