Let's Not Misinterpret What Catholics Desire

By Dick Ryan. Dick Ryan lives in West Islip.
Long Island (NY) Newsday
September 30, 2003

When he's not silencing his priests or distancing himself from his parishioners, Bishop William Murphy occasionally indulges in some classic church speak.

In a recent rare sighting of the bishop on television - he has been somewhat incognito following his initially hopeful "listening sessions" that turned out to be deaf-and-dumb sessions - he made the snickering observation that "there is a tendency (in today's Roman Catholic Church) to laicize the clergy and clericalize the laity."

Most Catholic men and women don't have the slightest interest in becoming priests. They are instead quite satisfied, even proud, to be numbered among all those men and women who are just beginning to understand their rightfully equal place in the church as prophets, healers and disciples in the same way that all the apostles and Mary Magdalene were.

Some of that pride was displayed Saturday when more than 600 members of the Long Island Voice of the Faithful crowded into a Melville hotel to explore the process of transforming rhetoric into true reform in today's church.

As the Rev. Donald Cozzens notes in his book, "Sacred Silence: Denial and Crisis in the Church": "As the church's medieval clerical culture - a closed, male society of privilege, exemption and deference - comes undone, the witness of lay leaders in the church is now emerging."

There have been several references to Voice of the Faithful as "the first religious order of the 21st century." Others have talked about "the priesthood of the laity." Now while it is flattering to be equated with groups like the Jesuits and Dominicans, and equally humbling for the laity to be singled out for their own priestly impulses as human beings, there should be a driving spirit in members of today's laity to hammer out their own unique identity and legacy in the church. They need to etch out, in bold strokes, their own signature on the destiny of the church in the 21st century.

They need to bring their experiences as adult males and females, socially, sexually and spiritually, to the table. They need to create a resounding solidarity among themselves where the sole purpose is not rebellion but a recommitment to the Eucharist in the Mass as "the source and summit of all Christian life," as described by the Rev. Richard McBrien on Saturday. There needs to be a rededication to the message and mission of the gospel.

The men and women in Voice of the Faithful have replaced anger and disgust with a vision of the church that is as cleansing as it is inclusive and a determination, in McBrien's words, to "re-found" as well as reform the church. There was nothing silent or secretive about all those men and women on Saturday as they began filling the gaping hole in church leadership with passion and purpose.

And make no mistake. These are not whining malcontents. Rather they are serious, devoutly sincere ordinary men and women who love their church as deeply as any bishop and who are genuinely committed to bringing their church out of its nightmare. The people in Voice of the Faithful want nothing to do with radical dissent or division but instead exist for rebirth and renewal.

And that witness again should be obvious Oct. 25 when Voice of the Faithful members from Long Island are joined by many others from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island at Fordham University. That conference of lay people is expected to draw more than 2,000. The sounds of reform within the Catholic church in America are only going to get louder.