Young Catholics interested, but struggle with ministry
Although many young adult Catholics are interested in church ministry they find it difficult to connect their career plans or talents with available ministries, according to a survey released this year.
The survey, "Young Adult Catholics and Their Future in Ministry," was commissioned by the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project, a joint project involving six national Catholic organizations and funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc.
A preliminary report on the survey of young adult Catholics will be the topic of an upcoming National Ministry Summit April 20-23 in Orlando, Fla. The summit, initially planned for 1,000 participants, recently was expanded to accommodate all who wish to attend.
Read the full report by Catholic News Service.
TTM, do I get this right??
TTM, do I get this right?? Lay people are supposed to support the ordained ministry--many of whom live in bigger houses, drive fancier cars, take more expensive vacations, wear designer clothes, wear jeweled and gold encrusted vestments???? But we must stay out of the Church ministries-because it belongs to the Ordained not to us?
Hi acoolmum, I'll endeavour
Hi acoolmum,
I'll endeavour to answer each of your questions:
> "TTM, do I get this right?? Lay people are supposed to support the ordained ministry"
If the question is about what the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium says, it's rather the other way around - the ordained ministry is ordered toward supporting the lay ministry. The ordained ministry is one of enabling the laity to carry out the mission of the Church, which is to spread the Good News of salvation, to be salt and light to the world, lifting up Christ before the them that He may draw all people to Himself (John 12:32).
As for the extravagance of some in the ordained ministry, I do think they need to live according to the beatitudes and manifest their spiritual poverty outwardly, so as to be true signs for the Reality that is beyond this world. To be fair, though, many of them do, and even those who do not appear so have no personal possessions of their own.
Scripturally speaking, we do in fact have an obligation to support them, since "the laborer deserves his wages" (Luke 10:7). We would be irresponsible indeed if we neglect to support the very pastors who nurture us with spiritual good. This is a means of reciprocal relationship, whereby we witness to the world as in the former times where they would exclaim, "See how they love one another!" (Tertullian, Apology, 39.6).
> "But we must stay out of the Church ministries-because it belongs to the Ordained not to us?"
Not necessarily - Lumen Gentium makes due allowance for lay ministry in the Church: "Let the spiritual shepherds recognize and promote the dignity as well as the responsibility of the laity in the Church." The point is not one of legalism, but of fundamental nature of the laity. If one is called to be a lay person in the Church, as opposed to a religious, then that person has a calling from God which is ordered outward, to the conversion and consecration of the world - that is what the royal priesthood involves.
This is because the ordained ministry acts 'in persona Christi', in a sacrificial dimention in the place of the one who became for us the saving Sacrifice: "the Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45 ASV) They are in a supportive (ministerial) vocation directed inward, to enable the work of the laity directed outward. This is why they offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass in a representative capacity, and we join to this - as Mary did at the foot of the cross - our own sacrifice, including the world itself which we bring to it.
So here is a truly mutually supportive and enriching dimention of the Church that Christ Himself willed for us. In a way, we need to recapture this complementary relationship where the many and various parts of the body can work together in harmony:
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.... For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."
(I Corinthians 12:4–5,14,21–26 RSV)
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Is that not the essence of
Is that not the essence of Jesuit spirituality?
Hi Dennis, I'm not aware of
Hi Dennis,
I'm not aware of this, but it seems several lay apostolates such as the Legion of Mary practice this very well.
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In many ways I suspect that
In many ways I suspect that young Catholics have a more authentic worldview than the Church does and that being "active" in Church is personally frustrating if not pointless because of the habituated blindness of Church (hierarchy) to truth that comes from sources other than Church's tradition and belief in its own inerrancy.
I come to this belief because of what I know about my own six daughters and seven grandchildren.
Perhaps it is the problem of "evolutionary faith vs fixated faith". This is a problem of the Church, not of young Catholics!!! No? Yes?
Sylvester ~ I think it is a
Sylvester ~ I think it is a problem both ways. It is the problem of the church yes, but with regard to young catholics the outcome seems to be different. Rather than remain fixated with a vengance they see, or sense this impermeability and walk away. They don't need the fuss.
I think such a difficulty
I think such a difficulty might arise from a view of ministry in the Church that does not suit their vocation as lay women and men.
Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, chapter IV (The Laity) can be helpful in this regard:
"What specifically characterizes the laity is their secular nature. ...the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God."
In other words, the lay ministry is directed outward to the world. Their priestly duty that comes from God is practiced in consecrating the world, made possible by the inward and ordained ministry which consecrates the Eucharist service of the lay ministry. We as lay people are able to do what the ordained ministry are not able - to be in regular and direct contact with the world, in order to bring them to Christ:
"They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven."
This, I submit, is the only way to "connect their career plans or talents with available ministries".
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