ARTICLES

Empowered Laity or Just Lazy Priests

Does Lay Ministry Lead to Optional Celibacy?

BY BARTHOLOMEW JAMES

In late October, Saint Anthony's parish in Sacramento brought Santa Clara University associate professor Fred Parrella to town for a lay ministers' workshop. Titled "The Clock is Ticking: Lay Ministry in the Church," the program promised to cover three provocative topics — "Examining the church and its mission today: Where have all the clergy gone?" "Are lay ministers the answer to the future of the church? A theological and historical sketch of lay ministry from its beginning in the early church to the Second Vatican Council's new call to the laity;" "and the spirituality and practice of lay ministry, including how to consider new paradigms of lay ministry and relationships with clergy and other members of the parish."

But near the end of the one-day event, Parrella had spent most of the time on the historical development and validations of lay ministry and on an audience participation exercise designed to enable lay ministers to be able to relate to people with different thought consciousness — "two ways of looking at the world." In essence, according to Parella, to be an effective lay minister, rigid orthodox thinkers need to be able to relate to those with a more open-minded, liberal perspective, and vice versa. Neither perspective is right or wrong. "[With] lay ministry, it seems to me, one needs a great deal of flexibility so that one's own ideas never stand in the way of the ministerial spirit of Christ which comes through one," he said. Once they had an understanding of these two forms of consciousness — the liberal and conservative — the lay ministers in attendance were empowered to become more active in their parishes and workplaces. Notably absent was any guidance on where the boundaries of clerical and lay ministry were.

One attendee reminded Parella that he had yet to address the other subjects from the syllabus, including the priest shortage, the proposition that lay ministers might be the future of the church, and the relationship between the lay ministry and the clergy. Parrella replied that he had run short on time because the workshop is normally given over several days. He did briefly offer his thoughts on the subjects, including the implication that, in addition to an expanded role of lay ministers, the ordination of women might be one possible answer to the shortage of clergy. Parrella used two historical points of reference in support of the idea. He pointed out that in the earliest Christian communities, services were often held in houses which were sometimes owned by women. "Since the owner of the house presided at the meal, that woman probably presided at the breaking of the bread," he explained. In addition, after Vatican II, the Church allowed married priests in certain cases, such as those who joined the church as converts from Protestantism.

Parrella emphasized that he was not personally endorsing the ordination of women, but his inference was hard to miss. "I, as a professional theologian cannot mention the topic; however, our Protestant and Anglican friends have done it, they've ordained women," he said. "And it seems to me, if Vatican II suggested, as it did, that the Church subsists in the Catholic Church, that was in the beginning, and if we acknowledge the baptism of our Protestant brothers and sisters, and we do, well if they do something at their churches, could they always be wrong? Isn't there some spirit in them too? You can draw your own conclusions. And I think that's part of one of the issues we face, and the notion that we can't even talk or think about it, I'm not sure." It may be worth noting that Parrella is the past president and current secretary-treasurer of the North American Paul Tillich Society, and editor of the bulletin of the society. Tillich was a German-born American Protestant and theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher.

Parrella skirted the issue that some priests express concern that the expanded role of the laity is, in some cases, overlapping the work of priests. And that this phenomenon has caused some priests to question what their role is, potentially exacerbating the clergy shortage. In 1998, in "The Emasculation of the Priesthood," Father James McLucas, editor of Latin Mass magazine, wrote that the priestly identity was being undermined by eucharistic ministers, the ministries of lector and acolyte, and the overall concept of "collaborative lay ministry." As a result of these and other catalysts, the Latin Church has been oriented toward optional celibacy and a married priesthood, according to McLucas. "Those ordained to the priesthood have not lost their traditional 'roles.' The issue is, rather, that the non-ordained have assumed many of the functions that have been reserved to the priesthood since the Church emerged from the catacombs (and probably before)," he wrote.

Via e-mail, I contacted Parrella and asked if he would expound on the subjects he didn't fully cover at the workshop, such as the relationship and boundaries between clergy and the laity. "[T]hat's the subject of another workshop. I'm sorry, that's all I can tell you," he said. Saint Anthony's parish pastor, Father Brendan O'Sullivan, did not return phone messages left with his staff or on his voicemail.

