VOTF Social Structure

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VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL AS A SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Seven Strategies for Success

By: Jack Rakosky

This essay is based upon my training in psychology and sociology, my experiences as a voluntary pastoral staff member and as one encouraging voluntary leadership by people with severe mental illness, and my professional work doing strategic planning for mental health organizations. This vision statement intends to be a catalyst for thinking strategically for the longer term.

Choices made about the social structure of the VOTF may be the key to its success. Voice of the Faithful has identified only three goals, one of which is “to support structural change within the Church.” Unlike its other goals “to support those who have been abused’ and “to support priests of integrity,” this goal about organizational form has raised concern among church officials. An organization that proposes to have something to say about the institutional forms of the Church should think very carefully about its own social structure. Voice of the Faithful as a social entity should blend the best of our American tradition of societal renewal through the founding of new voluntary associations with the best of the Catholic tradition of church renewal by means of founding new religious orders. In both cases, successful social change occurs when new social networks are created outside existing social structures. These new social networks accomplish renewal by attracting the resources of people, time and money to do things rather than by merely criticizing and advocating reform of existing entities. Changes within the pre-existing organizational forms follow because their leadership realizes that people are finding attractive alternatives. That leadership then either modifies the existing organizational structures to be competitive and/or begins to collaborate with the new voluntary associations or religious orders.

Forms of Religious Capital and the Renewal of Roman Catholicism

In order to “Keep the Faith, Change the Church” a good model of the relationship of beliefs and values (i.e. cultural capital), social institutions (i.e. social capital) and persons (i.e. human capital) to one another in bringing about religious renewal is essential. The religious capital of Catholicism includes cultural capital, social capital and human capital. Cultural capital consists of beliefs and values. Jesus proclaimed the good news that shaped the documents of the New Testament during the first century. A rich diverse tradition of cultural capital in the form of written documents followed across the centuries building on the foundational New Testament capital. However, Jesus also initiated a network of social relationships that in the succeeding centuries coalesced into various institutional forms of social capital such as house churches, parishes, monasteries, religious orders, and confraternities. The word “capital” in this religious capital analogy indicates assets generate addition assets over time without necessarily being consumed. Forms of capital enable people to collaborate with one another more efficiently such as when money eliminates the time and effort of bartering. A social network creates efficiency through norms of cooperation and trust, “do unto others as you would have them do onto you.” Sometimes these norms even extent to outsiders, “Love your enemies.” The capital analogy betokens that value is not absolute even when it has an objective basis. Value is not simply in the eye of beholder either, but depends in part upon the market place, i.e. persons interacting.

A major engine of renewal in Roman Catholicism has been new religious orders. An order originates cultural capital from the founder’s charism. New religious orders produce extensive new social networks outside existing church networks. These mobilize the talents of previously lukewarm or bored Catholics. Unlike Protestant sects, religious orders do not leave the main structure of the church. As parallel organizations they compete with, interact with and complement the parish-diocesan structure. Saint Ignatius produced the Spiritual Exercises, a form of cultural capital that spread widely by means of a new social institution, the retreat. The social network of Ignatius became the social institution of the Society (or Company) of Jesus that grew quickly and spread rapidly. Jesuit institutions such as retreat houses and colleges created even larger, more diffuse social networks mobilizing the uncommitted. Although the cultural and social capital stemming from Ignatius usually intertwined, they sometimes worked independently. The culture spread beyond the networks and the networks facilitated many forms of non-religious social collaboration. The new cultural capital generated by the charism of a religious order is certainly essential. However, the great effectiveness of religious orders in generating religious renewal may be due mainly to their ability as a parallel organization to form large new social networks that mobilize the resources of many people who would otherwise have been tepid or apathetic.

Religious renewal in Roman Catholicism occurs also through Church Councils, most recently Vatican II. The documents of that Council form a rich treasure of cultural capital as John Paul II indicated in his Last Will and Testament. “I am convinced that once again and for a long time it will be given to the new generations to draw from the riches that this Council of the 20th century has lavished.” “I wish to entrust this great treasure to all those who are or will be in the future called to realize it.” Vatican II produced many institutional reforms such as liturgical changes. However, it did not inspire many new religious orders. Rather a decline in recruits to religious orders took place even though many religious orders devoted considerable effort to renewal. But the Council did stimulate large numbers of voluntary deacons, great numbers of paid lay ministers, and even greater numbers of voluntary lay ministers. Both voluntary ministry and lay ministry have grown since the Council. Notice, however, that this human capital has been added to existing institutions rather than as new parallel networks. Top-down reform by councils appears not to work as well as reform by means of religious orders. Perhaps this is because new religious orders almost always start at the periphery among the uncommitted or even alienated and expand along existing, non-religious networks, thereby bringing into renewal new human capital. Top-down reform re-educates many people, many of whom were already well educated and motivated already, and does this through extant church networks rather than bringing in great infusions of new human capital. Certainly a lasting legacy of Vatican II will be the importance it gave to Catholicism as the People of God. That suggests looking at what has happen to the church’s human capital since the Council.

