Lay people play important role in the synod

Although it is, by definition, a gathering of the Episcopate, several lay people are actively involved in the XIII General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Most of these are participating as Experts and Auditors. Experts assist the Bishops with some of the technical details of their deliberations, while Auditors have a chance to address the Assembly and share insights in the Small Groups.

“I think it’s natural that bishops spend proportionally more time talking about…the training of priests, the training of catechists, because bishops are, among other things, professionals, and these are the people they work with on a professional basis,” said Ed Peters, JCD, a lay canonist serving as an Expert at the Synod.

Peters told Vatican Radio he thinks the Bishops are still aware of the problems facing the laity, and the role they have to play in the New Evangelization.

“More than one bishop [at the Synod] has called for more attention to the role of men in family life and society, …[but] if they don’t spend quite as much time talking about it, let’s say, as they do about priestly formation, we don’t take it personally.”

Patricia Ngozi Nwachukwu, President of the Ladies of St. Mulumba in Nigeria, is an Auditor at the Synod. She told Vatican Radio she has one message for the Bishops.

“Women are indispensible in the Church,” she said. “They should be used in reaching out for charity work, for sharing love, for doing a lot of these works we know that we need people to penetrate... women have a lot in them to be harnessed. They are talented. They are creative. They are out-going.”

The laity is also at the heart of the apostolates which embody the New Evangelization.

Another Auditor, Marylee Meeham, is the past president of the International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medico-Social Assistants (CICIAMS). Her organization brings together nurses in a space where they can talk openly about their faith.

“It is very difficult to be a Catholic nurse in some of the health care places right now, and the most important thing is that they don’t feel as if they are alone,” Meeham said. “They know that there are others out there that are hurting the same way, not being able to evangelize how they feel about the Church and their Faith. Therefore, they have greater strength.”

The Ladies of St. Mulumba are involved in a number of apostolates in Nigeria, including helping the poor, assisting in the re-integration into society of victims of human trafficking, and prison ministry.

“I know my Ladies in Nigeria are going for the prison apostolate [on Saturday],” said Nwachukwu.

“They have gone with materials and with Sacramentals, and you’d be surprised that at the end of their visitation today there will be a lot of converts back to the Catholic [faith], and even new converts who were not Catholics before, even [non-Christians], because we always given them succour spiritually and materially,” she continued. “The spiritual is more important…and we have been making a good inroad into the spiritual life of the people.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Ed Peters, JCD:

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Patricia Ngozi Nwachukwu:

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Marylee Meeham: