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CHAPTER 1

Taking Our Knowledge and Putting It to Use in the World

To live in the world as a faithful Catholic today requires strength. From every direction, there is criticism of the Church. The secular culture, and particularly the media, speaks with a surprisingly unified voice against Catholicism. Plenty of the comments are merited, but many are not. And the Church faces significant challenges going forward. But at this time in the Church’s history, we believe that a volume celebrating its great traditions and practices, and looking with optimism toward the future, might be a welcome breath of fresh air.

We would like to provide lay Catholics with suggestions of how to live out their faith in the community, or, as some pastors say, “For laypeople to live out their baptismal call, they should transform the world . . .” In the first half of this book, we would like to lay out some of the seemingly countless options open to laypeople now. The needs of the Church, and therefore the opportunities for laypeople, are truly historic.

First, some background is necessary. While proportionally, Catholics have remained about a quarter of the American population for some time, by simple head count, the Church has grown significantly. Even while the birthrate among Catholics slowed during the 20th century, waves of immigration continued to keep the Church fresh and alive. The Catholic population grew by more than 8 percent every decade from 1950 to 2000.

But the Church’s ability to minister to the faithful has been challenged. During the same period, every 10 years, the number of diocesan priests decreased by about 13 percent and the membership in religious orders declined about 20 percent.

What do these numbers mean for the everyday life of the Church and its flock? Among other things, they explain how it has come to be that 1 in 7 parishes in the U.S. no longer has a resident priest. More and more lay Catholics are waking up to find that their priests, when they are present, are overworked, indeed overwhelmed, by the extent of their responsibilities. Almost half of American parishes share their pastor with another parish or mission. There are also shortages of religious leaders at the 18,500 parishes, 8,500 elementary schools, 1,600 high schools, 245 colleges and universities, and 750 hospitals and health clinics owned and operated by the Church.

Historically, the leadership of these institutions has resided in the hands of the clergy. But in recent years, much of the responsibility for them has been given to laypeople. As former New York Times columnist Peter Steinfels reported in A People Adrift, the transition has been startling: “In 1965, there were no married or single men ordained to be permanent deacons and almost no laypeople employed full-time in pastoral work by the Church. In 2002, there were 13,764 permanent deacons and another 14,000 lay ‘ecclesial ministers’ working alongside sisters in pastoral posts.”

As of the time of Steinfels’s writing in 2003, there were over 30,000 lay parish ministers being paid to work more than 20 hours a week in over 60 percent of American parishes. Almost three-quarters were working full time. The shift toward lay leadership can perhaps be summed up best with this statistic: as far back as 1999, there were almost 10 times as many lay ecclesial ministers in formation (30,000) as there are candidates for the priesthood (3,400).

As this transition has occurred, so has another. Parish life has increased in scale and complexity. According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, about 22 percent of parishes celebrate Mass in more than one language at least once a month. In their book, American Catholics Today, William D’Antonio, Dean Hoge, and James Davidson note that more than a quarter of U.S. Catholic parishes “are of a size equivalent to what would be considered a ‘mega-church’ in Protestant terminology—they have more than 1,200 registered households and more than 3,000 parishioners.” Also, like the megachurches, these parishes have launched dozens of new ministries, activities for people of all ages, and many offer five or more Masses on any given weekend.

Who is going to take responsibility for all of this?

The growing involvement of laypeople in the Church is not simply a demographic necessity. It is a theological imperative. The underpinnings for this imperative come from all levels of the Church—most important, of course, from the Second Vatican Council. It is often noted that there can be a long lag time—sometimes as much as 100 years—between the end of a Church council and the actual execution of the approved strategies and tactics.

The existence and legitimacy of the role of laypeople is expressed in documents throughout the history of the Church. But it was the Second Vatican Council that laid out this role most forcefully.

In Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Council Fathers of Vatican II state that “our own times require of the laity . . . zeal: in fact, modern conditions demand that their own apostolate be broadened and intensified. With a constantly increasing population, continual progress in science and technology, and closer interpersonal relationships, the areas for the lay apostolate have been immensely widened.”

In the document, laypeople are instructed that “an apostolate of this kind does not consist only in the witness of one’s way of life; a true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ by words addressed either to nonbelievers with a view to leading them to faith, or to the faithful with a view to instructing, strengthening them and encouraging them to a more fervent life.” Apostolicam Actuositatem mentions not only charitable work and other volunteering opportunities within the Church community but also pastoral duties, including the “teaching of Christian doctrine, certain liturgical actions and the care of souls.”

In 1988, Pope John Paul II reiterated some of these sentiments in Christifideles Laici, the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and the World. He noted that laypeople are sharers in the priestly mission, for which Jesus offered himself on the cross and continues to be offered in the celebration of the Eucharist for the glory of God and the salvation of humanity. “The lay faithful,” said the pope, “consecrate the world itself to God.”

The Second Vatican Council very clearly laid out the proposition that all ministry is rooted in the baptismal call to discipleship and evangelization. All laity are called through baptism toward the transformation of the secular world.

During the course of his tenure, John Paul II also offered specific instruction for the leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church: “As pastors of the people of God in America, priests . . . should be careful to discern the charisms and strengths of the faithful who might be leaders in the community, listening to them and through dialogue encouraging their participation and co-responsibility. This will lead to a better distribution of tasks, and enable priests ‘to dedicate themselves to what is most closely tied to the encounter with a proclamation of Jesus Christ, and thus to represent better within the community the presence of Jesus who draws his people together.’”