Discerning Changes in the Human Capital of Catholicism since Vatican II

The human capital of Catholicism, consisting of the time and talents of its members, may be more important to the renewal of the Church and of humanity than its cultural and social capital. Mobilizing human capital was a major purpose of Vatican II with its focal point on baptism as the source of Christian activity. Vatican II wanted church members to become active producers rather than mere consumers of religious capital. This was true both in the internal life of the church by means of full and active participation in the liturgy as well as in the external mission of the church by evangelizing and transforming the world. If we wish to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church in the wake of the Council, perhaps changes in the human capital of the church will be a guide.

Major changes are continuing to take place since Vatican II in the form and composition of Catholicism’s human capital. In the developed world, priests and religious are declining while deacons and lay ministers are increasing. In the USA this trend is projected to continue for several decades with very few priests by 2030. Reversing this trend by ordaining married men will take ten years after the change has begun to be considered in Rome. With the election of Benedict XVI that consideration is unlikely for another five or even ten years. The church in the next two decades will increasingly become a church led and operated by the laity at the parish level. The question is how the laity will handle this leadership, and who among the laity will assume the responsibilities for leadership.

Both liberals and traditionalists have interpreted the decline of priests and religious as a major human capital problem that ought to be corrected. Traditionalists see the decline as a sign that Vatican II was either a mistake, misinterpreted or misapplied. Liberals argue that the Vatican II institution reform was insufficient and should have included the acceptance of married and women priests. However, another vastly larger change in human capital is taking place, again mainly in the developed world. This massive development suggests a different, much more positive, even providential and breath-taking solution than the ones seen by the right or left. This extensive, very talented source of human capital consists of the highly educated people who have a decade or two of productive life available after retirement. Could this new source of personnel alter the human capital and the social structures of Catholicism as profoundly as the recognition and expansion of monasticism and monastic institutions did in the third and fourth centuries?

Strategy 1. Promote the Charism of Voluntary Christian Leadership.

Two thousand VOTF members in a diocese are only a drop in the bucket, a “fringe” element that can be dismissed very easily. Suppose, however, in each of one hundred parishes of diocese, VOTF has twenty members, and these twenty members are well known voluntary leaders either in the parish or the community. Two thousand voluntary Christian leaders known to their pastors are likely to be influential with diocesan authorities as well as the pastors.

VOTF should promote and foster the charism of voluntary Christian leadership among the Catholic faithful. Leadership is used here in the broad sense of the ability to guide, direct, or influence people, rather than in the narrow sense of holding office, or a leadership position. (Cf. Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition). This guiding or directing may be done by “accompanying, going before, showing, influencing,” not just by “directing with authority” (Cf. Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition).

Leadership is used to catch the active sense in which all Christians exercise the apostolate by virtue of their baptism. The Latin title of the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, “Apostolicam Actuositatem,” is usually translated “to intensify the apostolate.” This fails to articulate fully the classical Latin background intended by the use of the well chosen title word, “Actuositatem.” “Actuose,” the adverb, meant something done “with vivacity” “Actuosus”, the adjective, meant “ very active.” “Actum,” the noun, was used for “a public act, a deed.” The root verb “agere” meant to “ lead, drive, conduct, or impel.” It was often used to signify personal initiative “to put oneself in motion” or “to move, impel, excite, urge, prompt, induce, stir up” someone or something else (Cf. The White Latin-English Dictionary). The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity often implies that Christians should lead by putting themselves in motion, and take initiatives on their own that are likely to move, excite, prompt and induce others to do likewise. “For the Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate. No part of the structure of a living body is merely passive. AA,#2.” Christian life is not simply a gift to be received. It is a mission to be lived very actively with deeds that affect the lives of others and inspire changes in their behavior; in a word, its about leadership!

Christian leadership in this broad sense is implied by the word “apostolate” itself and by the fact that “the laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ, AA,#2.” An apostle is someone sent by a higher authority. While the apostle might have a specific office or rank (leadership in the narrow sense), the leadership exercised by the apostle depends comes from the higher authority (i.e. baptism into Christ) rather than from the apostle’s office and talents. Christians are anointed as were those in the Old Testament who held office as kings, prophets, and priests. This symbolizes that Christians are called to be a community of leaders, and a community of leadership for the world. Not all or even many might have specific offices like those of the Old Testament, but all Christians receive a broad diffuse call to exercise initiative in respect to their lives and those of others.

