Concerned Lay Catholics
A Voice for Lay Catholics in Canada
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into Christ- Eph. 4:15
Enabling Lay Leadership
Concerned Lay Catholics advocates for shared leadership in the church through:
Provide opportunities for the education and spiritual development of the laity
Support for lay people by lay people in their leadership development
Provide a vehicle for lay people to have their voices heard.
According to Vatican II, the Church is the whole people of God. Lay people with their diverse knowledge and experience, have a right and a responsibility to contribute to our shared understanding of what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
[The laity] are, by reason of the knowledge, competence or outstanding ability which they may enjoy, permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church." "Lumen Gentium: The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" , Second Vatican Council.
Michael W. Higgins believes “To reclaim trust, to build a new confidence in the integrity of the church’s leaders-from local pastors to bishops- channels of communication are essential with theologically literate lay people…” [“The Curse of Clericalism: The Catholic Church must act to address the sins of the past.” Globe and Mail, February 22, 2021]
There is no more important goal of CLC than the education, engagement and empowerment of Catholic laity in order to heal our church. Without an educated, engaged, and empowered laity, the church will continue to be impeded in its work of advancing its mission in the world.
Concerned Lay Catholics began its work in the fall of 2018. We conducted a number of parish conversations with lay people in our diocese of Hamilton, Canada. The purpose of the conversations was three-fold:
To provide a pastoral response to the pain that people in the pews were feeling due to the ongoing reports of clergy sexual abuse.
To share information – as much as was available- about what the church is and is not doing to deal with it.
To encourage lay leadership in the parishes around this and other issues of concern to lay Catholics.
We prepared a report for our Bishop on what we learned and also provided recommendations we felt would further the work of healing, reconciliation and transformation that the Canadian Bishops are calling for. Here is our report [Link to Report]
CLC is committed to sharing its resources with other lay Catholics; to supporting lay Catholics to find their voice; and to providing lay Catholics with tools to enable them to organize in their own parishes and dioceses. On this site you will find dozens of articles, books, interviews, spiritual resources and videos that CLC have found helpful in our journey together. They are many and they come from many sources. You do not have to agree with all of them- we don’t! But in order to be truly engaged in the life of the Church, lay people need to get into the conversation. We hope these resources will help you do that. [Link to Publications and Educational Resources]
In addition, Concerned Lay Catholics has begun to create our own tools and resources for parish conversations and prayer services. [Link to Parish Tool Kit and Spiritual Resources] We encourage you to use and adapt anything here to your situation.
We plan to continue to share tools and resources as we develop them for different settings. We are also grateful to receive any suggestions or recommendations you would like to share. Please send suggestions through our contact page. [Link to Add Your Voice]