Flattening the Church

Friday, March 16th, 2012

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). Even with the passing of half a century, among Catholics there is still contention and ambivalence about the legacy of this momentous meeting.

Many of a conservative bent see the need for reforms to be reigned in, and a return to a more traditional Catholicism. At the other end of the spectrum, progressives argue that reforms didn’t go far enough, and the promise of the council was never fully realised.

They say this is particularly the case with the role and place of the laity. Council teachings flattened the hierarchy of the Church, speaking of it as ‘the People of God’, a community of clergy, religious and lay people all sharing in the ‘priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ’.

The man featured in this interview on Eureka Street TV is firmly in the progressive camp. Robert Fitzgerald is a prominent lay leader in the Australian Catholic Church, and a distinguished public servant, who has served at the highest level in a number of government bodies.

The interview took place at a recent conference in Sydney about Catholic lay leadership where he gave the keynote address, ‘The time has come — but are we willing?’ He argued that as lay people now run most of the Catholic educational, health and welfare institutions, this lay leadership needs to be more formally recognised by the Church and extended further into parish and diocesan roles.

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