Emanuela De Nunzio, sfo The Papal Council for the Laity has dedicated its last Plenary Assembly, carried out from the 20 to the 23 September 2006, to parish renewal. The work of the Assembly was to inspire, according to the exhortation of the Holy Father Benedict XVI, “making the parish one inner homeland for people - a great family in which we truly experience the larger family of the universal Church, learning, by means of the liturgy, catechesis, and all the manifestations of parochial life, to walk together on the way of true life” (Homily during Vespers, Monaco, 10 September 2006). Concepts such as these resume those expressed in n. 26 of the Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, where it is asserted that in the parish is present and operating the mystery of the Church: “The parish is not mainly a structure, a territory, a building; the family is rather “God’s family, like a fraternity animated by the Spirit of unity', it is “a family home, fraternal and hospitable,” it is “the community of the faithful.” After all, the parish is founded on a theological truth, because it is an Eucharistic community.” From the reports of the experts, from the roundtables, and the participation in classroom discussions, perspectives and points for reflection of extreme interest for real life emerged, with renewed knowledge and style, concerning the “signs of the times,” the ecclesial communion. Every one of these aspects concerns directly the Franciscan laity and demands our reflection, personal and communitarian. And as stressed in all that, in order to rethink the parish and to try to find ways to renew it, superficial cosmetic or structural and institutional adjustments are not enough today. We must return to the original truth. It must originate again from the Christian identity. The Christian is the one who is incorporated to Christ in Baptism: from this is born the new creature, from this comes our right and duty. As a result of Baptism, every lay person has a duty (and also the right) to work - individually as well as in association - because the divine message of salvation must be known and received by all human beings, all over the world. Thus it becomes ever more pressing in those situations in which only through the mediation of the laity people can listen to the Gospel and come to know Jesus Christ. Situations of this sort have been multiplied to excess, even in societies of ancient Christian tradition. In the not so long ago past, the traditional belonging to the Church flowed very naturally from one generation to the next with the support of institutions that appeared solid and long-lasting: the family, the school, social customs, the rituals of popular piety…..In the last decades all this has been nearly annulled and we are more and more the people who have never had a way to find the truths of the faith. How many children are not baptized because the parents think that this is one choice that they will have to make independently when they become an adult? How many boys are there who, after the first Communion, you do not see any more because the parents do not make it to church, and nobody has shown them the joy and the strength of intimate union with Jesus? How many adults are there contaminated by the dominant culture permeated by secularism, relativism and consumerism? For all these categories of persons, of every age, the encounter with the truth of the faith will happen only in the environments of daily life: in neighborhoods and in friendships, those of work and social relations, those of sport and leisure, those of community engagement and solidarity. And it is in these environments that the irreplaceable role of the lay Christian who has heard the appeal of the Apostle: “Woe is me if I don’t evangelize!” is found, trying to give glory to God, day by day, with the testimony of their own faith (cfr. Reg. SFO, n. 6). The good news cannot be but a first step, because we must always be considered single instruments of the Church and to her we must lead back as many as have shown attention and interest in our testimony. To lead back to the Church means to return to the parish, which is the vital cell and the natural place for the participation of the faithful in the universal Church. And here another engagement of the lay Christian is found: to collaborate so that the parish is not only a “service station” for the administration of the sacraments or even an “agency” for the distribution of social services. To transform therefore the parishes in places of religious listening, of acceptance, of preaching of the word of God and of encounter with the Person of Christ, to make them alive and vital communities able to engage in the catechesis of all its members, is a straightforward unavoidable right and must for every lay involved, but it is even more for the associations, movements and groups operating in the parish. All forms of participation of the laity in the parochial life have been dedicated much space in the reports and the arguments of the Assembly. But there is also no lack of problems that have been pointed out with much boldness. First of all: the resistance of many parish priests to recognize and to value the role of the laity, from whom many services are requested without going from collaboration to cooperation. These two terms are not synonymous but each one has its own clear definition: collaboration expresses the supplementing tasks of the clergy by the laity; cooperation is the organic responsibility shared between the clergy and the laity, expressing as its consequence equal dignity. Also considering that the supplementing can sometimes become necessary, the participants have expressed forcefully their worry about a tendency to the clericalization of the laity, while they insist with as much force on the requirement of cooperation, in which you respect the roles that remain defined and distinct. Another problem: the position of the associations and the movements in the parish. In the past it was found, in the hierarchy, a sure diffidence and worry about the presence and activities of such associations in the parish. Presently this climate of incomprehension and nearly tension is surpassed so much so that the parish is now introduced as a “community of communities.” This comes partly from the concept that the parish is not an entity constituted from single isolated individuals, but from the sum and the encounter of other micro-entities, coming from families. The parish, therefore, must give space to all the gifts of the giving Spirit and appreciate the enrichment from the aggregated entities present, placing itself for them not as a mere “container” but like “sign and instrument of communion.” Naturally, it is fundamental that between several groups there be effective communion and not competition or, worse still, rivalry! Before I conclude, it seems opportune a call back to the norms, based on these themes, contained in our General Constitutions. Here we find an explicit invitation to collaboration not only of one single secular Franciscan but of the Fraternity, in the animation of the parochial community, the liturgy, and the fraternal relations (art. 102.1), even cooperation with other working ecclesial groups (art.103.1). These dispositions seem particularly meaningful to me, and put into effect, taking into account that Secular Franciscans always have the tendency to be active in their parishes, above all individually, thus losing the sense of belonging to their own Fraternity and, meanwhile, with an impoverishment of the contribution that the SFO can offer to the same parish. I believe that, as in the introduction, as well as the conclusion of this article, we must keep in mind the words of the Holy Father. In the audience granted to the participants of the Assembly he spoke to us: “Inspired by the apostolic model, as it appears in the Acts of the Apostles, the parish finds itself again in its encounter with Christ, especially in the Eucharist. Nourished by the Eucharistic bread, it grows in the catholic communion; it walks in full fidelity to the Magisterium, and is always careful to receive and to discern the various charismas that the Lord raises up in the People of God”.
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