How we saw it.

The Chicago Declaration and I arrived at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) at almost the same moment: the autumn of 1977. I came as the director of the newly established Secretariat for the Laity. The Declaration was one of my first pieces of official mail, a kind of alarm that lay people were in danger of losing their way. The danger was thought to be the rise of lay ministry, a new phenomenon in Catholic life.

Generally speaking, the bishops on the laity committee looked upon the new lay roles as the work of the Spirit; still, they wanted to study and ponder the new movement. The Declaration's caution that the growing emphasis on lay ministry was a distraction from the laity's transformative role in the affairs of society was kept in view as informal research proceeded.

For fifteen years now I have been probing the relationship between lay ecclesial ministry (volunteer and professional) and the "worldly vocation" of the laity. The consultative process in the United States that preceded the 1987 Synod on the Laity heightened a portrait of the laity that had been sketched through anecdotal evidence over the years: one of lay people receiving a Christian formation through the medium of ministry. As men and women engage in liturgical ministries, social action work, and catechetical service, they often become more thoroughly grounded in Scripture, sacramental life, church history, and service to the poor. As a result they become more sensitized to society's ills and more attentive to human need. It is well to bear in mind that these laity are not withdrawn from the world. They still care for homes and families, manage budgets, attend PTA meetings, and try to meet civic and social responsibilities.

Several recent projects suggest a relationship linking lay ministry with formation for Christian life in the world (see Dean Hoge's work on lay leadership, the Notre Dame Study of Parish Life, and the recent study by Philip Mum ion of New Parish Ministers). Personally, I would welcome more research into precisely this question. For, when asked what I consider the most pressing challenge for Catholic laity (as the editor of Commonweal has done) one stands out. With a worldwide multicultural revolution underway there is a critical need for an informed and formed laity who can bring the mind and heart of Christ to concrete situations.

As a global society we are undergoing massive change with migrations of whole populations to new places. Not since the break-up of the

Roman Empire have so many people been on the move. In Europe, Islam is now a powerful presence and Catholic laity must establish new relationships with Muslims sharing schools, social services, public facilities, and neighborhoods. In the United States our new neighbors are increasingly Hispanic, Asian, and Caribbean. The challenge goes beyond our efforts to create multicultural church agendas, which we regularly do at the NCCB. It even goes beyond our children marrying people of other races and ethnic/cultural backgrounds, which is happening with increased frequency. Those situations are softened by a shared economic and educational ethos: university degrees and middle-class values. Love helps, too.

But the more critical challenge, I submit, lies in the area of collaboration across socio-economic lines on behalf of development and justice for all: the old fashioned common good. As huge numbers of "different others" move into our neighborhoods, fill our schools, and flood the lower end of the job market, there often is a resistance to shifting resources to meet the needs of the newly arrived. Will parents remove their children from schools where ESL (English as a Second Language) is prominent? Will taxpayers refuse new initiatives? Will parishioners support a multicultural pattern of liturgies and parish services? There are other questions. Who will care about the deepening fissures in our society? Not only between people of different races and religions, but between those who have jobs and those who do not; and between those who have homes and those who do not?

How these questions are answered-not only in words but in actions-depends to a large degree on the formation of lay Christians. Formation enables us to apply Christian principles, theology, and spirituality to the concrete events of daily life. This formation has three components, in my view.

The first is that of Scripture study wherein one discovers that biblical justice has a different texture, a different emphasis than English (and American) common law. Biblical justice focuses on the poor and calls for priority on their behalf. Exposure to that notion of justice can be lifechanging.

The second component is that of Catholic social doctrine that can help situate the new questions of our time in the great stream of teaching from Rerum novarum to Centisimus annus. How else will we come to understand that the question for Christians is not am I better off than last year? But are we, society, better off?

The third component is that of deepened prayer. This may be the most crucial for several reasons. Clearly one's own capacity for change and for the reception of others is enlarged, as we stand humbly before God. (To pray is to come near to God, and to come near to God is to change, says Evelyn Underhill.) There is another reason, too. As we seek to find common ground with other believers who increasingly may not be Christian, our credibility as professing Christians is at stake.

At its best lay ministry opens one to Scripture, to doctrine (including social doctrine), and to the depths of prayer. Obviously it is not the only door to formation. Lay movements like the Focolare, the Cursillo, the Christian Family Movement are all rooted in Scripture, church teaching, and the life of prayer. They all take seriously the Christian imperative to be reconcilers and bearers of justice, truth, and peace. But the need for an intelligent, gospel-inspired response to the multicultural challenges of our time demands varied opportunities for formation. Lay ministry appears to offer men and women in parishes and on campuses ready access to these formative ways. As such it deserves encouragement and support.

What we have associated with the laity's vocation to be a leaven in the world of family commitment, the workplace, political and civic responsibilities, the works of charity and justice, coalesces around today's multicultural revolution. Ten years from now, when the Chicago Declaration celebrates its silver jubilee, the need for an intelligent response will be even greater. Hopefully the presence of lay ministry in our church with all its attendant preparation will help lay Catholics to look to the mind and heart of Christ as they strive to be in dialogue with very different others. Perhaps like Benedict in the fifth century--whose vision and mission grew out of a similar cultural challenge the laity may find ways and means to form new kinds of community, ones that offer hope to strangers and sojourners alike.

Dolores Leckey is executive director of the Secretariat for Laity and Family Life.