In recent years, the leadership of the American Church has taken up Pope John Paul II’s challenge with vigor. Commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, the U.S. bishops reaffirmed that “baptism and confirmation empower all believers to share in some form of ministry.” The bishops recognized that the Church “faces an unprecedented situation in the contemporary world and the laypeople are at the cutting edge of these new challenges. It is they who engage directly in the task of relating Christian values and practices to complex questions, such as those of business ethics, political choice, economic security, quality of life, cultural development and family planning.”

The bishops foresaw that the issue of lay involvement in Church leadership could be a difficult one but warned that the “recognition of lay rights and responsibilities should not create divisiveness between clergy and laity but should express the full range of influence of the People of God.” Without the laypeople, the bishops suggested, the Church cannot live out its mission: “The Church is to be a sign of God’s Kingdom in the world. The authenticity of that sign depends on all the people: laity, religious, deacons, priests and bishops. Unless we truly live as the People of God, we will not be much of a sign to ourselves or the world.”

Finally, the bishops offered this humble but inspirational declaration: “We are convinced that the laity are making an indispensable contribution to the experience of the People of God and that the full import of their contribution is still in a beginning form in the post-Vatican II Church. We have spoken in order to listen. It is not our intention rigidly to define or to control, to sketch misleading dreams or to bestow false praise. We bishops wish simply to take our place and exercise our role among the People of God. We now await the next word.”

Though the role of the laity is still in flux, it is clear that both the laity and the Church leadership want to make sure that certain foundations are put in place. The importance of formation for laity cannot be overestimated. If laypeople are called to occupy such vital places in the Church, then their religious education is of the utmost urgency.

In 2005, the U.S. bishops released a document titled “Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord.” As its title suggests, the bishops reiterate in this document the importance of clergy working alongside laypeople to accomplish God’s work in the world. The bishops are aware that “the pathway to lay ecclesial ministry for any individual is as unique as that individual. No typical path exists, only a multitude of examples. Most of the paths are quite circuitous; few are direct.” But no matter what path an individual takes, it is important that he engage in a serious course of formation before undertaking any sort of lay ministry.

“Effective formation methods address the whole person: emotions, imagination, will, heart, and mind. It is the whole person who ministers, so the whole person is the proper subject of formation.” The bishops lay out four paths to formation—human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral:

• Human qualities critical to form wholesome relationships and necessary to be apt instruments of God’s love and compassion

• A spirituality and practice of prayer that root them in God’s Trinitarian life, grounding and animating all they do in ministry

• Adequate knowledge in theological and pastoral studies, along with the intellectual skill to use it among the people and cultures of our country

• The practical pastoral abilities called for in their particular ministry

While some of these qualities must be developed through the kinds of spiritual exercises and practices discussed in the second part of this book, others require a greater engagement with the texts of the Church and more formal instruction in the particular kinds of ministry.

In the years since the publication of these guidelines, their message has started to trickle down to the local parishes. A number of bishops and archbishops have written letters to their own parishioners to reiterate and expand on the messages of these documents.

At the same time, a number of Catholic educational institutions have begun to take up the challenge of formation. Several formal programs have been launched to meet the growing demand of laypeople who want to take on a larger role.

Loyola Marymount University in Southern California offers a master of arts in pastoral theology whose requirements include not only courses in systematic theology and Church history but also fieldwork. The University of Notre Dame has begun offering an MA program in theology that can be completed over the summers, for laypeople who are engaged in other work. People who complete it are well suited to serve in high school religious education, parish, and diocesan ministries, as well as in health care and social-work ministries.

Boston College’s Weston School of Theology and Ministry offers more traditional degrees, like an MA in pastoral ministry. With the cooperation of other graduate divisions at BC, that degree can be combined with degrees in counseling, nursing, social work, and business. These sorts of integrated programs can help laypeople bridge the gap between their internal spiritual lives and their missions as lay leaders in the Church and the world.

Laypeople who are interested in pursuing these kinds of programs may, of course, look to nearby Catholic universities. But there are organizations that act as clearinghouses for this information as well. The Association of Graduate Programs in Ministry, which has almost 50 member institutions, helps educators to offer the most thorough and up-to-date models for lay ministers in training. And the National Association for Lay Ministry (NALM) is a professional organization that supports, educates, and advocates for lay ministers and promotes the development of lay ministry in the Catholic Church. National certification standards have been established for at least four positions: pastoral associates, parish life coordinators, parish catechetical leaders, and youth ministry leaders. NALM publishes the guidelines for lay certification in a variety of fields.

Individual dioceses can also offer their own courses to aid in the formation of lay ministers. Kathy Russell, who oversees the formation of lay ministers for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, says the process is different depending on a person’s background. Some have the administrative skills or the spiritual knowledge but not the communication skills or the understanding of counseling. She tries to set up potential lay ministers with a combination of courses from local seminaries, universities, and the archdiocese itself. From courses on preaching to a seminar on “inclusive communities,” laypeople should be able to find much of what they need in the diocese training program.

Finding a lay vocation can be a long and sometimes complex process of discernment. But the process does not take place in a vacuum. Parishes that are looking for lay involvement must also discern where their needs lie, then engage in a dialogue with parishioners about how lay involvement can improve the community.

The Holy Family Parish in South Pasadena, California, for instance, put together a succession plan that laid out the need to look at a range of options when its pastor retired. One possibility that they wanted to explore was adding a parish life director. The parish leadership launched a national search to find someone to fill the position. Holy Family recognized that the move toward greater lay involvement, while inevitable and desirable from the perspective of the Church, must also take account of the feelings of people in the pews.

So now, to the task at hand. The first part of this book is divided into three parts, each of which represents a field in which lay participation is growing, with the encouragement of the Church. We offer a few profiles of the individuals who fill some of these positions. Though ordinary in the sense that they are typical churchgoing Catholics, these individuals have made an extraordinary contribution to the life of the Church. We hope their stories can inspire others to do the same.