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Strategy 4 Imitate Religious Life as a Parallel Network of Renewal

VOTF, like religious life, should function as a parallel social structure that creates and maintains a social network independently of parish and diocesan structures. This network should   promote the charism of voluntary Christian leadership both in the church and in the world, and link its members with opportunities for voluntary Christian leadership in both. Like religious, VOTF should cooperate and work both within and outside existing parish and diocesan structures on terms that are faithful to its own mission, “to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church.” The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity sees precisely such a variety of relationships to church structures   “Indeed, the lay apostolate admits of different types of relationships with the hierarchy in accordance with the various forms and objects of this apostolate. For in the Church there are many apostolic undertakings which are established by the free choice of the laity and regulated by their prudent judgment. (AA,#24)”

                VOTF’s mission should be shaped by the sections of Canon Law that enumerate the rights and responsibilities of all of Christ’s faithful, especially those canons that are most applicable to voluntary Christian leadership.   Chief among these is that the faithful have “the right, indeed at times their duty, to manifest to the sacred Pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church” Canon 212).   This right and duty will likely be far more effective if VOTF members are also exercising their other rights and duties. These include the right “to make their views on matters which concern the good of the Church known to others of Christ's faithful” (Canon 212). Conversation among ourselves is necessary if we are “to freely establish and direct associations which serve charitable or pious purposes or which foster the Christian vocation in the world, and to hold meetings to pursue these purposes by common effort” (Canon 215).   Our ability to found organizations is a powerful motive for the pastors of the church to talk to us as is our ability   “to promote and support apostolic action, by their own initiative, undertaken according to their state and condition,” (Canon 216). Finally why should pastors want to listen to those who fail “to make a wholehearted effort to lead a holy life, and to promote the growth of the Church and its continual sanctification” (Canon 210). They ought to be especially eager to hear from those who try “to permeate and perfect the temporal order of things with the spirit of the Gospel,”Canon 225), and/or “to promote social justice and, mindful of the Lord's precept, to help the poor from their own resources.”(Canon 222 §2).   If VOTF members are exercising their freedom to organize and do good things both inside and outside parochial and diocesan structures, church authorities are likely to want to be able to influence these efforts, or a least maintain a positive relationship with them.   In many ways our right, our duty and our effectiveness in speaking to the pastors of the Church is founded upon our ability to speak to one another and organize ourselves to do good.

            Religious life and Protestant sects are successful in attracting people in part because they live in high tension with their culture.   They stand out in a crowd. Part of this tension occurs because they advocate and practice a lifestyle very different from that practiced by most members of society.   Part of it occurs because they are critical of certain aspects of society.   Voluntary Christian leaders will live in some degree of tension with the selfish tendencies of our society even though voluntarism is a widely held civic value.   VOTF has an opportunity to be in high tension with our society by being very critical of it on the childhood sexual abuse issue.   This is a problem that is being ignored in our schools and families as well as our churches.    This issue gives Catholic laity an opportunity to exercise positive leadership in an area where they have often been at odds with the hierarchy.   Moreover it offers Catholic laity an opportunity to steer the public discussion of sexual morality away from the framework of privacy and personal morality in which it has been stuck.   Clearly childhood sexual abuse is not a victimless crime; it is not a matter of some people trying to impose their morality on others.   This critique of society will be important in distinguishing VOTF from Catholic reform groups that are perceived as advocating that the Church become more like our culture.

            Religious life has been expressed in many different forms in past centuries.   The modern religious order may not be the most relevant model for VOTF. The beginnings of monastic life may provide better models.   Hermits lived alone. However, they usually had a mentor or spiritual father, and occasionally consulted and socialized with other monks.   Other monks lived in hermitages along a common pathway and hence saw and supported each other more often.   Some lived in hermitages around a common central facility for meetings.   All of these suggest various ways in which VOTF members as voluntary Christian leaders might relate to one another as a social network.   Like early monastic networks, the VOTF social network may not have to be very structured and organized to be effective.   In fact since it is a network of leaders, excessive structure might just get in the way of efficiency and effectiveness.     

Strategy 5 Be a Grassroots Social Network Emphasizing Prayerful Listening  

A critical choice for VOTF is whether to be a grassroots voluntary association that places a very high priority on face to face relationships among members, or to be a mailing list where people relate more to the organizational leadership and goals than to each other.   In the language of sociology it’s the choice between being a secondary or tertiary organization. A strong argument in favor of grass roots face to face organizations and against mailing list organizations was made by Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone.   Putnam is especially critical of Washington based organizations run by full time professional staff who cultivate members by making them comfortable that they have done something by making a contribution to the organization. These organizations concentrate their efforts on the mass media so that they appear to be doing things that influence policy-making.   They, of course, take credit for any changes that occur. Putnam maintains that professional social movement organizations arise precisely as a response to social infrastructure deficit. They occur when, as in the Church, there is widespread sentiment favoring social change but a lack of available infrastructure for the mobilization of that sentiment.  

