Send the Bishops a Message

October 20, 2008

"Send the Bishops a Message" is an organization of reform-minded Catholics who are tired of the business as usual approach of the bishops.

We plan to get our message across by advocating that all Catholics withhold financial (cash, check, and credit card) donations on designated "Withholding Sundays."

This action is required by the ongoing failure of Catholic Church officials to adequately protect our children and provide acceptable levels of stewardship for our hard-earned donations. These officials have adamantly refused to accept responsibility for their grave moral failures in the clergy sex abuse crisis. They repeatedly "apologize," but neither admit covering up sex crimes against children nor accept their part in the grave scandal brought down upon Catholics everywhere.

Time and again, we have seen evidence of cardinals and bishops continuing to protect clerical sexual predators. This includes Cardinal George, the current head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). This has to stop! The hierarchy has cost the Catholic people billions of dollars in legal fees and settlements. If the church officials don’t change their ways, the financial hemorrhaging will result in more parish closings, and the people of the church will bear the burden of this folly.

The bishops have squandered our trust, and now is the time to send them our message. We urge all Catholics to Send the Bishops a Message by withholding cash, check, and credit card donations on designated "Withholding Sundays."

We Catholics have no elections, recall procedures, or impeachment processes that allow us to replace those who have cost us so much. Withholding donations is the best way for a disenfranchised laity to send, with one voice, a message to church officials in the only language they understand--MONEY!

We understand that many Catholics will find it culturally and psychologically difficult to withhold their donations. However if we fail to use the only power bishops listen to, the power of money, we will have more abuse, more scandal, and more financial mismanagement. Ask yourself, can we afford to put more children at risk? Can we afford to bear the brunt of more sexual abuse settlements? Can we afford to have more parishes close because of financial mismanagement? Can we afford a secretive, unresponsive, unjust system of governance any longer? We cannot. Therefore we urge you to exercise the power of the purse on Withholding Sundays to send a unified message to the Church hierarchy: Business as usual will no longer be tolerated.

We want to be clear: we are not opposing any Catholic doctrine or dogma. We want our children safe. We want our parishes intact. We want our donations to be managed openly according to the principles of good stewardship, accountability, and transparency.

Our Objectives

    * To make Catholics aware that they have the power to change Church governance policies by selectively withholding financial donations
    * To give Catholics an opportunity to speak with a strong united voice
    * To send a message to the bishops that business as usual--abusing our children, covering up these crimes, putting children at risk by shielding criminal priests, and mismanaging financial resources--will no longer be tolerated

For more information, visit our website at www.sendthebishopsamessage.com or call Frank Douglas at 520.404.2489.