Reform the laity?

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I think I’m really going to like him. He’s absolutely right. The Church’s major weakness is evangelization and not spreading the good news to others.
 
I agree. The article talks about the clericalizing of the laity. I was surprised when he said extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and lectors, etc. But when I think of it, I do see a little competition among EM’s as to who is going to hold the ciborium vs. the cup and who walks up the most reverantly and who genuflects deepest and so on. I wonder if this is what he means by clericalization.
 
psalm51mercy said:
I wonder if this is what he means by clericalization.
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My take is that he means the Church has made it’s priority getting the lay people involved with all aspects of Church life, and that has been at the expense of having us all going out and preaching the Good News.

Being a lector or EM is a wonderful gift to the Church, but it shouldn’t be the only one, nor should it be the primary one. I believe Pope Francis is saying that we really need to open up the Church doors and get out into our communities and preach the Gospel. People in our communities need to hear about Catholicism, they need to see an active, vibrant and welcoming Church, and we cannot accomplish this with the Church doors closed and being overly concerned with getting a clerical position within the Church.

Lay people have become overly involved with Church matters and clerical matters. They have to much to say, and they have overplayed their importance in Church matters. This has led lay people to become disobedient to the Church, and to demand changes. Let the Bishops run the Church, our primary mission should be to open up the doors and evangelize…
 
Yes, well said Jimcav. I especially agree with you on all the EM’s running around on the Altar. And who “gets to” do what, and who is more reverent etc as psalms has pointed out. If the laity is going to be “reformed”, we need to “reform them” from so much Altar duty. The EM’s were originally put into place only for emergency situations. They not are really, according to the Magesterium, supposed to be permanent fixtures on the Altar. On most Sundays and Holy days, the Priests and Deacons are supposed to do the major part of distribution of Communion. At one point, it got so bad in some parishes (mine being one for a short time) that the Priests sat as others were distributing Communion. Thankfully, the Bishop put the Kibosh on that one in pretty short order. They were also allowing Altar Servers and Eucharistic Ministers to purify vessels.:eek: BIG NO NO! I think they still may do that in some parishes, unfortunately. I see it as lack of leadership (or maybe knowledge?) in the liturgy ministry, be they lay or clergy.

Anyway, I see the main “job” if you will of the laity is taking the message to the streets. At the end of Mass when the Priest or Deacon says: “Go and serve the Lord, the Mass is ended.”…what he’s really saying is…“now go and be little Christ’s in the world.”…“you’ve been fed with the body of Christ, now go share yourself with those around you”.
 
In my last parish position as pastoral associate I ended up being an EM almost every week. In my current parish I am DRE and I don’t serve as an EM unless it is really necessary. I will be doing it for First Communion Masses. I don’t miss doing it, not at all. I can spend quality time in prayer after receiving.

In many parishes they don’t need all the Ems they have. What we do need are catechists. But it seems that we don’t get too many people eager to serve the parish in that capacity. What could be more important than educating children in the faith?
 
Joannm said:
In my last parish position as pastoral associate I ended up being an EM almost every week. In my current parish I am DRE and I don’t serve as an EM unless it is really necessary. I will be doing it for First Communion Masses. I don’t miss doing it, not at all. I can spend quality time in prayer after receiving.

In many parishes they don’t need all the Ems they have. What we do need are catechists. But it seems that we don’t get too many people eager to serve the parish in that capacity. What could be more important than educating children in the faith?
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Not a thing more important than that! Absolutely! I can understand why we incorporated EM’s many years back, but if congregation sizes are shrinking (as in my area they are) there isn’t the need for them as there used to be first of all. For instance at our early morning Sunday Mass, we have roughly 50 to 60 people altogether…tops. The communion line isn’t that long. Practically speaking, the Priest and Deacon can handle that, but we still have 2 EM’s to help with the Cup. The laity has been IMO a little misplaced in their roll, but I have confidence we will straighten that out down the road. I am anxious to see what effect Pope Francis has on parish life as a whole. He seems to want to make things a little simpler and get back to basics. Time will tell.
 
I don’t think the author is all that focused on getting the lay more active in “Church Life”.

The role of the lay, according to Vatican II documents, is to sanctify the world.

I agree that most of the problems in the Body of the Church are our fault, not the clergy or the religious.

It’s our fault. It’s our lack of struggle in the interior life, our expecting “father” or “the bishop” to do everything. It’s our insincere or infrequent or never confessions. It’s our unfaithfulness to the doctrine of life, our easy divorcing, our contracepting, our pursuit of desires.

It’s our fault. The real root of the priest scandal is our own lackluster, lukewarm love for God’s Church.

“Church life” is such an infinitely small part of our mission.

but we tend to over focus on priest and clerical issues and organization, etc.

We shouldn’t be so “churchy”.

Instead of everyone who “wakes up” suddenly running to be a reader, or a EMHC, or a deacon, or a this or that…we ought to instead focus on building up such a strong interior life that we can’t help but sanctify all our other endeavors…the rest of the world.
  • The little league teams we coach
  • The science project teams we coach
  • The neighborhood
  • Our workplaces
  • Our PTA meetings
  • Our extended family Thanksgiving meals
  • Our vacations
  • The restaurants we visit
  • The food banks we volunteer at
  • etc.
Sure…we need a few or more people to “staff” church functions…but we should catch ourselves a bit and make sure we’re not trying to clericalize our lay vocation.
 
But note, he starts with the clergy and a “hypercritical spirit” of some.

One of the wild grapes that flows from the vine of clericalism, the future Pope said in El Jesuita, is a hypercritical spirit that leads some Catholic priests and faithful to expend most of their energy censuring others inside and outside the Church rather than seeking to live and share the joy of the Christian faith.

“This is a problem not only for priests,” he said, “but also for laypeople. One isn’t a good Catholic when he is looking only for the negative, for what separates us. This isn’t what Jesus wants.”

Such unredeemed behavior — found regularly in personal conversations, blogs, comment boxes and Internet video analyses — “mutilates the message” of the Christian faith and scares people away from it, he said.

Firing vitriolic criticism at those with whom one disagrees is not the path of the reform of the laity and the Church.

That sounds a lot like some of the posts on this forum.

“Ecclesial Narcissism” he called it. A Church that merely protects its small flock, that gives all or most of its attention to its faithful clientele, he believes, “is a Church that is sick.”
 
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