Christian leadership is the preferred term rather than Catholic leadership. Christian leadership indicates it arises from baptism rather than from church office, and is shared with all the baptized (including non-Catholics). Catholic leadership is better reserved for those who hold office or positions of leadership or in various ways represent Catholic institutions. Christian leadership is favored because it is leadership of the world and directed to the world as much as toward the church. “In fulfilling this mission of the Church, the Christian lay faithful exercise their apostolate (i.e. leadership) both in the Church and in the world, in both the spiritual and the temporal orders. AA. #5.” The use of term Christian leadership will encourage Catholics to take initiatives in the USA by appealing to common gospel values of fellow Christians who are the majority rather than on Catholic teaching in a country in which Catholics are the minority. Catholic laity here are in a good position to exercise Christian leadership and moral authority since our values on peace and justice are widely shared among mainline Protestant churches, and our values on life and sexual morality are widely shared by Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches.

Voluntary Christian Leadership as Charism, Life-form, and Vocation

Finally, the focus of the charism is upon the “voluntary” in voluntary Christian leadership. Voluntary emphasizes coming from the heart, from the core of one’s being, from one’s deepest spiritual gifts and experiences, from the experience of being “spiritual” in contemporary language, of being a “saint” to use biblical language. Much of this leadership will be volunteer, i.e. unpaid. That word, however, is much like the word “laity” ; it conveys what people are not rather than who they are. “Voluntary” taps into the whole American tradition of voluntarism, of voluntary associations as well of the nonprofit sector. Voluntary Christian leaders may include professionals, leaders in the business community, and civic leaders. They can bring to their paid secular positions a dimension of Christian leadership that is not part of the job description.

“Voluntary” has the potential to motivate much like the word “monastic.” Christians had had an appreciation of the value of single life from New Testament times. Words such as “widow,” “virgin” and “single one,” had had some limited success in capturing the Christian imagination in the early centuries. The word “monachus (i.e. monk)” meaning “withdrawn one” did much better. It applied to many, to a person “withdrawn” in the desert as well as a someone “withdrawn” behind a cloister wall. It applied to the hermit as well as to the community of celibates “withdrawn” from the parish community. Even the average Christian could “withdraw” from many things and practice a more prayerful and ascetic life during Lent. So monasticism became an ideal to which many wanted to aspire. The monastic ideal was so powerful that it attracted even the clergy and the bishops! Sandra Schneiders has captured this power of monasticism by calling it a life-form. In terms of the capital model used here, the monastic life-form is a living dynamic entity consisting of certain common elements (or dimensions) of cultural, social and human capital that evolves into various configurations across time and space.

Since the beginning the church has depended for personnel upon the clergy. They could claim Jesus in his public ministry as the model for their lives. Since the fourth century it has depended greatly upon religious men and women. Initially and for many centuries almost all religious were laity. They could claim Jesus, the single person dedicated to God, as their model. Now particularly in the developed world, most Christians can follow Jesus as a model. They can copy him by spending most of their lives working and living with their families, and then follow him by dedicating the last portion of their lives to the service of the Gospel and others. They can imitate Jesus who taught and healed not only in the Temple and synagogues but also in homes, the marketplace, and even on the seashore. The extensive development of voluntary Christian leadership in the coming centuries based upon loving ministry, unencumbered by any concern for earning a living, may well complement the loving ministry or celibate priests and religious, unencumbered by any concerns for raising a family. Church leaders may be wise as they were in regard to monasticism and allow voluntary Christian leaders to be ordained to a voluntary presbyterate that is married. Already we have the practice of voluntary deacons who are married.

Voluntary Christian leadership is a life long Christian vocation waiting to be recognized and consciously lived. Young people of high school and college age are spending significant amounts of time on volunteer projects, the equivalent of a novitiate. Many Catholic college students are taking theology or religious studies as a second major, the beginnings of life-long theological formation. Many corporations encourage their employees to become involved in community voluntarism. Integration of spirituality with the workplace and with professions such as medicine is proceeding. Spirituality as the multidisciplinary study of Christian life is emerging separate from theology. A master’s degree in spirituality is becoming attractive for many professionals as a way of integrating their profession with religious practice. The ability to bring all this together with a final decade or two of full time voluntarism in imitation of Christ is just waiting to be discovered. This voluntary Christian leadership lifestyle is open for all Christians to participate in as much as they are able.

Strategy 2 Relate Renewal of Church and Society with Voluntary Christian Leaders

Since Catholic laity exercise the apostolate both in the Church and in Society, their voluntary Christian leadership extends to both. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity notes that “These orders, although distinct, are connected in the singular plan of God.(AA, #5)” A major part of this relationship should be sought in the principle that “the laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation.(AA,#7)” Therefore voluntary Christian leadership in the church ought to encourage and lead to voluntary Christian leadership in society. It should mission voluntary Christian leaders outward rather than focusing them inward. Likewise, persons who are very good at voluntary Christian leadership in society should be sought for voluntary leadership roles within church institutions, shaping them so they will form Catholics for voluntary Christian leadership in society. Example and mentoring by voluntary Christian leaders who have leadership experience in society will help laity realize the value and importance of renewing the temporal order.

