In the Hands of the Laity: Part I

I was taken aback years ago when I first saw this familiar quote of the late Venerable Archbishop Sheen:

Who’s going to save our Church?  It’s not our bishops, it’s not our priests and it’s not the religious.  It’s up to you, the people.  You have the minds, the eyes and the ears to save the Church.  Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops and your religious act like religious.

Much has been written about this quote and it’s pictured with the archbishop often online.  It’s evident that the internet was invented by Satan himself, a false light of hope; but being a morally neutral entity, the internet can and is used by God to save.  Even the names internet and world-wide-web have all the braggery of a master trapper written in them. Despite the obvious evils of the net is that God has been using it as a tool to empower the common person, especially the laity by allowing us to work as a team to assist and protect one another on a secular and ecclesial level, regardless of what faith background we are.

One big example of power now in the hands of common folk is the ability and accessibility of online reviewing, which has been gaining momentum over the past few years especially during the strong-arm of pandemic lockdowns to date.  Remember during the lockdowns when certain States allowed people to go to package stores but not churches?  We could handle covid-infected money of the masses and bottles of booze but not attend Masses and receive the Body of Christ.  Many clergy were silent on or advocated these matters of hypocrisy.  As there have been many issues of permissiveness and lording of power during this past century by the clergy, the momentum of online reviewing, podcasts and other informative videos are a fulfillment and foreshadowing of the involvement of the laity in the present and future of the Church. Fortunately, God doesn’t let us down and many faithful priests and religious, and a handful of bishops – who follow Saint John Paul II’s advice to “be not afraid“ and “implement the internet,” like Sheen did the television, to save souls.

The expanding usage of online reviews of businesses: doctors, lawyers, mechanics, banks, etc. simply reinforces Archbishop Sheen’s prophecy of the future of the Church.  It’s sort of like the two lenses in a telescope.  The first lens is secular, the second ecclesial.  God always uses the supernatural through ordinary means first; hence, we’re made from clay.  Sure, this outlet of online reviewing is sometimes misused, as false reviews are put up to usurp competitors, or sometimes the reviews do not disclose the full picture.  Then there are also in-house reviews, which are honestly not a bad idea to gain momentum to get a business off the ground (cf, Luke 16:8).

If I am going to go to a new doctor or mechanic, I sure as heck am certainly going to take a look online at the reviews, good and bad, before going there.  I will make my own judgement afterwards.  Generally, I have found reviews are spot on, which brings hope to me about us humans.  It is a good thing when the “common” people have access to resources to work collectively with other citizens in holding higher-ups in the medical, law or ecclesial fields accountable.  Via these reviews, we not only protect one another, but prevent further issues from coming down the pike on innocent victims.  Sort of like a worker’s union, which most Popes actually advocated.  It’s is all too common, people above the common-man or woman’s pay grade getting off the hook; or those not making a big income but by title or vocation have big power.  It’s harder for abuses and manipulations to occur when there is collaboration of online reviewing.

Another counter-productive wonder against our spiritual enemy the devil, was the fact that the attempt to turn us into vegetative-puppets backfired.  Sitting around during lockdowns, when many couldn’t even go to work, allowed for much video viewing.  Amidst the nonsense videos and writings there were/are gems in the rough, even the layman is now being informed and educated by many of God’s elite!  How many people knew of, say, Fr Ripperger the exorcist, as an example, who incessantly unveils the devil’s tactics?  What about the likes of Harvard, Columbia and Chicago graduate Thomas Sowell, who single-handedly unweaves the complicated fabric of liberal thought for us to look at clearly? Gotta love how Jesus always uses the enemy’s tactics to advance His Kingdom.

Then we have the utility like media where lay and secular common folk can hold sway and defend positions of truth, vs years past when it was very difficult for the common person to get into a newspaper let alone on TV with their point of view.  By the way, for those of us generation X and above, I recently found out the abbreviation POV stands for point of view.  Hopefully that doesn’t end up in an Oxford dictionary, if it hasn’t already graced the pages. Elon Musk saw the abuse of power in Twitter years ago, and smartly invested into purchasing it and turning it into “X”, a sort of crossing point, or X in the roads – neutrality, where there is freedom of speech not being hampered and hindered by those in power within the old Twitter.

In secular parallels, Musk was sort of a “Bishop” at the time of acquisition on behalf of “the flock”, be they liberal or conservative or anywhere in between.  God bless him for that move, and the “laity” who supported him! Just as the angelic doctor, St Thomas Aquinas teaches in his Summa Theologica that not all anger is bad; this was an act of indignation of Musk (cf, Summa question 158).

Also, Sheen himself teaches us that our “anger is only justifiable if it’s on behalf of another” and St Paul admonishes us to “consider others as more important than yourself” (cf, Philp. 2:3). Outside of any serious or ongoing harmful injustice to oneself, indignation over small problems in one’s life as a Christian shouldn’t even cross our minds, but are crowded out with thanksgiving to God for our good we have despite any minor evils we endure.

Going back to Archbishop Sheen’s opening statement, we can see his one-of-the-many prophecies being fulfilled, right here and right now.  Lay groups have been forming for over a century and gaining momentum for the Church and evangelization, the duty of the laity.  This momentum is evidenced with Cursillo, a weekend retreat for laymen. We also have Project Rachel, largely run and operated by lay women for lay/secular women who have endured abortions.  I’m sure he saw the power of the laity brimming as he saw Fr McGivney’s Knights of Columbus gaining momentum during his episcopacy.

Read Part Two tomorrow