The Clericalism We Didn’t Kill

Vatican II tried to fix clericalism.

But we didn’t listen.

Instead, we created a new clericalism—an “official” class of lay people.

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If you’ve been around Church work, you know the word clericalism.

It’s the idea that the Church is identified with the clergy—the only people who are really part of the Church are the clergy, and the laity are just there to pay, pray, and obey.

This is a problem because it creates a consumer mentality. The lay people don’t act like owners of their parish or of the mission of the Church.

Vatican II tried to fight this. The Council declared that “the Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 2). John Paul II expanded on it in Christifideles Laici, calling the laity to live out their “secular character”—their faith in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life.

The Church made itself clear: Christ’s command to make disciples includes lay people.

But something went wrong.

The response to Vatican II was active participation as para-clergy.

Lay people got involved—but not in the mission of the Church as lay people. They got involved as almost-priests. Doing priestly things. Altar servers expanded to include women. Extraordinary Eucharistic ministers became the norm. Parish and diocesan staffs ballooned.

We created a clerical class of lay people. An “official Catholic” class.

John Paul II actually warned about this. In Christifideles Laici, he identifies a temptation: “being so strongly interested in Church services and tasks that some fail to become actively engaged in their responsibilities in the professional, social, cultural and political world.”

And the consumer mentality Vatican II sought to stamp out never died. It just shifted. Now the consumers wait for the official Catholics to do something.

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When I was a youth minister, I saw this consumer mentality constantly.

I pay my registration fee to send my kid to religious education, so you form them into good people. I drop them off and I’m good. You’re providing a service.

Many treated the church like a McDonald’s or like a school. They wanted a product and would complain if it wasn’t up to their specific standard.

This caused the parish to stagnate.

And for years at my home parish, people complained: “Why isn’t there a young adult group? Why doesn’t the Church do something?”

I remember my mom talking to one of these parishioners asking: “Why don’t you start it?”

“That’s not my job,” was the response.

But really it’s all of our “jobs.” We are collectively responsible for the mission of our parish.

Eventually, years later, a young couple did start a young adult ministry. But they met resistance from people at the parish because they were not an “official” church ministry.

Over time they grew and saw incredible success. But clericalist pushback made that success take longer.

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I got pushback this weekend for suggesting people take ownership of their parish without properly acknowledging how challenging it can be.

So let me acknowledge it now.

The work of evangelization is hard. You will get pushback, sometimes even from your own parish.

And if that pushback is insurmountable or caring your family to suffer, don’t do it.

But someone has to do it. So why not you?

But Patrick! My parish is bad. I can’t do

Any Catholic can meet with other Catholics at their house to pray, learn, and grow in faith. With the Holy Spirit, that initiative can grow to something parish-wide.

You’re probably going to meet resistance. But plenty of saints who evangelized their towns, cities, and countries met pushback.

In this world you will find many troubles. But take heart. Christ has overcome the world.

We can’t confect the sacraments. We still need priests for the sacramental life of the Church. But the communal life of the Church—the catechesis, the evangelization, the things that go alongside the sacraments to help us understand them more deeply—we can do all those things.

Because it’s our mission, too.

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If you’re ready to do that work, I wrote Save Your Parish for you.

I wrote it for people who feel stuck in a region with crumbling churches. For people who feel sad that their parish is crumbling. For people who want to do something about it.

Things will only change if lay people take on that responsibility. Not as para-clergy. As owners.

The clericalism we didn’t kill was the consumer mentality. And only lay people—acting like lay people, not waiting for permission—can finally put it to rest.

Save Your Parish launches on February 2.

Get the first chapter here.