CBCP TO LAITY: You’re not second class citizens of the Church

“Your membership in the Church is a full membership. You belong to the Church as much as any pope, bishop, priest, or religious does. You are not second class members of the people of God. When you live the life of grace, you are full citizens of God’s kingdom on earth.”

In the Pastoral Exhortation of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for the 2014 Year of the Laity signed by CBCP President Abp. Socrates Villegas, the bishops urged the Filipino Catholic laity not to undermine their role in the life of the Church.

“When you were baptized, the Holy Spirit united you with our Lord Jesus the Son of God, and thus you became true sons and daughters of God, partakers of the divine nature. There is no greater dignity on earth or in heaven than that of being adopted children of God, and being made truly his children, and thus co-heirs to eternal life with Jesus Christ,” the CBCP President said in the exhortation entitled “Filipino Catholic Laity: Called to be Saints…Sent Forth as Heroes!”

For his part, DCHerald columnist Fr. Roy Cimagala noted about the misconception of inequality of ranks among clergy, religious and laity saying:

“There should be no question about who is higher or lower in the Church. The hierarchical structure of the Church is not meant to elicit that attitude but rather to put in place and to keep the vitality of the Church as animated by the Holy Spirit himself.”

“Everyone has to be aware that, whether cleric or lay, he is part of an organic body that has dimensions both visible and invisible, material and spiritual, human and divine. He has to realize that the Church is also in his own hands. He has to learn to work in tandem with others,” Fr. Cimagala added.

“All faithful are conformed to Christ in baptism. Those ordained to the priesthood are conformed to Christ in a more specific way, that is, to Christ as head of the Church,” Fr. Cimagala said, adding:

“Yes, they enjoy a certain authority over others, but that authority is precisely meant to serve the others. They preach, administer the sacraments, etc. Their power should not be understood as a claim of entitlement. On the contrary, priests should feel like rags for the lay faithful to step on softly on their earthly pilgrimage.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops said the laity has their respective role in the “sanctification and transformation of the world from within.”

“Many of you are called by the Lord to do service in the Church and for the Church,” the exhortation said, noting about the role of the laity like catechists, lay missionaries, among others.

The lay have their specific task, which is “to find their own sanctification in the world, and to sanctify the world and transform it so that this world becomes more and more God’s world, God’s kingdom, where his will is done as it is in heaven.” (John Frances C. Fuentes/@dcherald)