The laity in Korea has a unique history, however, looking over the statistics of the church, Catholics are very similar to the other countries of the world. Laypeople were without their own priests for 60 years. They brought the faith to the country and nourished it without the help of the clergy and with thoughts of a martyrs' death the community of faith continued to grow.
Influence of society is present but in the eyes of many, the laity are not able to express their vitality, take their rightful place in the church, but remain passive. St. John Paul II called them the sleeping giant. They need to be awakened. Why is that the situation that we find so often?
We use the word community so often that the word loses its meaning. Team and partnership are words we hear in society and business but rarely within the church. If we imported these words we would look at the work we faced differently. We use the words unity, cooperation, interchange, fellowship and the like expressions but they don't move us—distant ideals. Partnership when used, connotes equality, mutual responsibility and solidarity in the work. A more intense feeling of working together. St. Paul in Corinthians used this meaning when talking about the analogy of the body.
Searching for a true community is not easy. It is easy to see the working together as more convenient, profitable, efficient means to an end. However, a real community when achieved is the medium projecting love and unity. Desire and vitality are nurtured and the community evangelizes as a community. The Holy Spirit with obstacles removed is free to move the community. The community becomes an end in itself—presence of Jesus.
In society, without partnership, we have little development. In the church, we don't lack partnership but it is not easily seen. It is not a central feature of our mentality. In May of this year, the International Theological Commission said any process of discernment should begin with a consultation of the laity and they need to be given more space in the church where they can express themselves.
There is a need they said to overcome a clerical mentality that risks keeping them at the margins of church life. It is true that the laity in our tradition don't have the right to vote but when the clergy as lone rangers go about their work without consultation with the laity this is often the results. The laity are not only in the church but are the church said St. John Paul II in Christi Fidelis. In the Church's law and tradition, the laity only have the right to propose but there is no law that prevents the clergy from sharing their authority.
The clergy needs to show they can't do the work they have been entrusted, alone. The laity are the partners in the work given to the church. St. Teresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying: "I can do something you can't and you can do something I can't, together we can do great things." Would it not be a big step to have this as a motto for our faith communities?
