By Baptism The Laity Are Members of the Priesthood

Not too many years ago very few Catholics spoke about the priesthood of the laity. The concept simply was not known outside theological circles and is still not very widespread today. The Second Vatican Council has helped to spread the idea of the priesthood of all believers and the idea is now being more fully incorporated into Catholic ecclesiology. The laity are finally being recognized as full members of the Church.

John Henry Newman

The movement towards developing a theology of the laity has been gaining strength in the Catholic Church for many years. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when a serious look at this theology began. For brevity’s sake and also to remain within the scope of this paper we will begin with John Henry Newman (1801-1890) who, in May 1859, wrote an editorial in The Rambler in which he said: ‘

We do unfeignedly believe that their Lordships really desire to know the opinion of the laity on subjects in which the laity are especially concerned.

If even in the preparation of a dogmatic definition the faithful are consulted, as lately in the instance of the Immaculate Conception, it is at least as natural to anticipate such an act of kind feeling and sympathy in great questions.

The furor raised by Newman’s use of the word “consult” prompted him to clarify his ideas in a long article in the July 1859 issue of The Rambler. The article is his well-known “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.”

The Basis for the Priesthood of the Laity

The trend may have begun with Newman but it did not end there. Many recent popes, especially Pius XI and Pius XII, have spoken of the theology of the laity within the framework of Catholic Action. By recognizing the laity as active members of the Church, the popes were opening up the whole question of the role of the laity.

The laity were no longer seen as unnecessary parts but as essential elements of the Church. Vatican II confirmed the efforts of these earlier writers and popes by issuing its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity and by including a special chapter on the laity, Chapter 4, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

Despite the fact that a theology of the laity has only recently been rediscovered, the foundations for it are found in Scripture. Already in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel is designated as the Laos, the people, and especially the people of God as distinct from the gentiles. Thus for the early Christians, the word ‘Laos’ had the meaning of a people dedicated to God.

The author of the first letter of Peter took over from the Old Testament this meaning of a people set apart and dedicated to God and applied it to the Christian community. In that letter, we read:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous ligh (1 Peter 2:9).

The Christian people are called priests; they are called to make all things holy.

The Fathers of the Church

The Fathers of the Church also were not silent about the teaching of a priesthood of the laity. They expressly taught a general priesthood of all Christians as a people set apart by God. In the East Justin Martyr concludes that Christians are a priestly race from the fact that they have an active part in the Church’s public worship. Both Clement and Origen teach that Christians are a chosen people, chosen to proclaim Christ. These people are also people consecrated to God.

In the West, Tertullian was the earliest to write on the priesthood of the laity. He wrote that all Christians are true priests through their baptismal anointing. their priesthood is connected with prayer and living a virtuous Christian life; they exercise their priesthood through Christ the priest. It was Augustine, however, who developed the relationship between the priesthood of the faithful and the priesthood of Christ. For him, there is but one priesthood-the priesthood of Christ. This priesthood extends to the whole being of Christ and only because Christians are members of Christ do they share in this priesthood.

Within the context of the priesthood of the faithful, we find the distinction being made fairly early between the general priesthood of all believers (the laity) and the priesthood of orders (clerics). St. Clement of Rome (circa 95) in a letter to the Corinthians was the first to distinguish between priests and laity. But the distinction was not common and was not generally accepted before the end of the second century. At that time we have explicit testimony to the ministerial priesthood. Once the distinction was accepted in the early Church it was expanded and developed so that today no Catholic theologian would deny that there is a difference of functions within the Church of Christ.

The Distinction Between Clerics and Laypeople

Father Schillebeeckx states that the distinction between clerics and laypeople in the Church

originates in the will of Christ himself and is not subject to change. This distinction is of the essence of the Church. Catholic theologians would all agree that “the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood does not come from below, from the community, but from above, from Christ as the Church’s Lord who has authority over her.

Father Gerard Philips also lays down as a principle that “hierarchical functions are a gift of the Saviour to His Church. The leaders do not assume command on their own; rather Christ raises them up.”

From the above statements, it can be seen that there has been a. change in the meaning of the terminology used. The laity are no longer the whole people consecrated to God but those who are not clerics, those who do not have the special powers of orders. For clarity’s sake, I will be using the priesthood of the laity in contrast to the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood. When I wish to refer to the priesthood of the whole people consecrated to God I will use the phrase ‘the priesthood of the faithful.’