"It is true that the laity are called primarily to live their mission in the secular realities in which they are immersed every day, but this does not exclude that they also have the abilities, charisms and competencies to contribute to the life of the Church: in liturgical animation, in catechesis and formation, in the structures of government, in the administration of goods, in the planning and implementation of pastoral programs, and so on. For this reason, pastors must be formed, already in the seminary, in a daily and ordinary collaboration with the laity, so that living communion becomes for them a natural way of acting, and not an extraordinary and occasional fact". This is how Pope Francis expressed himself during an audience in the Synod Hall at the Vatican, addressing the participants in the International Conference for Presidents and Presidents of Episcopal Commissions for the Laity, promoted from February 16-18 by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life on the theme: "Pastors and lay faithful called to walk together".
"It is time for pastors and laity to walk together, in all areas of the Church's life, in all parts of the world! The lay faithful are not 'guests' in the Church, they are in her house, so they are called to take care of their own house. The laity, and especially women, must be more valued in their competencies and in their human and spiritual gifts for the life of parishes and dioceses".
Bergoglio went on to speak of the lived co-responsibility between laity and pastors to overcome dichotomies, fears and mutual distrust, in order to be able to give Christian witness in secular environments such as the world of work, culture, politics, art, social communication. "We could say: laity and pastors together in the Church, laity and pastors together in the world," said the Pope, highlighting what he considers the greatest problem of the Church, "clericalism is the ugliest thing that can happen to the Church, even worse than in the times of the concubine Popes. Clericalism must be 'expelled'. A priest or bishop who falls into this attitude does great harm to the Church. But it is a disease that infects: even worse than a priest or bishop who has fallen into clericalism are the clericalized laity: please, they are a plague on the Church. Let the laity be laity".
I would like us all to have in our hearts and minds this beautiful vision of the Church: a Church committed to mission and where forces are united and we walk together to evangelize; a Church where what unites us is our being Christians, our belonging to Jesus; a Church where among laity and pastors there is true fraternity, working side by side every day, in all areas of pastoral work".
In his opening address, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery, explained the objective of the conference: "To sensitize both pastors and laity to the sense of responsibility that is born of baptism and unites us all, and to the need for adequate formation - for both pastors and laity - so that this co-responsibility can be lived effectively.
The perspective, he added, is that of "integrated pastoral care" and of "positive collaboration and co-responsibility within the Church, in all the areas of its competence: in the area of family pastoral care, in the area of youth pastoral care and, more generally, as this conference proposes, with reference to the lay faithful."
At the base, according to the prefect, is the "overcoming of the logic of 'delegation' or 'substitution': the laity 'delegated' by the parish priests for some sporadic service, or the laity 'substituting' the clergy in some positions, but also moving in isolation". All this seemed reductive.
According to https://www.laityfamilylife.va/the Conference has its roots in the Dicastery's Plenary Assembly of November 2019: in those days, the Cardinal explained, "we seemed to perceive a renewed call from the Lord to 'walk together', assuming the common responsibility of serving the Christian community, each according to his or her own vocation, without attitudes of superiority, uniting energies, sharing the mission of announcing the Gospel to the men and women of our time."
Reinforcing the intention, the Synodal Journey that has meanwhile begun, placed the conference in the context of the commitment of the whole Church to "walk together".
The Church, he continued, is a "communitarian subject" that knows that it has the same spirit, the same sentiment, the same faith and the same mission and, therefore, constitutes a true unitary body: in this sense it is not a federation. But in this single subject, individual personalities are not annulled. On the contrary, everyone in the Church must be an active subject: all are called to make their original contribution to the life and mission of the Church, all are called to think for themselves and to make their original charisms bear fruit".
After citing excerpts from Lumen Gentium, which already contained "a whole program of formation for pastors in relation to the laity, as well as some very important practical indications", the Prefect stressed that "there are many areas in which the laity are often more competent than priests and consecrated persons" and that "the presence and action of the lay faithful is of great use in the Church even in more properly 'ecclesial' activities such as evangelization and works of charity" because "even in these contexts the laity often show a zeal, an inventive capacity and a courage to explore new ways and try new methods to reach the distant that are often lacking in the clergy, accustomed to more traditional and less "uncomfortable" methodologies and practices".
The first day, dedicated to reflection on co-responsibility in pastoral service, began with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. In his homily, the Cardinal invited us to meditate on "a new covenant" that is "taking shape on the path of synodality, a restorative and mobilizing covenant". Significant advances are emerging from the search for better participation and collaboration between pastors and lay faithful".
