Abellanosa: Clergy abuse and lay empowerment

THE recently concluded Vatican Summit is obviously not the end of the Church’s efforts to address the sexual abuses of the clergy. If anything, it is supposed to signal the beginning of more efforts that would hopefully minimize the recurrence of problems that have been damaging the Church’s credibility.

As mentioned in my previous article, structural changes are necessary if the Pope and the bishops are to upgrade mechanisms in order to address the issue. Without concrete measures, everything that was said in the summit would all end up as exercises in futility.

Highlighted during the summit, among other important points and agenda, is the role of laity in the whole process of fostering integrity in the ministry. I would like to make a bold assertion on this whole issue: part of the problem is the lack of involvement of laypersons in the “more serious affairs” of the Church.

Through the years since Vatican II, the term lay empowerment has been tune repeatedly played on air. Especially in the Philippine context, lay organizations take pride in parroting the phrase. Unfortunately, such an empowerment has never been practiced and lived in the genuine sense of the term.

Sadly, it is merely understood as the participation of the lay in parish, covenanted, and charismatic organizations. Lay leaders take pride in leading other lay only to end up also being clericalized. Thus, instead of pushing for greater collaboration of the lay in the ecclesial structure, lay leaders are pushing for their own agenda.

Lay empowerment should have long been translated into the participation of the lay in matters where the clergy need assistance. Not because the clergy should be replaced or that they are not needed. On the contrary, the situation is such that the clergy should consult and work with the lay in areas where the latter have more competence. And in doing so, the clergy can better manage in a manner more collaborative and communal.

The current situation of the Church should make us realize that our problems, as a Church, are rooted in our very own power structure. On top of everything the clergy and ultimately the bishop takes all matters into their own hands. It is ironic that with all its intellectual resources found in Catholic universities, Church leaders are most uniformed on how to handle serious matters of crises such as sexual abuses.

Precisely, this is really reflective of the fact that bishops have not been in constant dialogue with the broader populace of the lay. Charge this to the mentality that the bishop is unquestionable in matters of faith and morals. We forget that God’s grace abounds where there is dialogue and consultation.

We should see in all of these moments and events unfolding, the movement of God’s spirit. It is after all, in the dialectic of history, how we should discern divine wisdom and providence. Obviously, we cannot also rule out the possibility of bad faith and ill motive among a few if not some accusers of the Church. However, if we believe that the hand of God is constantly guiding us, we should all trust that the whole process is but part of the purification which the Church needs – in fact something that was signaled already a long time ago only to be disregarded a hundred or even a thousand times by Church authorities.

It is high time for lay people to help their Church not just through liturgical service or participation as decorative officers in parish organizations. If this is the only service that the lay can give to their Church, such is lacking and superficial. The Church needs professional assistance much as it needs cantors and collectors. At the same time, the clergy should open themselves to the various charisms among the lay.

Bishops and their extension arms should start opening more venues and avenues where greater collaboration between lay and clergy could thrive. This, in fact, should be true not only in terms of asking the lay to help the clergy in this specific issue of sexual abuse. It could extend to other areas where such help is equally needed: administration of finances, management of the Church’s temporal goods, and formation of the clergy and religious. Much has to be done on these aspects especially among dioceses in developing and underdeveloped countries.

We do hold on to the promise of the Divine Master that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church he built. We should not, after all, forget that the real head of the Church is not the pope nor the bishops or anyone else but he who founded this communion of persons. In him and with him, there will always be plentiful of redemption.

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