The modern emergence or re-emergence of co-responsibility in mission finds its roots in Pope Leo XIII at the end of the nineteenth century and in the teachings of popes in the first part of the twentieth century, particularly Pope Pius XI. They spoke of “Catholic Action,” the movement of the laity to help the bishops and priests to carry on the mission, writes Chicago priest, Fr Louis Cameli in the text of his May 2024 ACI webinar talk.
By the time of the Second Vatican Council, there was an important shift. If you read (and I highly recommend this) chapter four of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) on the laity, you begin to see that those who are “in the world” on their own have the right and the mandate to carry the mission forward.
All along the way, the implied question that continues to haunt us even today is: who really has ownership for the mission?
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If we take co-responsibility for the mission today, we must build, of course, on the enduring mission of Jesus Christ. At the same time, each generation will carry on that mission in a time- and context-specific way. Co-responsibility in the mission means identifying what shape the perennial mission of Jesus Christ takes in our circumstances. But how exactly do we arrive at that identification?
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In the late 70s and through most of the 80s, I met and helped a Christian Family Movement group of about a dozen couples in one of our Chicago suburbs, a rather affluent suburb. We met regularly, prayed, talked, listened, and tried as best we could to move forward. In a general way, we followed the method of “observe, judge, and act.” The group did not depend on me as the priest to tell them what to do. I served as a resource, a kind of reminder, as I mentioned earlier. On occasion, I directed them to relevant Scripture or Church teaching. But the process was in their hands. And the material of their dialogues or conversations was their experience in the world and a clearer determination of how they could shape their Christian commitment in life as they found it.
Across the years, obviously, we spoke of many things. I would like to point out four challenges as examples of the participants taking hold of their responsibility in extending the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.
First, the participants were relatively affluent as successful business people and professionals. They were clearly conscious of their “privileged” positions in society. But faith prompted them not simply to stay content and parked in those positions. Dialogue followed about how to share and achieve a better distribution of material goods. Their connection with a poor parish in Chicago’s inner city kept them grounded in this mission.
A second example. The participants in this CFM group were politically aware and many of them active in politics. They were both Republicans and Democrats—and this was a time when people of different parties actually spoke with each other! Obviously, they had different takes on policy directions, but they had a common faith and set of values. They struggled and tried to discern how to link what they believed as followers of Jesus Christ and how that faith might inform particular decisions.
A third example. The suburb where they lived had a significant Jewish population. They discovered and were troubled by a strong current of anti-Semitism in their community. They spent time observing what was happening, determining in light of the Gospel what they could do, and tried to do it. Observe, judge, act.
A fourth and final example. Many of the participants were business people who were responsible for significant numbers of workers. In the light of faith, they tried to determine not only what it meant to be a good manager but what it meant to be a good leader, who led people with compassion and justice, especially in an environment that often framed labor and management in adversarial terms—which are wholly unacceptable in the context of the Gospel.
I hope these examples offer some specificity and concreteness to this notion of co-responsibility in mission. This is a sacred task that links our sharing in the mystery of Jesus Christ with the stuff of everyday life. It is crucial.
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Fr Louis Cameli, Rediscovering the Historical Roots of Synodality and Co-Responsibility (Church Life Journal)
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