Luis Navarro, Rector of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, offered the participants a reflection on the foundation and nature of the co-responsibility of the lay faithful, as well as their vocation and mission in society. "The laity are members of civil society: but not a passive member of it, but a builder of it, in the family, at work, in culture, in the boundless world of human relations, in short, that being alter Christus, another Christ because they are living members of the Church: called to be the soul of the world, as the letter to Diognetus expressed," he said.
The four testimonies that opened the plenary debate were offered by: Jorge and Marta Ibarra from Guatemala, coordinators of the National Commission on Family and Life of the Bishops' Conference; Paul Metzlaff, an official of the Dicastery with experience in the German Bishops' Conference in the area of youth and WYD and as director of the Commission for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Lay Pastoral Ministry; Sergio Durando, director of Migrants in Turin (Italy); and Ana Maria Celis Brunet from Chile, a consultant to the Dicastery who spoke about her experience in the National Council for the Prevention of Abuse and Accompaniment of Victims.
The second part of the day began with a talk by Carmen Peña García, professor of Canon Law at the Comillas Pontifical University of Madrid. Reflecting on the areas and modalities in which the co-responsibility of the lay faithful is exercised, she recalled that "from the affirmation of lay ministry derived from Baptism and the principle of synodality, it is necessary to continue advancing in the co-responsible participation of the laity in the life and mission of the Church, in a capillary manner: from the active involvement of the laity in the life of parishes to their normalized participation in the structures of ecclesiastical service, passing through the performance, according to their formation and competence, of ecclesiastical offices in the diocesan curia or in the Roman Curia itself, bringing to ecclesial activity the specifically lay aspect and style, cooperating in the progressive "conversion - pastoral and missionary - of ecclesiastical structures and helping to avoid "the temptation of excessive clericalism" (EG 102).
The plenary dialogue continued with the testimony of His Exc. Paolo Bizzeti, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, who recounted the terrible experience being lived by the Turkish and Syrian people as a result of the earthquake. The painful experience, however, is also an opportunity, perhaps incomprehensible at the immediate moment, to understand "what in life is not fragile, what does not collapse; and what, on the contrary, is fleeting, what passes.
Dario Gervasi, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, spoke about co-responsibility in the pastoral care of the family. Aleksandra Bonarek, member of the Dicastery, on her experience as a lay judge in the ecclesiastical court of Poland.
The broad participation of the laity in the life of the local Church in Papua New Guinea was underlined by Helen Patricia Oa: "Through our collaboration and openness, starting with the clergy and religious, we ensure a fuller participation of the Catholic faithful so that they can recognize themselves as active members of a living Church in Christ."
Finally, Frenchwoman Leticia Calmeyn spoke of the importance of male-female collaboration for the mission, insisting on the notion of co-responsibility not only in a relationship of baptismal and ministerial priesthood, but from the triple baptismal vocation: priestly, prophetic and royal.
On the second day of the Conference, the central theme was the importance of ongoing formation to accompany all the baptized in the rediscovery of their vocation and charisms so that co-responsibility becomes real. After the celebration of Holy Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, presided over by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the work began with a talk by Prof. Hosffman Ospino, who addressed the theme of the day from the perspective of the lay faithful: for co-responsibility to be effective, adequate formation of the laity is necessary.
Gérald Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec, also recalled the need for a formation that helps to walk together towards the Lord, and in particular to "rediscover the priesthood of the baptized so that all, Catholics, ordained ministers, members of the consecrated life can participate effectively in the life of the Church".
Shoy Thomas, of the international Jesus Youth movement, spoke about the formation of young people: "If formation plays an important role in the pastoral journey, equally important is the process of accompaniment, the presence of families who open their homes to young people, the freedom given to make mistakes and learn from them, encouraging and supporting them, offering them opportunities".
Next, Benoît and Véronique Rabourdin, French members of the Emmanuel Community, spoke of formation as a transforming act that gives missionary impetus to couples among themselves and to families toward other families. "There is no way to reach the hearts of others if we remain closed in on ourselves. Formation is also lifting up our eyes, knowing how to see and respond with compassion to so many needs": this is how Andrea Poretti, an Argentinean from the Community of Sant'Egidio, expressed herself on the ongoing formation of all those who work in the social field.
For his part, José Prado Flores, from Mexico, focused his testimony on the importance of the first proclamation of the mystery of Christ, Savior and Lord, in order to begin again in the formation of the baptized who have distanced themselves from the Church. In his intervention, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, stressed that it is necessary to initiate a profound formation of pastors so that they learn to move away from a paternalistic attitude, because "we all have something to learn from the communion between us, laity and pastors".
Finally, Undersecretary Linda Ghisoni assured those present that the dialogue - on the part of the Dicastery - will certainly continue in ordinary relations with the particular Churches, encouraging conference participants to become multipliers of this exchange in their own local realities. Throughout the three days, there was no lack of prayer for the victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
