(May 25, 2011) India’s national Catholic lay network is planning to hold a first
ever synod or national meeting of lay Catholics in early 2012. “The Second Vatican
Council called for the empowerment of the laity. But after 50 years, there is not
much to show,” said Remy Denis, president of the All India Catholic Union -AICU. He
said that lay empowerment in the Catholic church has been so far only minimal, such
as the ability of lay people to distribute Holy Communion in the absence of a priest.
An active role for the laity in the management of the “financial and temporal affairs”
of the church, as recommended in the worldwide church’s canon law changes of 1983,
have been ignored, he added. “With the synod, we want to gather the aspirations
of the entire laity and put it before the church, so that we can play a responsible
role in the life and growth of the church,” said Denis. The lay synod was proposed
at a conference in early May that was attended by senior lay leaders of AICU, which
is recognized by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India - CBCI, and has units in
a majority of the 166 Catholic dioceses. CBCI spokesperson Fr. Babu Joseph said, “the
laity is an organic part of the church and has rights and responsibility in the church.
Any initiative that strengthens the growth of the church is most welcome.” According
to Catholic church figures, two thirds of the 28 million Christians in India are Catholics.