The laity & the shape of things to come
Murnion, Philip J.
ISmSt SHAPE Op SOME IHE ; P ai uo these/av "-y-atho,, am m or Hilf ^23 Hff» ,^W. vo*. "*L distincuontes be served as i IS 1 r,ften...
...In these communities, it seems safe to say, there is no greater support for people's efforts to shape local life than the combination made up of parishes, diocesan offices, and the Campaign for Human Development...
...But an important new dimension has emerged over the last two decades...
...In fact, so single-minded have they been that the Center shunned collaboration with the National Association for Lay Ministry particularly during the Synod on the Laity in 1987...
...Catholic hospitals and community health services, inner-city parochial schools, and Catholic social services have become important resources for the public in need...
...I sense a real problem in that respect...
...There has been a proliferation of family ministries in the past decades...
...While I have no evidence regarding middle-class and suburban communities, I suspect parishes in these areas typically are not significant for lay community leadership...
...In their heyday in the fifties they encouraged many laity to get involved in community affairs, public life, and politics...
...While clear stands need to be taken against sin and injustice, discipleship is more than that and the church must be more than a monitor...
...These efforts usually have a regional reach rather than only a parish one...
...One exception is the thirty-three-year old First Friday Club of Cleveland, which offers its four hundred members who work in the city a luncheon speaker every first Thursday(I...
...One way to ap...
...We too are employers, workers, consumers, citizens with the franchise, taxpayers, family members, members of political parties, friends, patrons of the arts, and— with the recent opening of ordination to some married men—spouses and fathers...
...Put in canonical terms, all remain Christifideles—the faithful of Christ— even if they are ordained...
...We need not turn to as astonish26.11 September 1992 Commonweal H ing an enterprise as that of Monsignor William Linder, MacArthur Foundation awardee, who heads the remarkable New Community in Newark (it employs thousands in its housing developments, residence for the elderly, homeless residence, new businesses, and credit union...
...Of course, these services have always been an integral part of the church's community life...
...Then it promotes human rights, encourages job creation, fosters and participates in relief efforts, poses criteria for economic policy, urges and provides greater supports for families and children, and offers alternatives to abortion...
...Nothing like the Christian Family Movement (CFM), the Young Christian Students (YCS), and the Young Christian Workers (YCW), with their observe-judge-act methodology and social analysis, now exists...
...Once the church enters into partnership with social institutions, its health and welfare services regularly run into conflicts between the funders' guidelines and the church's moral teachings and convictions...
...For historians there is the Catholic Historical Association and the United States Catholic Historical Society, and for those in health care the Catholic Health Association...
...hen it comes to the work place, whether business, the professions, government, education, or science, it's a different picture...
...Nor are priests and sisters as prominent as they were during the sixties in taking "prophetic" positions...
...Parish leadership in community organizations is more typically exemplified by PACT in San Jose, BUILD in Baltimore, COPS in San Antonio, UNO in Los Angeles, and South Bronx Churches in New York...
...Study after study finds that, while Catholics are concerned about the relationship between a gospel-based morality and their private and social lives, many balk at any church approach to morality that is based primarily on ecclesiastical authority...
...for example, the Sisters of Mercy have made serious efforts to assure that lay administrators of their extensive health service network maintain fidelity to their founder's vision...
...What is true for institutions applies as well to conscientious individual Catholics in public life...
...Broader efforts to enable Catholics to think through and reflect on the links between Christian discipleship and church membership and their lives as family members, workers, and citizens have been much more episodic...
...Father Norman Douglas in Akron, Ohio, has organized groups of teachers, lawyers, and nurses...
...Religious education and sacramental preparation programs have added parent participation to the process...
...Concern for the impact of social and economic policies on family life is evident in the bishops' recent election year document, "Putting Children and Families First...
...the renew program, the Charismatic Renewal, and Scripture-study programs like the Little Rock Scripture program are the most extensive source of these groups...
...Ultimately, the authority given to the church to evangelize, to call people to the gospel, and to bring the gospel to our public and cultural life, will require more strenuous efforts to be faithful to the Catholic Tradition that combines: a personal relationship with Christ and the Christian community, an ascetical tradition, and a theology that respects the role of intellect and conscience in Christian discipleship...
...What Weakland says of politicians applies as well to those in public education, public health, and many other arenas of public life...
...Are church institutions reaching those who need them most...
...It seems never to have achieved as much clarity about its goal of helping Catholic businessmen work out their Christian responsibility in the workplace as about its goal of supporting vocations to the ordained priesthood...
...Must a Catholic cease to represent an area of the country if he or she feels that the majority of a constituency has another set of wishes and desires of the candidate than the church might...
...Or this scrutiny can measure these social and educational services in terms of "gospel priorities," such as the preferential option for the poor...
...What is the relationship between a specific church mission and the church's contribution to public service when the frameworks and guidelines are defined by the funders (in the case of health and welfare services, tax dollars and third-party financing...
...What is true of "them" is true of us...
...Andrew Greeley has even found a significant relationship between active church involvement by couples and satisfying marriages...
...But with the notable exception of Cardinal John O'Connor's active support for organized labor in all institutions including Catholic schools and hospitals, church support for Catholics in labor unions has become very tentative...
...L distincuontes be served as i IS 1 r,ften decwc «-^ N^ tbink tnav«., - a lltue -^ thirds oi u«- fto ^omen s conce ^ ^o d ft accei ;pted H judgments"—judgments open to disagreement among conscientious Christians...
...In these cases, what is the appropriate relationship between the ministries of the church and the secular roles of individual laity working in them...
...On the one hand, how can those in church ministries heavily involved in essential public service, whether they are clergy or laity, not be concerned about public policy, corporate life, and community leadership linked to these services...
...CHURCH SUPPORT FOR THE "WORLDLY" MISSION OF THE LAITY Do the clergy find ways to be specifically helpful to the life and mission of lay people in the "world...
...I know little about Opus Dei's approach to its members, but apparently it is concerned about fostering what it understands to be Christian leadership in public affairs...
...Perhaps the initiative that has most fully taken up the cause of the Chicago Declaration is the Chicago-based National Center for the Laity (NCL), whose newsletter and events have been single-minded in their emphasis on the properly lay mission in the "world...
...III...
...These health and welfare services as well as inner-city schools introduce a whole new level of complexity...
...When it comes to the professions, there is support for those associations most directly linked to religious and ecclesiastical concerns: the Catholic Theological Society, the Catholic Biblical Association, the Canon Law Society, and perhaps the College Theology Society...
...the Woodstock Center at Georgetown continues to expand its efforts at fostering reflection among business leaders, as well as among leaders in politics and other public areas about the values and priorities that govern their work...
...Some few parishes and parish priests have tried to address this need...
...We have a deep need for a thoughtful and practical dialogue on all the ways in which church and society, clergy and laity, the Catholic and the public constituency intersect...
...This scrutiny comes under the rubric of "Catholic identity" when it deals with orthodoxy or orthopraxy in teaching or moral decision making...
...One could say that the whole of church life—the very existence of a larger community of total acceptance and shared commitment—remains critical as context and support for family life...
...in the case of inner-city schools, business and voluntary contributions in the absence of vouchers or other public funding...
...For those of us who are clergy share most aspects of lay life treated in this essay...
...In the past, there was strong support for the labor movement (perhaps as much to stem the tide of communism as to improve the conditions of workers...
...Pastoral ministry must, and I think will, find new ways to help parishioners help each other to integrate dis-cipleship with family, community, and work life, perhaps through a revived and revised observe-judge-act process...
...proach this is to look at how the church and clergy address matters of sin and virtue and how they address issues of public morality...
...In the pastoral letters on peace and the economy, the bishops carefully combine clarity about fundamental teaching with equally clear acknowledgment of both freedom of conscience and legitimate disagreement over prudential judgments...
...One exception to clerical and religious involvement in institutions governed by secular and professional criteria is higher education...
...Commonweal 11 September 1992: 29...
...t the beginning, I hinted that the clergy-lay relationship is rooted in deeper questions about church and society, religion and public life...
...Archbishop Rembert Weakland has recently addressed this conundrum in the context of politics: We have not worked out how to be insiders, especially in politics, and remain Catholic...
...Add to the traditional Pre-Cana Conference the Engaged Encounter weekends and the sponsor-couple programs for marriage preparation, the Retrouvaille program (a twelve-step program) for "hurting marriages," and a variety of programs for single parents as well as day care for children and the elderly...
...When lay people are honored it is usually because of contributions (financial or otherwise) they have made to the internal life of the church, and not because of artistic achievement, innovative efforts in the workplace, or leadership in public education, health, or other sectors of the public arena...
...The annual "Red Mass" continues to be held for the legal profession in some dioceses...
...Second, the manner in which the church offers its guidance is critical...
...Or it can be a question of a religious order's holding to its founding charism...
...Sometimes, it seems as though the church's relationship to family life, citizenship, occupation, or the arts and sciences, focuses only on "ethics," and, indeed, a rather negative ethics: what is immoral in these situations...
...The Holy Name and "communion breakfast" forms of support for the police, firefighters, and other civil servants have all but disappeared...
