Cardinal Arinze on the Role of the Laity

Cardinal
Arinze on the Role of the Laity | CWR Staff | Catholic World Report

An interview with the former head of
the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments.

Cardinal
Francis Arinze grew
up in Nigeria, and in 1965 became the youngest bishop in the world at
the age of 32. He was the first African cardinal to head a Vatican
office and served as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008. He is the
author of several books, including the autobiographical God's
Invisible Hand,
Celebrating
the Holy Eucharist ,
and Meeting
Jesus and Following Him,
all published by Ignatius Press.

Cardinal Arinze's newest
book is The
Layperson's Distinctive Role
(Ignatius Press), and he recently, via e-mail, answered questions
from Catholic
World Report
about that book.

CWR: How did the Second Vatican Council, and then Bl.
John Paul II, seek to address the role of the laity? What was
distinctive about that approach compared to the pre-conciliar era?

Cardinal Arinze: The Second
Vatican Council addressed the role of the laity by teaching that this
role is based on Baptism by which the laity “are made one body in
Christ and are established among the People of God” (Lumen
Gentium, 31). The principal passage on this
is LG 31. This teaching is discussed in greater detail in LG 32-37
and also in Gaudium et Spes
43 and in Apostolicam Actuositatem
2-7.

Blessed John Paul II, particularly in his postsynodal
apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici,
bases the lay apostolate on the mystery of the Church. “I am the
vine and you are the branches” (Jn 15:5; CL 20). The lay people
are sharers in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly mission of Jesus
Christ (CL 29). A secular character is peculiar to the laity. So
this great Pope states: “Thus for the lay faithful, to be present
and active in the world is not only an anthropological and
sociological reality, but in a specific way, a theological and
ecclesiological reality as well” (CL 15).

Distinctive about both approaches is that both Vatican
II and Bl. John Paul II consider the lay faithful primarily as called
to evangelize the secular order. Before Vatican II many in the
Church defined the lay apostolate as a participation in the
apostolate of the hierarchy (i.e. of the clergy).

CWR: What are the essential features of the
layperson's role compared to the roles of the clergy and religious?
What are some of the most common misunderstandings of the role of the
laity?

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