Forum: Organizational Challenges

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The religious situation is different than it used to be. Now, people feel much more free than they used to, to move from one denomination to another or to move completely outside the Christian  orbit, and they are doing so with increasing frequency.

All  of this is happening at a time when the Roman Catholic Church is in better shape dogmatically and practically than it has been for centuries. Today, its message about its identify and purpose is clearer than ever, and, it seems to this writer, to be more persuasive than ever. The trouble is that the Roman Catholic Church is not able to make this known to others, it is not able to sell its product. That unhappy situation seems to this writer to be due to its system of social organization. Change in the Church’s system of social organization is long overdue.

At the present time, responsibility for the Church lies completely in the hands of the clergy, and the clergy is no longer able to handle that responsibility. For one thing alone, it no longer has the numbers to do so and there is no hope that the situation will change in the future. Either the laity will abandon its long-held position in the Church of irresponsibility or the situation will remain dire.
The blame is not due entirely to the laity. The clergy have been unwilling to share this responsibility. Moreover, today, In the United States where there is an educated and responsible laity, the individuals concerned are so busy with their duties to work and family they are unwilling to assume any further responsibilities, and they treat the Church must as they do with their responsibilities to other voluntary organizations, such as the A.A.A.

The members of the laity who are not so involved would make poor recruits for further responsibilities. As a matter of fact, those who would be most willing are often the least qualified. There are good reasons that they are so unemployed in major responsibilities.

Consequently, the problem does not meet with easy solutions. The clergy are allowed to remain in control of operations for which they are largely unqualified. Thus far, the American laity has been content with the situation. That it will most likely continue to do so, for the reasons mentioned above and  other reasons, presents a difficult situation, one that does not promises further decline in church members and influence.

A solution, endorsed by Vatican Council II, seems to be shared responsibility between the clergy and laity. This solution would leave the clergy in charge of the institution, but no longer in total control. This solution admits of many difficulties in implementation, but it holds promise of a satisfactory solution to the issue. At the present moment, there seems to be no other solution.

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