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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 VOTFCLEV@aol.com 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.