Redundant laity body hits back

by Jonathan Petre
THE reorganised Bishops' Conference of England and Wales will be sexist, elitist and out of touch with the laity, If the bishops do not recognise the flaws in their proposals, the Laity Commission said this week.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Commission — meeting for the last time before II is dissolved at the end of the year — said that there was a contradiction In the thinking behind the new structures.
The reorganised Conference — clue to come into operation on January I next year — will replace the present set-up of Commissions with a series of Departments and Committees under the close control of the bishops.
But the Laity Commission expressed its worry that what R called a "fundamental problem" would vitiate the work of the Conference.
"In the Laity Commission's view, the structures will only work and bear fruit If they arise naturally from a firm commitment to shared responsibility — bishops, priests, and laity — for the mission of the Church."
"Yet, by Its apparent determination to restrict its discussion to the role of the bishops, and further to the role of the bishops within their conference, the Review (the bishops' final report on the reorganisation) seems to ignore, and by implication even to deny, the necessity for this C ommitment."
The statement says that the Laity Commission was not reassured about the bishops' attitude to the role of the laity when R saw the way the National Pastoral Congress of 1980 is treated in the Review.
"II makes much of the Congress yet never quotes from the actual proceedings; what was said and resolved by those attending. Instead, all its quotations are from "The Easter People", not the Congress itself, hut the bishops' own response to, and interpretation of it."
The Commission also had strong words for the bishops on the proposed membership of the new Committees of the Conference. The new structure will consist of six groups of Committees, each headed by a bishop. In addition, each individual Committee will be chaired by a bishop.
The statement said that the Lally Commission is suspicious about the so-called "experts" who will make up the membership of the Committees. "No mention is made of the essential and fundamental expertise of the laity which lies in their capacity for critical reflection on contemporary events."