Based of this argument VOTF should concentrate on building a grassroots infrastructure at the parish and diocesan level.   It should be careful not to count its successes in terms of number of members, and the amount of media attention that it receives. These can easily occur without the establishment of any lasting social networks.   VOTF should count its progress in terms of the establishment of new parish voice affiliates where there are strong personal bonds among the members. Opportunities for networking within the parish, among neighboring parishes in cities and counties, within a diocese, and among neighboring dioceses as well as nationally are key to developing a network and social infrastructure of voluntary Christian leadership in both church and society.

Lasting social bonds and a permanent social infrastructure are more likely to result if parish voices are built around positive experiences such as prayer, faith sharing, caring and sharing of interests rather than around issues, criticism and negativism. In a recent survey of more than forty five thousand Catholics in the Diocese of Cleveland, “the parish as a supportive, caring community” was ranked second in importance in a list of thirty-nine items.   “The parish exhibiting a spirit of warmth and hospitality” was ranked fourth and “parish leadership that listens to the concerns of parishioner” was ranked seventh. So there would definitely seem to be a opportunity for an organization that caters to these interests.   Most of the meetings in the parish seem to be built around the interests and projects of the staff rather than those of the parishioners.   People have expressed interest in things such the Passion of the Christ, and the best selling Purpose Driven Life only to be met with a complete lack of interest on the part of parish staff.   Discussing these things might give members of the parish an enjoyable evening together without requiring the assistance of the staff.   Allowing people to do this might produce higher scores for the parish on all these areas.  

Anyone in a parish who has an idea or suggestion ought to be able to get a hearing at a parish voice listening session. If the person gets sufficient interest among parish members they should be encouraged to start a group, investigate what interest the parish staff have in the project. Persons who have insufficient interest in their own parishes, or who lack pastoral staff interest, ought to be able to present their ideas at regional or even diocesan VOTF meetings perhaps in the form of information booths.   All of these listening sessions ought to be conducted in a prayerful, supportive, and socially positive atmosphere.   Members of the parish staff and the pastor would be invited but it would be understood they were not to be put on the spot for any instant critique of new ideas, only an enjoyable evening.   Everyone would recognize that the only votes that could count would the actual interest of people in working on the suggestion.

The Decree on the Apostolate of the Faithful (#26) speaks of the desirability of “apostolic councils” within parishes, within neighboring parishes, across the diocese and across the national.   Their object would be to promote the various initiatives, to surface ideas and get people with similar ideas to work together.   Vatican II specifically desired a increase in associations but also a better coordination of effort. The Decree specified that it did not want such councils to be an imposition of control from above at the expense of the spontaneity and autonomy that were so essential in responding to the grace of God.  

Strategy 6.   Model Subsidiarity by Championing Personal and Small Group Initiatives   

Somewhat related to the tendency to become a mailing list is the possibility for VOTF to become a top down hierarchical organization with parish affiliates and the diocesan organizations implementing policies and programs decided upon at the national level. Even if the national policies and programs are based upon extensive processes that work up from the grassroots, such an organization looks too much like a national pastoral council, an idea whose time has come and gone. Mark Fisher documents this in his book, Pastoral Councils in Today’s Catholic Parish.   In 1970 the American bishops commissioned a study of the feasibility of a national pastoral council.   Among the proposals were that the national council direct diocesan and parish councils, and that it be involved in selection of bishops and policy making. Both the bishops and Rome backed away from such proposals as well as from the Dutch National Pastoral Council.   A letter from the Congregation for Priests headed by Cardinal Wright, former bishop of Pittsburgh , declared national pastoral councils inopportune but did support diocesan pastoral councils and parish pastoral councils. In summarizing this history of the national pastoral council idea, Fisher concludes that the bishops saw   “the grass on the other side of the hill was not greener.”   But Fisher notes that both the Vatican and the American bishops went on to extensively support diocesan and parish pastoral councils.   The lesson from history appears to be that both the Vatican and the bishops are more likely to support structures that emphasize lay grassroots input at the parish and diocesan levels rather than national efforts, especially those organized and directed from above by a national elite.   A VOTF that is decentralized and disorganized may in fact be much more effective that one that is centralized and very organized whether at parish, diocesan, or national levels.

