Catholic Evangelism in the New Millennium

After more than ten years of being a Catholic activist in Boston, I can say without exaggeration that every Catholic I know has a large pile of letters filled with meaningless platitudes from the Cardinal's administrators in response to our letters outlining error and scandal.

Some of us have large filing cabinets in our basements filled with the evidence of errors and scandal, our correspondence, correspondence other Catholics have sent us.

Ten years of sending letters and having meetings with Chancery employees has been a complete waste of time.  In fact, it has been worse than a complete waste of time.  It has been detrimental to the vocations of many faithful priests and lay people.  It is the same story all over the country.

There is no internal forum to stop the misuse and abuse of power, money the faith, the liturgy, our priests and our children.

As you know, here in Boston we are trying something new.

As the first part of a series of what should turn out to be a lively few months here in Boston, tune in to Boston Catholic Insider where an open letter to the presbyteral council (meeting tomorrow) has been posted.

Our driving purpose with the blog in putting certain topics out in the light of day is simply to expose verifiable facts and matters that most people objectively feel should be addressed or corrected so that we can build a stronger Catholic Church in Boston and continue the good works of the Church. We do not seek a “seat at the table” or “feel good” meetings to discuss these long-standing concerns with no commitment by the archdiocese to taking action.  Our hope with the blog was to give a voice to laity, donors, and the many outstanding priests and people faithfully serving the Archdiocese who are frustrated and fed up with the corruption, cronyism, and general direction of the Archdiocese. We also hope to serve as a temporary stop-gap while the Archdiocese works on implementing a credible whistleblower policy.

Based on  the overwhelming number of comments and suggestions we have received from lay people in the pews as well as people “inside” the Church (priests, archdiocesan employees, parish staff, and others close to the workings of the archdiocese), we feel these concerns should be addressed in an open, transparent way.

The observations, questions and answers sought in the open letter will blow you away.

 Just as J. Bryan Hehir and his cronies believe they are setting up something new and exciting for the future of the Church in America - in response, so do the thousands of Catholics behind the efforts of Catholic Bloggers in Boston.

Checkmate.