You all are probably way ahead of me on the whole VOTF news - be assured that it was not exactly big news up in Canada. In fact, it was no news. After all, they do have the Pope coming and everything that goes with that, including their own reflections on the state of the Church in their own nation.

But in case you hadn't seen them, here are a couple of links to coverage:

From the Boston Globe

and from the Boston Herald.

Also from the Herald, a piece about Mass yesterday in which protesters left their signs at the door and approached Cardinal Law for Communion.

The VOTF stuff is what you might expect. Well-intentioned people grappling with concern, conviction and the fact that they don't have a lot of power. They do see that money is a key player in all of this, but you can see the dangerous direction they're already going in as they

a) charge twenty bucks apiece for people to attend their gathering (What's that about, anyway? A purposeful attempt to actually keep their organization middle class and middle aged?)

b) The group also announced its campaign to raise $500,000 for a half-year's operating expenses as it sets up an office in Newton and hires a professional staff.

I'm sorry, but this just doesn't work for me. I can't imagine what this group will do with a million bucks a year operating expenses except issue reports, papers and send staff to conferences. There was of course, lots of Jesus talk at this gathering. This is a Christlike response to a problem? Raise money for your offices and hire staff? Fight organizational problems with another organization?