...And they all show that church, clergy, and religious involvement in the public arena is extensive and complex...
...In other words, as another document from the bishops' conference puts it, church support for family life is more a "perspective" on everything the church does than a matter of specific programs...
...These questions have become a matter of intense self-examination for many Catholics and even a matter of some controversy for Catholic institutions (the question of AIDS prevention is one, but there are many others...
...Two well-known cases of political involvement, Robert Drinan, S.J., and Sister Mary Ann Mansour, for example, were resolved by his withdrawing from political office and by her withdrawing from the religious order...
...In what ways do the ministries of the church directly address the challenges of lay life, those of family, community, and work...
...Second, the church has become a major part of the "safety net" for people in need of health, education, and welfare services...
...The Knights of Malta continues to operate but, from the little I know, their work is apparently directed more toward support of Commonweal the institutional church and public concerns than toward the leadership of its members in their professions and occupations...
...People are served irrespective of their religious identity, and without a clear link to evangelization efforts...
...The Business Executives for Justice in Chicago, related to NCL, is a recent attempt to encourage reflection on business ethics...
...This approach misses the creative capacity of lay persons, the ability and opportunity to help shape the future, to find fulfillment, to make a difference in how the world works...
...Most of them have focused on people's individual lives and personal needs rather than on critical reflection and public responsibility...
...The lines between laity and clergy will continue to be blurred in many ways: lay people will increasingly be involved in church ministry and parishioners will be called upon, as part of stepped-up stewardship plans, not only to donate money but to contribute to the work of the parish...
...There has been a proliferation of "small groups," gatherings of people to pray and reflect on their faith...
...Other professional associations have opened up to broader constituencies and concerns (for example, the Association for the Sociology of Religion has replaced the Catholic Sociological Society), though I detect some rethinking of this outward turn and concern for specific Catholic identity and questions...
...Church agencies, clergy, and religious will continue to play important roles in health, education, and welfare as well as in shaping community development and public policy...
...What about church assistance to lay leaders in community life...
...But in poor and working-class communities, the church, and particularly the parish, remains the most pervasive source of support for community action and community development...
...Of course, these contexts and concerns are not mutually exclusive but they are distinguishable...
...Finally, the traditional but already diminishing exemption of church leaders and institutions from civil regulations and public accountability will be further challenged and, where appropriate, the church will be required to adhere to public and professional norms for organizational behavior...
...Finally, to add to this already complex analysis, let me propose that we not think of ordination as removing the clergy from lay or secular concerns...
...This came home to me reading John Paul II's Christifideles laid, the document that followed the synod on the laity...
...At Old St...
...Patrick's in Chicago, John Fontana, a layman working with the pastor Father John Wall, has organized faith- . work reflection groups and retreats under the title The 28/11 September 1992 Crossroads Center and Father John Cusick has replicated Cleveland's First Friday Club for workers in downtown Chicago...
...By that I mean that we do not yet see how a Catholic can be elected to represent a constituency, a group of people from an area or district, and respect their wishes and at the same time remain in the Catholic tradition in all things...
...How little, for example, the church honors and consults lay men and women and thus fails to offer their creative and constructive works as ideals...
...Clergy and religious are typically subject to the standard criteria for appointments and tenure in Catholic institutions, and clergy and religious with advanced degrees continue to take positions in non-Catholic institutions...
...In our pluralistic society the church will be impelled by the increasing crises of politicians and service providers to work out relationships that protect the integrity of conscience and honor public responsibility...
...When it comes to the business community, Serra International has been faltering in this country...
...The recently disputed Laetare Medal (given this year to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan) has long been one notable exception...
...WHAT CONCLUSIONS CAN BE DRAWN...
...Nonetheless, there remain serious problems in the relationships between Catholic church commitments and the public involvement of Catholic individuals and specific Catholic institutions...
...While some people, no doubt, wish to restrict the realm of morality and bracket the role of conscience, other people truly wish to form their consciences, not turn them over to others...
...Origins, May 28, 1992...
...In some areas it has turned to opposition to unions in Catholic health-care institutions, cemeteries, and educational institutions...
...At the same time, it appears that clergy and religious have not continued the trend of the sixties, entering into political and other forums of public life...
...Nonetheless, the public image of the church's teaching on many matters suggests that compliance is purely a matter of submission to authority rather than conversion of conscience...
...On the other hand, what then distinguishes church service from any other kind...
...Some Catholic professional associations persist, while others like the Catholic Sociological Society have died...
...When it comes to public policy issues and practices regarding international relations, economic affairs, and abortion, the church is more constructive...
Vol. 119 • September 1992 • No. 15
