Lay ministry is sign of health in Catholicism

Last month, along with 35 bishops, pastors and lay ministers (including Rev. Dominic Ingemie, pastor of St. James parish in Albany, and Elizabeth Rowe, director of our diocesan Formation for Ministry Program), I participated in a two-day consultation on the topic of lay ecclesial ministry.

Sponsored by the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Laity, the consultation sought to garner greater insights on the explosion of lay ministers, both salaried or volunteers, who are now exercising major pastoral leadership responsibilities in our Church at the parish, diocesan and national levels -- and the implications this has for our Church.

All the laity in the Church, by virtue of Baptism, are called to holiness and ministry in the home, family, parish, neighborhood, workplace and wider community. But there is the growing phenomenon of lay men and women (including vowed religious) serving in full-time pastoral roles as faith formation directors, youth ministers, liturgical coordinators, family life ministers, business managers, musicians, RCIA coordinators, pastoral associates and parish life directors, just to mention a few.

Sign of health

This growth of lay ecclesial ministries is a sign of health and vitality in the life of the Church. In his apostolic exhortation, "The Church in America," Pope John Paul II states that "the renewal of the Church in America will not be possible without the active presence of the laity. Therefore, they are largely responsible for the future of the Church."

That vision of John Paul certainly has been our experience in the Diocese of Albany. By modeling lay ministry, by sharing their stories of being called to ministry, and by inviting others to an awareness of the spirit in their lives, lay ministers -- both salaried and volunteer -- have been a wonderful resource for recruiting, supporting and affirming other laity in the acceptance of new ministerial roles.

For example, many of the laity who have completed our Formation for Ministry Program have enabled others to serve as parish retreat leaders or leaders of small faith-sharing and Scripture study groups; as members of bereavement, hospitality, youth, young adult and social action committees; as participants on AIDS care teams, on retreat teams for those in local jails and state prisons, or for those with developmental disabilities; and as people willing to share with the wider community their professional expertise in such areas as counseling of the unemployed, assisting immigrants with legal problems and language skills, and offering medical and nursing care in parish or school-based health programs.

Meeting needs

Those efforts seem to be responsive to the signs of the times:

* the deep hunger for spirituality and in-depth understanding of the Scriptures;

* the declining number of ordained and vowed ministers;

* the rising aspirations of women;

* the growing dehumanization and depersonalization within our society;

* the alienation and disaffiliation of generation X; and

* the widening gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" within our society.

Concerns

While those present at our consultation celebrated and affirmed the growth of these new lay ministries within the Church, they also raised certain issues that need attention.

First, we need greater clarity at both the diocesan and national levels about the nomenclature being employed, so there is a greater uniformity within and among dioceses with regard to the titles being utilized, the expected competencies required and the relationship of these ministers to the local Church.

In this regard, all the consultation participants underscored the need for clear policies and guidelines addressing the recruiting and interviewing of prospective ministers, the development of well-defined job descriptions and ministerial agreements, the formulation of wages and benefits, and the establishment of evaluation and grievance procedures.

While such have been available through diocesan human resources offices, it is evident that more work needs to be done to enable pastors and other individuals involved in the hiring of lay ministers to understand to a greater degree the importance of following these policies and guidelines, and to help them in developing the practical skills they need, especially in the area of recruitment and supervision.

Rights and tensions

Further, experience dictates that our lay ministers be apprised fully of their rights as Church employees or volunteers, and know the recourse they have to address grievances, either through human resources offices or through diocesan administrative review processes.

Unfortunately, many lay ministers find themselves serving at the whim of the hiring agent, especially when a change in personnel takes place. It is imperative, therefore, that both the Church representative and the lay minister be informed fully about their roles, rights and responsibilities.

Moreover, participants at the consultation noted that while there are tensions that lay ministers have in their relationship with pastors and other Church authorities, those tensions are not unique to lay ecclesial ministers. Frequently, the same tensions are experienced by ordained priests serving in the role of associate pastor or by deacons.

That observation is not intended to minimize the problems and tensions but to put them in a broader context that perceives tensions not so much as a clergy-versus-laity struggle or an ordained-versus-nonordained struggle, but as an issue of how authority is perceived and exercised in the Church: hierarchically or collegially; bureaucratically or collaboratively.

Hierarchies

A second concern that consultation participants emphasized is that we do not define lay ecclesial ministry in a way that fosters an elitism or that relegates laity who are not ecclesial ministers to the status of second-class citizenship or of persons having a lesser call within the Church.

Historically, we have tended to do this with clergy and religious, seeing them as the do-ers and activists in the Church, and looking upon ordination or religious profession as elevating people to a status of spiritual superiority; the laity have been seen as exercising a more modest, passive role in the Church community and in no way competing with the clergy and religious in theology and spirituality. (It is interesting to note that this concern about the "clericalization" of some lay ministers was cited by the Latin American bishops in a meeting on Lay Ministers in the New Evangelization.)

Lay ecclesial ministry, then, should not be defined or noted in a way that presents the persons exercising such ministries as having a better or more noble call than other laity.

Seeking definitions

A final concern noted by consultation participants is that it may be premature to describe with definitiveness lay ecclesial ministry.

As Father James Heft, a theologian at the University of Dayton, has observed, "The outline of ministerial activities found in the New Testament reflects a dynamism and creativity as well as a need for certain order and coordination. This dynamism and creativity ought to be understood as ongoing."

Certainly, as noted previously, there is a need at this juncture in the history of the Church in the United States to examine the explosion of new lay ministries, and, based upon our experience since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, to affix a certain order and coordination.

That reflection is crucially important lest we get too far down the road in development of patterns and relationships that may not be truly reflective of sound theology and discipline within the framework of our Catholic Christian tradition.

Much to do

This endeavor -- to develop some preliminary practical disposition about who qualifies for the designation as a lay ecclesial minister, and about what is the foundation of that person's responsibility and accountability within the local Church -- will be of extreme benefit as well as an enormous contribution to the life of the contemporary Church.

However, just as it took several centuries for the order of bishop, presbyter and deacon to become defined fully, it would seem that the present effort to define lay ecclesial ministry, while needed and appropriate, should remain tentative. In other words, while it is imperative that we study, reflect on, clarify and theologize about lay ecclesial ministry, at this point in history, we ought not to attempt to finalize what is still a developing reality.

I found the whole consultation most hope-filled and helpful. I believe firmly that the growth of lay ecclesial ministry is the work of the Spirit, and that those who exercise this ministry will continue to enhance and enrich the life of our Church.

(It is estimated that 30,000 lay men and women exercise parish ministries in the United States; there are another 5,000 campus, hospital, prison and other ministers, an increase of almost 50 percent in the past 20 years. Those figures do not include laity who serve in Catholic schools and colleges, or in Catholic charities and healthcare institutions. More than 80 percent of these new ministers are women. Some 3,300 parishes in our country are now being lead by a pastoral administrator who is not a priest. The explosion of lay ministries has been accompanied by a corresponding growth in graduate and certificate programs in ministry, diocesan-sponsored lay ministry programs and national ministerial associations. The Albany Diocese has St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, which offers graduate and certificate programs for lay ministers, and the parish-focused Formation for Ministry Program.)

(11/13/03) [[In-content Ad]]