One California priest was willing to talk about the subject, provided it was anonymously. Father X was familiar with, and generally agreed with, McLucas' observations and felt that the laity issue could be a factor in the push for optional celibacy. "I don't think I would go as far as [McLucas] in saying that it necessarily will, but yes, what they're doing is a double-edged sword because you even have some good [lay] people who are pushing to do so much and to help the priest because he doesn't seem to have enough time. But at the same time, some of these priests have way too much time. Very few people have as much time off as a priest, and I think that ultimately part of celibacy is that you give your entire life to the Church. If you have everyone taking care of your duties, then [celibacy is] not that big of a deal anymore."

Father X has personally observed, both before and after his ordination, that some of the rationales given for laity participation in priestly duties, such as a reputed clergy shortage, may be exaggerated. "When I was in college where I used to go to daily Mass, you'd have three Eucharistic ministers for 20 people just because that was their job and they couldn't bear to let go of it." He also pointed out that a problematic scenario exists where Eucharistic ministers are delegated the task of administering communion to the sick and shut-ins. In many cases, an invalid may be in need of confession before receiving Holy Communion. "If you're going to give someone Holy Communion in the hospital, you have to ask them first if they want to make a confession. You can't just assume that they're going to be in a state of grace. It's possible to commit a mortal sin flat on your back too," he explained

Father X also attributes some of the out-sourcing of priestly functions to a misguided desire by some in the Church to adopt a secular or corporate business structure, where priestly tasks are delegated for the sake of efficiency. He said that even some veteran priests that have adopted the delegation model in the past have come to question the practice. "A lot of [priests] only woke up later and said, 'look, embracing all these principals of the world on how to run all this stuff is crazy.' On a business model, maybe farming out all these duties makes sense; it's more efficient, but you can't just go on a business model when you're talking about sacraments; it's a different sort of thing. It's not like selling life insurance where you get four employees to go out and sell it while you just sit around. That's not the way it works in the priesthood."

Father X attributes some of the laity-clergy friction to the fact that many new priests join a parish with a more traditional idea of their roles, only to learn that veteran pastors, who rode the liberalizing tide of Vatican II, have already set up the parish to be run by the laity. "I know that is one of the hardest things on a new priest; he walks into a new situation, and the pastor has basically given over the reins to all of the [laity]. The new priest is basically told by them what's going to happen and what's not, and he feels very out of place," he said.

Father Charles McDermott, vicar episcopal for theological affairs and censor librorum for the diocese of Sacramento, explained that the guidelines for lay ministry have been set out quite clearly by the Second Vatican Counsel in Lumen Gentium. Father McDermott takes issue with the idea that the expanding role of lay ministers is one factor in nudging the Church in the direction of optional celibacy. "I wouldn't agree with that at all," said McDermott. "These developments are in line with some of what the Vatican Council has said, but they don't give any aid or comfort to people who wish to change the discipline of celibacy, in my opinion. I think that is going beyond the implication of the openings made for new opportunities for laypeople to share in the ministry of the church."

Father McDermott said he has seen "occasional discussions" on the issue raised by some priests that some laity can overreach. "And you get the zealots on both sides making fools of themselves, if you'll forgive my uncharitable way of putting it. And they'll spend their time fighting one another instead of spreading the word of God," he said. Having worked in parishes, McDermott said he believes there is always plenty of work for priests to do. "I can't imagine a time when they'll be able to sit back and put their feet up by the fireside and look out the window." He advises priests to follow the precepts from Lumen Gentium and the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem. "[Vatican II] has opened up opportunities for a rational use of lay people in the ministries of the church, but it has laid down clear boundaries and clear distinctions. It hasn't said that we should just simply use laity in every role in the church; it hasn't said that."

Father McDermott does take exception to Parrella's logic that since the Catholic Church acknowledges the baptism of Protestants, and Protestants have sanctioned the ordination of women, that the issue is worthy of consideration by the Church. McDermott called that shoddy theology. "Yes, they are joined by baptism and, yes, they have gifts from the Holy Spirit, but they don't have the gift of inerrancy. While one may legitimately look and see if experiments adopted by the separated brethren might have some significance or value, they don't have the gift of inerrancy or anything of that sort," he said. And conjoining the Protestant rationale with an out-of-context section of Vatican II creates an "undue oversimplification," according to McDermott. "The way he [Parella] expressed this subsistence concept seems to me to have turned it on its head."

After reviewing the separated brethren section in Lumen Gentium cited by Parrella, McDermott conceded that, to a certain degree, Parrella had accurately conveyed the wording. "But not to the extent [of saying] that 'who can say they're wrong,'" said McDermott. "Well, the Catholic Church reserves the right to say anybody is going up the wrong path. That's the role of the magisterium."

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