What does VOTF stand for?

BOSTON, Massachusetts -- The global economic crisis may have an unlikely casualty: Voice of the Faithful.

Voice of the Faithful was founded in 2002 during the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Whether his lordship's reputation as a voice of the faithful will survive this particular episode is anybody's guess, but no doubt some other self-appointed representative of the Muslim minority will step forward to dictate things the next time the Koran is threatened with a public examination.

Many Catholics say the pope hasn't done enough: Voice of the Faithful, a 35,000-member group, ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on April 8 calling on Benedict to meet with abuse survivors and create more transparency in the church hierarchy.

If bankruptcy enables church leaders to remain silent about their role, it will be a new means to an old end, said John Moynihan, spokesman for the lay Catholic reformist group Voice of The Faithful, which formed in Boston after the clergy abuse scandal emerged there and has been watching the Portland case - the first bankruptcy filed by a diocese in response to sexual abuse lawsuits.

I can assure yon that active parishioners and Voice of the Faithful members are not on opposite poles.

In response to allegations by the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful, the diocese of Portland confirmed in September that Richard and two other Maine priests had exchanged sexually explicit E-mails on the St.

Voice of the Faithful was set up last January in Boston after revelations that Church bosses had known about abuser priests and had knowingly moved them from parish to parish where they continued to abuse.