Laity co-responsible with clergy for the Church

I WAS happy to learn that Pope Benedict, in a recent visit to a Roman parish, clarified that lay people are as responsible as the priests in carrying out the mission of the Church in the world. He was asking for some radical change of mentalities.

For years, decades and centuries, many and big parts of the world´s population have been under the wrong notion that the Church is mainly if not exclusively the responsibility of the priests and bishops. The lay people only play a supporting cameo role if not just an extra.

Priests and laity, by their baptism, enjoy a fundamental equality in that being conformed to Christ all of us are called to aim at genuine holiness and to participate in carrying out the mission of the Church, each one in the way proper to his condition.

It’s true that there’s distinction of how priests and laity carry out their mission, a distinction that’s meant to nourish their mutual cooperation. But it’s this fundamental equality that needs to be aired out more fully to erase some wrong ideas about the laity’s role in the Church.

These erroneous ideas can be called the clerical mentality that has been afflicting us here in the Philippines, in spite of our long Christian tradition. It gives undue importance to the role of priests and bishops at the expense of the laity.

Its usual manifestations are the tendency to make the lay people as some kind of assistants, servants and longa manus of the clergy or the attitude of regarding the priests as the sole agents of the Church mission.

With this anomaly, priests and bishops can be seen as superior in status in the Church compared to the lay people. The lay people can develop the mentality of being second-class citizens in the Church.

The clerics can then enjoy certain unwanted privileges that tend to spoil them. They also can develop the thinking that even in secular affairs, as in politics and business, they too could take a direct and active part.

With this anomaly, the lay people will tend to fail to realize their true mission. They can think that to be active in Church, they can get contented with doing some service in parishes and religious organizations. This, while most welcome, is not their main calling. It should not deflect them from what is their proper role.

The laity is meant to live the fullness of Christian life, nothing less than that, developing and giving witness to it in the middle of the world—in their homes, work places, etc. It’s a serious and demanding vocation that requires their full dedication.

The laity has to shed off that common bias that for them just a few touches of holiness would be enough. They are meant for the fullness of Christian life! Enough also with the double standard, often reinforced in the media, that put stringent requirements on clerics, but lax treatment on the laity.

As such, the lay people have to know and assimilate their doctrine thoroughly, and be in the forefront in sanctifying the different fields, structures and levels of society. It’s true that they need the sacraments, administered by clerics, for their sanctification, but they have to give their all in sanctifying themselves in the center of worldly and temporal affairs.

Thus, they should realize that they need to undertake continual ascetical struggle, developing virtues and changing things inside and outside them that are not in accordance to Christian living. They too should realize that they need on-going formation, making their consciences more sensitive to the increasing demands of Christian life.

This, of course, will require tremendous effort. For one, a lot of catechizing is needed. Spiritual direction should also be done. I just hope that those who can help be generous enough to extend a hand. They need not do extraordinary things. They can just teach catechism at home, or in the neighbourhood, or even in the offices, etc.

Some clarifications of issues also have to be done. I’m happy that the current president of the Bishops’ Conference is clear about clerics not getting partisan in politics, especially now that we are in an election year.

We need to give stimulating ideas to many people to inspire and launch them into action that can help many others. Certainly, we need to change the general temper in politics, business, media, etc., where we can see a lot of confusion and error in the people involved there.