Sin seeks more active role of laity in evangelization work

Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin urged the laity yesterday to be intelligent and well-instructed in making the Roman Catholic Church in the country a powerful organization aimed at evangelizing and converting the people.

"What I desire in Catholics is the gift of bringing out what their faith is. You must not hide your talent in a napkin, or your light under a bushel. I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but persons who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, and who know what they hold," said Sin in a homily during a Mass at the opening of the three-day National Congress on the Laity at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Sin urged the thousands of laity participants to enlarge their knowledge, to cultivate their reasons, to learn to view things as they are, and to understand how faith and reason stand to each other.

The congress was also attended by members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the Council of the Laity in the Philippines (Laiko), nuns, priests and other Catholic Church representatives.

"In all times the laity has been the measure of the Catholic spirit," Sin said.

Sin’s advice, the Cardinal said, is not his originally, but from another prelate John Henry Cardinal Newman, who wrote the advice and challenge more than 150 years ago.

Viewing Newman’s advice told more than a century ago, Sin said "we need lay people who are cognizant of their identity and responsive to their mission."

"We need a dynamic collaboration between the clergy and laity. After all, we are the Church," Sin stressed.

He cited in his homily that the first mission of the Catholic Church is to evangelize.

"Every dimension of the Church’s life and ministry, whether directly or indirectly, must have evangelization as its goal," Sin said.

He said that once this is done, everything else is secondary.

"Unless our efforts, at every level, especially in the parish, are consciously aimed at conversion, both inward and outward, through the power of the message entrusted to us, we will just achieve minimal and fleeting growth," Sin added.

Sin said that their second national pastoral priority, is the "empowerment of the laity towards social transformation."

"They must be empowered to engage in greater dialogue and discernment with the clergy and religious. We must help them fulfill their role as co-responsible agents of renewal in society," Sin said.

Sin told the participants that they are all agents of evangelization.

"It is not an option or choice. It is a duty and obligation we have to assume," he told them.

In the end, Sin prayed that they would entrust this congress "under heavenly intercession." — Sandy Araneta