More on Lay Apostolate

This article appearing on the 12th at Beliefnet by Russell Shaw makes some further points to the story I linked yesterday. Here he says:

The bishops have meant well—for their aim has been to encourage Catholic lay people to participate more fully in the life of the Church—but they have made a damaging mistake. Promoting lay ministry has come at the expense of an earlier tradition of promoting Catholic lay apostolate—and the two are very different things. I argue that the bishops ought to switch their priorities, for lay apostolate not only fills important needs but is specifically designed to help lay people do what they can do best: putting Gospel values to work in their jobs, schools, neighborhoods, and homes.

...Back before the Second Vatican Council, there was a healthy network of Catholic groups in America such as the National Council of Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic Women and their diocesan councils and affiliates—groups that were committed to giving lay people spiritual and doctrinal formation for apostolate. Lay apostolate also got significant attention in the Church's schools and educational programs. Some of the support was superficial and ineffective, and it didn't help that most pre-Vatican II apostolic groups operated on the old "Catholic Action" model in which lay activity was under clerical control.

...The ministry boom didn't start until seven years after the Council wound up in 1965. Pope Paul VI issued a document in 1972 abolishing the 'minor orders'—stages such as lector and acolyte through which candidates for the priesthood formerly had to pass on their way to ordination. Functions previously linked to those minor orders—such as serving Mass and reading the Scriptures--could now be assigned to lay people. Paul also left the door open to other forms of lay ministry. Theologians and lay employees of the Church grabbed the idea and ran with it. There was an explosion of books, articles, conferences, and academic programs on lay ministry. A new Catholic cottage industry had been born, especially in the United States.

Read the rest...or read the book!