“To Wake up a Giant: the Laity in the Church” was the theme of the meeting held October 6th in the John Paul II auditorium at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church in Rome. It took place as one of a continuing series of meetings regarding “The Second Vatican Council as a Compass of the New Evangelization”. These meetings have been organized by the John Paul II Pontificate Centre for Documentation and Research and the Pastoral Staff at St. Stanislaw Church in the Eternal City.
The meeting began with Rev. Andrzej Dobrzyński presenting the history of the development of the laity’s role in the Church. He showed theological and historical conditions of a division into the clergy and the laity and underlined a designation of the secondary role for lay people in relation to the clergy through the ages. He drew attention to the changing conceptions of the vocation to holiness and of the Church’s relationships to the world and ordinary affairs. He stressed that history of the laity in the Church teaches us how to search for new forms of cooperation between clergy and laity, the bridging of ministries, offices and different kinds of missions and service in the Church. The movement of lay people was significantly revived in the first half of the twentieth century, not only because of organizations such as Catholic Action, but also by theological reflection on the role of the laity.
Continuing the meeting, the speaker turned his attention to the teaching of Vatican II on the laity, which is mainly contained in three documents of this council. “The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium”, which introduces the basics of theology of the laity revealing the whole Church as the People of God. This document states how every baptized person is participating in the saving mission of Christ and is called to holiness. “In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem” we find indications on objectives, forms and rules of the laity’s activity. “The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes” provides a Christian vision of man and the world and discusses in detail the areas of life in which the laity plays a major role. These include: marriage and family, culture, economy, politics and issues concerning peace and cooperation between nations.
In the second part of the meeting Prof. Father Zdzisław Kijas OFMConv. spoke about problems of mutual relation between clergy and laity in the post-conciliar period. He pointed out the existing tensions that arise from a faulty vision of the Church and from erroneous understanding of offices, ministries and charismas. Priests and lay people should not develop their spirituality in opposition to one another, but they should be aware of not only their distinctiveness, but also their similarities. This is required by the conciliar ecclesiology and by the task of evangelization of the modern world. Therefore, priests must avoid the temptation of a patriarchal approach to the laity, understanding its legitimate autonomy and irreplaceable role in many areas of life. However, the laity should not fall into the trap of temptation to democratize the Church’s life, because the Church cannot be created in opposition to its hierarchy.
Following his presentation, Father Kijas answered several questions from the audience, explaining pros and cons of pastoral councils in parishes He stated that sometimes priests pass on to the laity what is meant to be for the clergy. One example would be in Liturgy or on the contrary they want to be over all staff of pastoral life in the parish without sharing it with lay people. And that does not serve the good of the Church. In conclusion, he emphasized that a well-formed lay person, with a strong based faith and witness of life, is of great help to priests themselves, offering understanding of their own place and role in the community of the Church.
Waking up “a giant”, i.e. the laity has been a strong contributor to Church life for decades, and thanks to this – despite difficulties – many important and useful changes have occurred. The situation of the modern world requires of believers, as well as of priests and laity, to develop their proper vocation fully engaged in the work of the new evangelization