Beware of clericalism and laicism

SINCE 2018 is declared by our bishops to be the Year of

the Clergy and Consecrated Persons with the thrust on clerics and

religious to be renewed servant-leaders for the New Evangelization, we

should encourage everyone, especially the laity, to contribute

whatever he or she can to make this campaign successful.

   

            Yes, the lay people can do a lot in helping us, the clergy

and consecrated persons. Rather than staying on the background since

the focus is on the clerics, the laity should be emboldened to help

their bishops, priests and other consecrated persons, so that we, the

clerics and religious, will remain consistent to our calling and

ministry and not stray to other areas where they are not meant to be.

  

            We need to remember that there is supposed to be an

“organic cooperation” between clergy and the laity in the Church,

since both have the same calling for holiness, though this is pursued

in different ways. The laity should never be regarded, and worse,

should never regard themselves as secondary citizens in the Church.

  

            There is a fundamental equality between clergy and laity.

No one is superior or inferior to the other. This is the reality about

the clergy and the laity. Therefore, we should avoid two extremes that

does damage to this reality. These are clericalism and laicism.

  

            Clericalism is, in a nutshell, when the clerics think or

are regarded as superior to the laity. This anomaly can lend itself in

many manifestations. Laicism is the opposite. It’s when the laity

thinks the clerics are completely irrelevant in their lives. Again,

this error can be expressed in many ways and in different degrees.

  

            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.

  

            The laity can be active in the life of the Church, first

of all, by fulfilling their primary duty of sanctifying the world

where they live and work. They also can help the clergy in carrying

out certain Church work.

             But they should not hesitate to make suggestions and even

corrections to priests who need to carry out their ministry as

faithfully as possible according to the mind of Christ and the laws of

the Church.

             In this Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons, let

all of us, clerics, lay and religious, examine ourselves more deeply

and root out whatever traces of clericalism or laicism there may be in

our understanding of things and in our lifestyle.