Voice of the Faithful facing financial, membership crisis

From the IObserve.org Web site:

By Father Bill Pomerleau
and Lynne Sullivan

SPRINGFIELD -- Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), the church reform movement begun in 2002 in reaction to the nationwide clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, is now in a financial and organizational crisis, according to a report recently posted on its Web site.

Twenty-two attendees, including executives of VOTF and members of its National Representative Council from across the United States, met in the Boston area April 27-29 for its semi-annual gathering.

Among the attendees were Bill Casey, chair of VOTF’s Board of Trustees, and Mark Mullaney, interim executive director of the group.

According to an account of the meeting posted on www.votf.org/vineyard/May3_2007/nrc.html, “Both Bill Casey and Mark Mullaney described the financial shortfall VOTF will face in the coming months. Although the number of individual contributors has increased, in the past year or so the number of major donors has declined. VOTF must reverse this trend to erase a projected $100,000 deficit in the next fiscal year.”