CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AGAINST "CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE"
AMONG CATHOLIC LEADERS

High Bridge, NJ - CORPUS, a national association for an inclusive priesthood, is launching a campaign to end the "conspiracy of silence" among Catholic church leaders around suppressed topics in the wake of the pedophilia scandals which have come back into national headlines. The campaign, which will be carried out in collaboration with other Catholic church organizations, will involve advertising, public addresses at national and local church gatherings, and articles in Catholic and secular newspapers.

"The scandal in Boston is but the latest of many such cases worldwide," states Russ Ditzel of High Bridge, NJ, vice president of the CORPUS national board. "But the outcry over the current crisis is a call to all Catholics to demand an end to the 'conspiracy of silence' that allows abuses of power to continue while sheltering perpetrators from justice."

Other topics in which Catholic leadership must be held to Church-wide accountability, according to Ditzel, include: the full financial disclosure of parishes and dioceses; issues surrounding human sexuality including divorce & remarriage, birth control, homosexuality and AIDS; labor relations within Catholic institutions; the vocations crisis including women's ordination and married priests; and due process for theologians.

"The refusal of the bishops to tolerate dissent or to engage in effective dialogue with the Catholic people has led and will continue to lead to crises such as the Boston scandal," concurs Pattie Bastian, CORPUS board president.

One of the oldest reform groups in the Catholic Church, CORPUS is committed to working for a renewed and reformed priesthood of married and single men and women. CORPUS is calling for an end to the "conspiracy of silence" and a conversion to openness and transparency among church leaders.

C Russell Ditzel, CORPUS Vice President
Phone: +1.908.638.6877
Email: membersvs@corpus.org
Internet: www.corpus.org