Without a doubt, the most powerful shift in theological and spiritual thought, that arose from Vatican II was that the Church was more than the professional religious leadership.

The Vatican II Council had seen the creation of many documents and some were of more importance than others.  What the entire Church draws particular attention to and is to give adherence  to, is the document known as Lumen Gentium, “The Church as the People of God.”  In this document, we are told, that the “laity are just as central to the Church as the hierarchy”.  This statement says many things that are implicit and that is what we, as the entire RC Church are still discovering and discussing.  For instance, if we, as the laity, are just as central to the Church as the hierarchy, then, we, as the laity, ought to be considered, in my opinion, to be full and equal partners, in the carrying out of the mission of Christ and His Church. That seems reasonable to assume, yet, the “laity” continue to struggle to be included as those full and equal partners, particularly, in the area of deliberative decision-making and in determining the way the contemporary RC church organizes itself and how it does ministry in the many places where the Universal Catholic Church is present.

The most powerful shift in theological and spiritual thought as mentioned above has created an organic and inevitable CLASH between the laity and the hierarchy. It is very evident of how “clericalism” is a sin, because, over and over again, we see how the effects of clericalism interferes with the God given election and ministry of the lay people. I am reminded of the words of the Lord so very, very often:  “Beware of the Pharisees and their yeast”. In so many ways and in so many places, the RC clergy undermine the vocation of the laity by lording it over them.  This is the sin of clericalism and so we find ourselves, the RC Church facing yet again, a situation that calls for reform.

What do we do in the Church theologically and spiritually to keep the clericalism alive?  Well, what we do is all about “ordination”.  I wrote a commentary last Spring about Gary Wills book in which he says that the practise of ordination and the belief that the priest receives an indelible seal, so that he is the only one empowered to preside at Eucharist, is the reason why clericalism continues and the reason why the lay people are unable to organize themselves to have Eucharist every Sunday and indeed, is the reason, why, priests and all other clergy would appear to use their  “special power” to maintain their superiority and lord it over the people.

I have no doubt that God has an election and anointing process and we see this from the Old Testament through the New Testament.  However, I believe God is asking us to see anew how this election and anointing process is to be excercised.  It needs to be done in a way which is consistent with the Vatican II vision and empowering the laity to minister as fully as possible, so that, truly, the laity are just as central to the Church as the hierarchy.  Really, what God appears to be pointing to is that the hierarchy are not central to the Church at all, but, in fact, it is the entire people of God who are central and we need to make sure that we do not continue to embrace rituals and beliefs that create ecclesial inequality and elitism.

I repeat, “without a doubt, the most powerful shift in theological and spiritual thought arose from Vatican II” and we are still struggling 50 plus years later to implement that thought, so that we have the most powerful shift in Church practise. We need to rethink the ritual of ordination to eliminate the barrier for the full participation of the laity in ministry.  As the title of this blog says, I believe the Lord is instructing the institutional Church to unbind us and set us free.  In one of Father John Wotherspoon’s recent blogs, he had said, we need to give the Church back to the laity.  That can only be done when there is no longer institutional and clerical bindings.

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