There are many opportunities for the renewal of society. Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community documents the growth of social capital from a low during the depression in 1930 to a high in the early 1960s followed by a decline since then. This collapse occurred across most areas of life such as political, civic, and religious participation as well as informal social activity such as bowling leagues. While bowling itself declined only slightly, leagues are not longer popular. Putnam is optimistic that there are cycles of rise and decline in social capital. These may be related to the growth of new organizations and their decline in a fifty-year pattern that may be tied to generations. Putnam documents the importance of the “civic generation” in explaining the current rise and decline of social capital. There is also a cyclical rise and decline in religious life that is related to a two hundred year long pattern in the growth and decline of individual religious orders. Whatever may be the precise relationship of social and human capital in these patterns, we might well be ready for a revival of American community. Perhaps upswings in such cycles are triggered by decades of decline. The relatively new situation of many highly educated people with many years of active life after retirement may alter the expression of the next renewal of social capital.

VOTF should encourage pastors and educators to provide voluntary Christian leadership experiences beginning with young people. Parishes, schools and colleges should be laboratories and workshops of voluntary Christian leadership. All faith formation should have correlative opportunities for apostolic initiative. “Faith without works is dead!” Faith and apostolic formation should be an integrate part of parish lay ministry. All apostolic formation experiences should encourage Catholics to experience working together under church auspices as a preparation for civic engagement with others. People who volunteer to help out in the parish ought to be eager to exercise voluntary Christian leadership in their families, among their neighbors, and in their workplaces.

Often people who volunteer in parishes are motivated by discipleship. They desire to follow rather than to lead. They look to the pastor and the parish staff for leadership. As the number of priests and religious decline there will be an increased need for leadership skills among parish volunteers. When a parish looses an associate pastor, the pastor cannot double the number of meetings that he attends. Lay leaders at these meetings should make decisions themselves. If they have to take the matter to the pastor, he might as well have attended the meeting himself. This greater demand for a higher level of leadership among parish volunteers is the prefect opportunity to bring into parish leadership Catholics who have secular management experience and/or experience in providing voluntary Christian leadership in society. Acting as mentors and role models, they will help greatly in the leadership formation of Catholics in our parishes. Catholics whose voluntary Christian leadership is limited to church will likely be always seen as having lesser skills than church professionals. However, voluntary Christian leaders who bring to the parish secular skills and accomplishments of spiritual leadership in the world may become highly respected by religious professionals who do not have those secular skills, or accomplishments of spiritual as opposed to religious leadership.

Strategy 3 Engage the Time and Talent of Highly Educated People over Fifty

Voluntary Christian leadership requires time and talent. Many people find time for voluntarism despite long work hours and family responsibilities. However, there are definite limitations to the amount of time that laity with jobs and young families can give. These persons are always going to be perceived as “extra” and “part-time” help by priests and religious who dedicated their whole lives to the Church. The concept of religious life took advantage of the resource provided by a single life free of family responsibilities and a career orientation. In recent decades a new source of potential personnel has emerged in people over fifty. Many of these will be capable of healthy, productive lives for two or even three decades. They are free from the heavy family responsibilities of child rearing. Many of these talented people over fifty are financially secure and therefore do not have to work. However, these same highly educated, financially secure and healthy people are choosing to continue to work. However, they are not working because they are motivated by money.

Recent research has shown that the highly educated people are choosing to continue to work even when they could retire. They continue to work because they enjoy using their talents and being productive. They work for very little money even if they continue to work full time. They generally want to work on their own terms. They often become self-employed especially if they are wealthy. They also work part time, change jobs, and accept low paying jobs in order to do use their talents in the ways they want. Therefore church going, highly educated people over fifty are prime candidates for exercising voluntary leadership roles in both church and society. Being religious and being educated are two of the strongest predictors of voluntarism. However, any effort that waits until people actually retire to recruit their time and talent will likely have only modest results. Those who actually retire often do so because they have a health problem. Only an effort directed at people before they are retired, aimed at satisfying their need to use their talent, and providing them with opportunities equivalent to paid work will succeed.

In order to foster this new source of personnel for the renewal of church and society, Voice of the Faithful should become a supportive infrastructure consisting of three elements. The first is a culture of values and beliefs based upon Vatican II that promotes, values and celebrates voluntary Christian leadership in church and society. The second element consists of workshops and other resources that help talented people over fifty discern how to best use their talents. Finally opportunities should be provided to network with other Catholics who are voluntary Christian leaders and learn about potential opportunities for voluntary Christian leadership in church and society.