Catholicism at the Crossroads: How the Laity Can Save the Church

Paul Lakeland’s book clarifies the themes he had initiated in his earlier work, The Liberation of the Laity (2004). Taking Vatican II's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, he applies the principle to contemporary challenges. In a clear and concise style easily accessible to the ordinary reader, it emphasizes the vital role of the laity in revitalizing the Church. He identifies the present crisis in the American Church as stemming from a two-fold source: lay people are powerless while the bishops are accountable only to the Pope and the curia.

He points to the old negative definition of a layperson using the word “not”: as one who “cannot preach or say mass, is not a priest, and is not in a position of leadership in the Church.” Such an understanding of the laity, once stated by Pope Pius X as duty-bound still lingers: to allow the laity to be led and, like a docile flock, to follow the pastors. This view was reversed by the Vatican Council II, which emphasized “the priesthood of all believers rooted in baptism”. Lakeland notes that many bishops and laity still share the old view which is “a dangerously incomplete vision of Catholicism that sidesteps the major themes and key insights of Vatican II.”

He points out that the laity’s specific mission is to be the sacrament of God's love in a world rife with violence and inequity. To realize this vision, he calls for empowering the laity to actively engage in shaping the future of the Church.  Baptism is the basis for all missions and ministry, empowering all Christians for it, regardless of ordination. The laity has a specific mission in the world, whereas the mission of the clergy is to the household of the faith. These are not mutually exclusive; they overlap. Lay people can't leave "church business" exclusively to the clergy; the clergy can't leave the church's "worldly mission" exclusively to the laity. Their overlapping responsibilities can be resolved by becoming an “adult Church”, i.e., an open Church in an open society.

Challenging the traditional view of laity as passive followers, in order to strengthen the Church, Lakeland develops ten steps toward what he calls a “more adult church”. The ten steps are: 1. Baptism, as the start, not ordination; 2. Positive definition of the laity; 3. Claiming the world as lay mission; 4. Sharing “church business” between clergy and the laity; 5. Accountability; 6. Normalization of discernment and disagreement; 7. To be “open church in an open society”; 8. Rejection of ecclesiastical careerism; 9. Inclusiveness in leadership; and 10. Practice of “secularity” and lay liberation theology.  It calls for active participation and engagement, necessitates freedom and openness within, where laity and clergy work together, share responsibilities and accountability. This would lend credibility to what we stand for as a reward. If the laity is infantilised inside, the Church has no credibility in preaching justice outside.

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The Name of God Is Mercy (2016):

Pope Francis & Andrea Tornielli

The late Pope Francis’s nine-chapter book presents his interview with the Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, given in the context of the Jubilee Year of Mercy (2015-16).

As the interviewer notes in the very beginning, the Pope wanted to kickstart a “revolution of tenderness.” In fact, it is an expression of the central motto of Francis’s life. The book explains his motto Miserando atque eligendo, “by having mercy, by choosing him”. The book engages us with its conversational tone, free of theological jargon, especially when he shares his personal experiences as a bishop in Buenos Aires, the people he met, and his own failings. The key message is that Mercy is God’s identity, not just something God does. God’s name, and His very nature, is mercy. The book directly connects with his earlier Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), emphasizing mercy as the chief mission of the Church, where mercy is freely given.

Mercy is God’s face, the love of Christ, the first truth of the Church that comes before doctrine. The Church serves as a field hospital, and not a customs house checking if people are perfect. “We’re all sinners, but God never tires of forgiving us. We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Nobody is beyond mercy. Humbly, he confesses: “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”

Speaking of the sacrament of reconciliation, Francis says that feeling shame for sin is healthy because it opens us to mercy, whereas despair (the worst sin) says, “God can’t forgive me,” denying God’s power. The confessional is not a torture chamber. Confessors should be fathers, not harsh judges; yet neither be lax nor rigorous, but provide the medicine of mercy. Jesus is the human face of Mercy whose life and actions show God’s mercy in flesh. “Jesus goes beyond the law. His mercy is real closeness.”

Distinguishing between corruption and sin, the Pope observes that sinners can be forgiven because they acknowledge guilt, but the corrupt can’t, because they don’t feel sin; they only feel virtuous while doing evil. Corruption indicates a “putrefied heart” that “tires God out.” God’s mercy embraces the sinner who recognizes himself as such. Works of mercy such as feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and forgiving offences are central, not optional. He quotes Matthew 25: “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.”

A Church without mercy is just an NGO. Church evangelizes today not by winning arguments but through mercy. Pope Francis identifies the family as the first school of mercy, because it is there that we experience love and learn to love, and receive forgiveness and learn to forgive. The book’s appendix is Pope Francis’ Misericordiae Vultus (2015), proclaiming the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, where he declares: “If you want to see what God’s mercy looks like, look at Jesus. Mercy isn’t an abstract idea — it has a human face.” Mercy is the beating heart of the Gospel.