On the eve of the gathering of some 4,000 Catholics in Boston last week, I interviewed an involved member of Voice of the Faithful, the new organization that sponsored the meeting. A psychiatrist professionally, Ana Maria Rizzuto is also a person for whom spirituality is of utmost importance.

Her thoughts about change in the Catholic Church appear to come from a deep spiritual commitment to her faith. She shares her views with a quiet intensity that makes them persuasive.

The new organization has arisen in response to the crisis in the Catholic Church triggered by priest abuse of children and adolescents. The Voice of the Faithful has published its three principal goals: 1) To support those who have been abused; 2) to support priests of integrity; 3) to shape structural change within the church.

Speaking of the reform that Voice of the Faithful pledges to bring about in the church, Dr. Rizzuto says: “What we need to have is a true awakening, grounded in the drastic change that baptism makes.”

For her, baptism means two things: first of all, a call “to assume true responsibility for continuing the mission of Jesus.” Referring to her fellow baptized, she says “the success or failure of this mission is in our hands.”

Secondly, “we are responsible for the world,” she goes on to say. “We must transform the world into Gospel values.” The organizational church, she believes, does not give expression to this call.

The reform of the Catholic Church envisioned by the Voice of the Faithful will not happen, Dr. Rizzuto believes, “unless we pray continually to the Spirit.” In the past, saints were sent by God at crucial times in the church’s history; nowadays, no single person can do it. “We now need to do it collectively,” she believes. “We need a saintly people.”

But people in the church are also sinful, what she calls “holy sinners.” And “that is why we need the Spirit.” The Spirit will give reformers the confidence to bring about change. “We have to be very bold,” she says, “to have such conviction that no one can stop us.”

How does this become contagious? She answers her own question: “By natural imitation of other people, by the excitement of connection with them.” This is why she has chosen to become involved in the new movement of lay people who seek not only to prevent crimes of sexual abuse from occurring again but to change church structures so that the laity will share power and responsibility for the church.

Dr. Rizzuto’s comments point to the need for the Voice of the Faithful to build its movement on a solid spiritual foundation. Were it to neglect the spiritual base and simply act in a political way, then, by its own principles, it would fail to become the force in the church that it envisions becoming.

Leaders who spoke at the convention, though using different terms, would seem to agree with this one member’s views. Father Thomas Doyle, who received the first “Priest of Integrity Award” at the meeting, told the 4,000 cheering delegates that “people, including the pope, have been praying for a new dawn and it is here.”

Thomas Groome, a theologian at Boston College, portrayed members of Voice of the Faithful as “re-engaged in the unfinished agenda of Vatican II: the retrieval of the theology of baptism.”

Thomas Ahrens, a young lay leader of the Catholic Church in Germany, proclaimed: “The Holy Spirit speaks through the ordinary people of God.”

Author James Carroll, referring to the communion that members of the church receive when Mass is celebrated, said: “If we can take the body of Christ in hand, we can take the church in hand as well.”

Several survivors of sexual abuse by clergy also spoke movingly at the conference. Their messages were oftentimes sobering and downbeat, but some also spoke of the spirit that must mark Voice of the Faithful’s organizational life.

One of them advised the group: “Do not be discouraged at any stage. You have no idea how much hope and faith in me this (movement) has engendered.”

Finally, the words of Jim Muller had special importance because he has taken a leading role in founding the new organization. Talking with a group of members he said: “I genuinely believe God has played a role in bringing us together.”

Richard Griffin