Life and Mission of the Laity in the Church

Fr Arockia Dhas Rayappan –

It was the year of 2012. Archbishop emeritus Vincent Concessao appointed me the deputy secretary general and PRO of the Regional Bishops Council of the North. He entrusted me with the responsibility of leading the regional delegation to the National Colloquium organized by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) in Bengaluru.

The Colloquium provided me with opportunities to meet delegates from all over India. Northern regional representatives, most especially the women and youth played an active role in it. There was cordiality among the participants, namely, the parishioners, sisters, priests, bishops, archbishops, and Cardinals. We experienced fraternity arising from the common baptismal consecration. Father John Kulandai provided me the opportunity to proofread the Pastoral Plan for the Church in India – the fruition of the Colloquium (https://ccbi.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CCBI.pdf). That was indeed a happy memory. This paved me the way for formulating the report of the Conference of Diocesan Priests of India (CDPI) held in the subsequent year, and XXV CCBI Plenary Message with my Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi in collaboration with the CCBI member delegate bishops at Velankanni titled: XXV Plenary Assembly of the CCBI on Pastoral Plan for the Church in India (Final Statement: Message of the 25th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI) <https://ccbi.in/25th-plenary-assembly-of-the-ccbi-vailankanni-from-5-to-10-february-2013/>. Thus, the Colloquium turned out be a watershed moment in my pastoral life.

Among the most memorable experiences at the Colloquium stands out an intervention in the form of a question by a parishioner from the then Andhra Pradesh, which later got bifurcated into Telangana and Andhra. He shared that he had been regularly participating at diocesan, regional, and national events organized by the Catholic Church. After that, he asked the panelists and participants, “You inform us how much more we – the laity- can receive from the Church. You make us aware how privileged we are in the Church. That’s fine! But why don’t you tell us how we could contribute to the Church, and about our responsibility in the Church. We are ready to contribute. We are at the service of the Church.” His words got etched in my memory forever.

I felt deep within the Holy Spirit had spoken through his intervention.  I wondered: what the reverberation the laity would generate if each one of the parishes in India has service-minded laity like him who would pose the same question to her/his parish priest. In his words, I witnessed what I envisaged in my dissertation of more pastoral options and even ministries for the service and mission of the laity at the local parish through the BECs.

The definition of laity by the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, n.31 is provided below. Similar description of the laity is closely followed by Christifideles Laici, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World, Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (CCEO) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in their description of laity.

The laity are “all the faithful except those in holy orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church. They are the faithful who by baptism are incorporated into Christ, are placed in the people of God, and in their own way share the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ, and to the best of their ability carry on the mission of the whole Christian people, in the Church and in the world.”[1]

Ecclesiology of communion is a central and fundamental trait of the Second Vatican Council.[2] The laity in the Church are invited “to realize the call of the Second Vatican Council and shed all their diffidence, fear, apathy and indifference and take the ball thrown to them by the Council and begin to play their role actively in in the mission of the Church towards the world.”[3] The reconstruction of the role of the laity largely hinges on the teaching office of the laity where many possibilities have been indicated and so also, other parts of the Code and the magisterium of the Church.[4] They have the right to promote and support apostolic action (CIC c.216; CCEO c.19).[5] They have the special obligation to permeate and perfect the temporal order of things with the spirit of the Gospel.[6]

“After highlighting the role of the Roman Pontiff and the College of bishops, individual bishops, priests, deacons, and members of institutes of consecrated life, the legislator describes that of the laity in Canon 759 of the CIC: 1. The foundation for their specific role lies in baptism and confirmation. They witness to the good news by their words and by the example of their Christian life. They can be called upon to cooperate in the exercise of the ministry of the word. The witness of life extends beyond their family, to the arena of work, and to social and political involvements. They can be empowered for such effective witness by their ongoing nourishment at the tables of the Word and the Eucharist and by the enlivening action of the Spirit.”[7]

It is desired that conscious and sustainable efforts be initiated to extensively disseminate the knowledge of the privilege accorded to and responsibility incumbent on the laity and their implications in the local parishes in India.[8]

“Realization of the Francis’ vision of correlative, cooperative, collaborative, collegial, and co-inclusive People of God” includes active and full participation of the laity in the Church as desired by Second Vatican Council and the Council on the Synodal Church.[9]

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Competing interest: “The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.”

[1] Pope Paul VI, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium,” The Holy See, November 21, 1964, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html.

[2] A. Rayappan, “Involvement of Laity in the Teaching Office of the Church,” The Canon Law Society of India, accessed on March 11, 2024, https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/involvement-of-laity-in-the-teaching-office-of-the-church-2/.

[3] A. Pushparajan, “Role of Laity in the Mission of the Church: Vat II and later Documents,” The Canon Law Society of India, accessed on March 11, 2024, https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/role-of-laity-in-the-mission-of-the-church-vat-ii-and-later-documents/.

[4] A. Rayappan, “Involvement of Laity,” https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/involvement-of-laity-in-the-teaching-office-of-the-church-2/.

[5] A. Rayappan, “Involvement of Laity,” https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/involvement-of-laity-in-the-teaching-office-of-the-church-2/.

[6] A. Rayappan, “Involvement of Laity,” https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/involvement-of-laity-in-the-teaching-office-of-the-church-2/.

[7] A. Rayappan, “Involvement of Laity,”, https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/involvement-of-laity-in-the-teaching-office-of-the-church-2/.

[8] A. Pushparajan, “Role of Laity,” https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/role-of-laity-in-the-mission-of-the-church-vat-ii-and-later-documents/.

[9] A. Pushparajan, “Role of Laity,” https://www.canonlawsocietyofindia.org/role-of-laity-in-the-mission-of-the-church-vat-ii-and-later-documents/.