            VOTF should promote widespread leadership by all members rather than just a few officers. Personal initiatives by members especially within existing roles and organizations in church and society should be encouraged. Within a parish, VOTF members should function as parish council members or parish staff much as many religious do individually today.   When religious function as a staff member, they bring the values and perspective of their religious order but do not function as representatives of their religious order. They function on the basis of their human capital.   Membership in VOTF ought to signify a set of Vatican II values, a commitment to voluntary Christian leadership, and a life style of prayer, spiritual formation, and apostolic activity that supports that commitment. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity even went so far to claim that the individual apostolate was   “the origin and condition of the whole lay apostolate, even of the organized type, and it admits of no substitute. AA #16”

 VOTF should encourage members to take small group initiatives at the local level including working with people outside VOTF. However these projects should not need to be approved by VOTF at any level as long as the group does not represent itself as a VOTF group. At other times a group of VOTF members in a parish might staff a particular program much as religious sometimes staff a school. In other cases a group of VOTF members from outside a parish might even staff much of a parish that was poor in financial resources.   In those cases where VOTF members work as a group, VOTF values might be more evident in the manner in which the program or parish was operated.   While VOTF members should always be true to their own mission and charism when working in the parish, VOTF members should always be sensitive to the values and autonomy of the organizations and people with whom they collaborate.

VOTF should rarely take positions or vote on matters at the local or national levels. VOTF should be a voluntary organization with very few paid staff. Votes are meaningless in a voluntary organization unless they expressed willingness to work on projects. VOTF should encourage successful initiatives to become separate organizations especially when they need to raise funds or hire staff.   We should not fear being decentralized, or looking disorganized, or even having some initiatives appear to be at odds with other initiatives. In church as in politics much may be accomplished if VOTF members and the organization is willing to take a back seat and permit others take credit for ideas and changes.   We have many talented laity with many ideas, and possible initiatives. Why not help them all flourish?  

Stategy 7 Use VOTF Small Christian Communities for Spiritual Formation

Voice of the Faithful like religious life needs to be a spiritual community for its members. Spiritual formation should be at the heart of that community, the common glue that binds together a very diverse group of voluntary Christian leaders. VOTF ought to continue to be easy to join: very low dues, very few goals and positions.   VOTF should be very inclusive of others in its listening sessions, and in its apostolic works. You should not have to be a member to participate in any of these.   However, when it comes to spiritual formation, that should be restricted to VOTF members.   Indeed participation in giving and receiving spiritual formation ought to become the hallmark of a “real” VOTF member. VOTF will become much more effective if being a spiritually formed VOTF member is easily recognizable somewhat like being a Jesuit or a Benedictine. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (#32) recognizes that associations are responsible for the formation of their own members.

All the social science evidence indicates leadership skills are very diverse and very situational.   That suggests the model for a community of voluntary Christian leaders is one of mutual mentoring and support for one another. That in turn suggests that small faith sharing groups of less than a dozen members should be primary means of spiritual formation and community for VOTF members. In fact the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity comes to very much the same conclusions   “these groups (i.e. association such as VOTF) are the ordinary vehicle for harmonious formation for the apostolate inasmuch as they provide doctrinal, spiritual, and practical formation. Their members meet in small groups with their associates or friends, examine the methods and results of their apostolic activity, and compare their daily way of life with the Gospel.”   There is a need for materials that would emphasize three areas of spiritual formation: the documents of Vatican II, leadership development, and the lay apostolate in both church and society.   These are areas that have been identified in a national study as being neglected in many existing small Christian Community formation programs.

There are more than 36,000 Catholic small Christian communities in the USA.   These usually consist of about a dozen people who meet either monthly, biweekly or weekly. They discuss their Christian lives within the context of scripture and prayer.   Many such small groups are sponsored by parishes would blend easily with parish structures. Some are sponsored by religious orders or exist independently. Most meet in people’s homes. VOTF Small Christian Communities offer an idea way for VOTF to recruit members by invitation, especially members who are priority categories such people over fifty, volunteers and well educated people.   VOTF Small Christian Communities also offer an ideal way for people with similar interests to establish regular networking times.

The Decree on the Apostolate (#29) recognizes the importance of spirituality that is particularly appropriate to the laity and which is well integrated into our lives. The rise of an independent academic discipline of spirituality, especially conceived as the multidisciplinary study of Christian life, is potentially very helpful.   Spirituality has become very popular because the majority of American sees themselves as being spiritual. By spiritual they mean that they have some personal religious experiences they value. Discussion of spirituality is becoming increasing accepted. The integration of spirituality with other aspects of life such as the practice of medicine and the workplace is beginning to be occur.   VOTF ought to emphasize the importance to its members of being experts on spirituality, the multidisciplinary lived experience of Christianity, rather than experts on theology or religion.   VOTF members should bring their professional disciplines and life experiences to this endeavor.     

VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL AS A SOCIAL STRUCTURE: Seven Strategies for Success

                                                                Overview and Summary

Voluntary associations and religious orders as parallel structures provide models of renewal.

Forms of Religious Capital and the Renewal of Roman Catholicism

The religious capital of Roman Catholicism consists of its beliefs and values (i.e. cultural capital) its social networks with their structures (i.e. social capital) and its people (i.e. human capital). New religious orders are very successful at renewal. New cultural capital generated by their founder’s charism organizes in new parallel social networks much human capital that was previously tepid or uninterested.   Church councils achieve renewal by generating cultural capital that modifies and reinvigorates existing social networks.

Vatican II’s legacy of a focus the People of God: discerning human capital trends since Vatican II.  

The decline in priests and religious and rise in the deacons and lay ministers may not be the problem nor have the solutions advocated by liberals and traditionalists. A vast human capital supply materializing in the developed world in the form of decades of service by highly educated people at retirement age has the potential to alter the human capital and social structures of the church as profoundly as religious life has.

Stategy 1 Promote the Charism of   Voluntary Christian Leadership:

Promotion of the Voluntary Christian Leadership of the faithful should be seen as the special charism of VOTF. Leadership as initiative is implied by “Actuostatem” in title of the Decree on Laity, by the word apostle and by baptismal anointing. It is Christian leadership in the world not just in the Catholic Church.

Voluntary Christian leadership is a charism, i.e. leadership from the heart, from the core of one’s being, from being spiritual, being a saint; a life-form i.e.like monasticism it has the potential to motivate many different people and institutions; and it can be alife longvocation, like lives of clergy and religious it is an imitation of Christ who worked and lived with his family, then spent his last years in service to others.

Strategy 2 Relate Renewal of Society and Church by Voluntary Christian Leadership

The framework for linking renewal of society and the church is the special obligation of the laity to renewal of the temporal order. Social capital needs to be renewed in the USA . Voluntary lay leadership within the Church should be training for leadership in society. Those exercising voluntary Christian leadership in the world should supply leadership to our parishes in the coming decade(s) of declining priests and religious.

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

Voluntary leadership requires time and talent. Highly educated people continue to work when they could retire in order to use their talents. Since they work for very low wages, VOTF should help highly educated people over fifty discern how to use their human capital for the renewal of the church and nonprofit sector and provide a networking organization to help people locate organizations and each other.

Strategy 4 Imitate Religious Life as a Parallel Network of Renewal

VOTF like religious life should promote its charism as well as the rights and duties of the faithful contained in Canons 208-223 that are particularly relevant to voluntary Christian leadership. VOTF should be in high tension with culture from its voluntary leadership commitment and by its critique of sexual abuse in society as well as in the church. The diffuse social networks in early monasticism are possible models for VOTF

Strategy 5 Be a Grassroots Supportive Social   Network Emphasizing Prayerful Listening

VOTF should be a secondary association emphasizing listening and networking rather than a tertiary mailing list emphasizing issues. Parish Voices should provide Catholics with desired positive experiences of community, caring, welcoming, and listening to their concerns and ideas.   Prayerful listening sessions in parishes, between parishes, in dioceses, regions and nation such be welcoming, caring discussions of possible apostolic initiatives that network people with similar ideas and interests like apostolic councils.

Strategy 6. Model subsidiarity by encouraging individual and small group initiatives

The failure of National Pastoral Councils contrasts with support by hierarchy for diocesan and parish councils. Subsidiarity is the preferred model. VOTF should emphasis the importance of personal initiatives, the use of existing roles and organizations, small work groups and encourage new associations outside VOTF for large efforts. Rarely take positions on national or local issues and have very few paid staff.

Strategy 7 Use Small Christian Communities for VOTF Spiritual Formation

Like religious life, spiritual formation within a community should be at the center of what it means to be a VOTF member. In accord with Vatican II decree on laity, VOTF should be responsible for the spiritual formation of its members. Small Christian communities with mutual mentoring that emphasize Vatican II documents, leadership skills, and apostolic activity are a good means. Expertise in spirituality as the multidisciplinary study of lived Christian life should be promoted and developed by VOTF members bringing their own disciplines and life experiences to the endeavor.

Informal and Formal Input to VOTF Perspectives

Your informal feedback, comments and suggestions on articles are always welcome at info@votfcleveland.org Your formal participation at this time is particularly welcome in the form of submissions for inclusion.   There are many topic to be covered, especially with the new pope.   As announced at the beginning of the year, the editor is spending more time on issues of importance to his own apostolate in the hope that others will begin to participate more in this endeavor.