Cardinal Stafford: Lay People are Prophets of Our Time

A interesting piece in the Australian Catholic news features an interview with Cardinal Stafford former Archbishop of Denver (Denver's World Youth Day happened on his watch in Denver) and Prestident of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

"The Cardinal said when he was archbishop of Denver one year, more than 2,000 people preparing to enter the church at Easter attended an archdiocesan Mass for them on the first Sunday of Lent. But when they were invited back for Pentecost, only a few hundred came back.

"That tells me we can get them, but we can't keep them," he said.

The falloff in Mass attendance indicates a failure to integrate the laity fully into a rich parish life, he said. Other churches do a better job of integrating their members, he said.

He said that when he was bishop of Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1980s he would sometimes attend Southern Baptist services and gatherings in plain clothes to learn how they built their communities. He saw that one of the keys was a wider expression of reconciliation among the laity, he said.

The Cardinal said he witnessed one example of a husband and father, who confessed to his congregation he was tempted to commit adultery during his extended business trips.

It was painful for the man, but more painful to the wife, who was there also, he said, but that community was strong enough to support the husband as he battled his temptations. More importantly, he said, it was strong enough to support the wife, who was humiliated by her husband's public confession.

Priests should embrace and encourage the laity as they build up social networks capable of spreading reconciliation, he said.

"They are the new prophets of our time - I really mean that, and you can take it for what it is worth," he added."

Fr. Michael Sweeney and I spent an hour and a half with Cardinal Stafford in Rome when he was still President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. He asked me what percentage of newly received Catholics were no longer practicing a year later. "Fifty percent?" I hazarded, feeling pretty daring. "Oh no", he corrected me, "Seventy percent."

It sounds like he hasn't changed his mind on that one. His comment on laity building "social networks capable of spreading reconciliation" is really interesting. I wish he'd had more time to go into more detail.

It is in light of this reality, that Fr. Mike and I are working on a possible new approach to the RCIA inquiry process that focuses first on inquirer's lived relationship with God.

I'll blog more on that later. Right now, I have to get ready to take Fr. Mike to the airport and the beginning of his tundra tour.