Fellow Architects of the Archdiocese of Atlanta:

We are remodeling a house, a residence worthy of God and His people. And we open this first Lay Congress on a religious note - not one of good management or the Catholic image, of efficiency or sales promotions. As humbly as we can put it, the theme of this assembly is: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.” Have the hours you spent been in vain? Have the surveys and meetings and studies been carried out with human futility? You know better. In other years, we have worked together on a census, a week of worship, steps in ecumenism, an expansion program, new parishes, churches, and schools, racial justice and community service. And in none of them (successful though they have been) has there been such vital concern that we not build in vain as in the preparation for this Congress. The discussions and the finished drafts show how good our workmanship can be when the Master-design is that of God, our chief architect.

The house itself is the Catholic Church of the 20th century. It will have Pope John’s open doors and open windows allowing lots of fresh light and invigorating air. So our proceedings must be open too. That is why this is a Congress of the Laity. The ideas, the agenda, the proposals are yours. Every parish is represented by delegates and alternatives elected by the same 50,000 Catholics of the archdiocese. Every subject of Catholic interest was eligible, in the drafts of the preparatory committees, the suggestions made through the Georgia Bulletin, the other matters that arose out of the parish meetings. It is an open Church today, and this had to be an open Congress. It is of God’s people, by God’s people, for God’s people.

Three weeks ago, the sisters of the archdiocese held a similar Congress, and produced a remarkable set of recommendations. With those you approve tomorrow and Sunday, they become the living matter of the first Archdiocesan Synod in November. The archdiocese needs these two assemblies where like can speak to like, where common interests and mutual experience lie open to free discussion and free action. Two priests were assigned, not to manage or direct; they were liaison men to provide easy access to the ecclesiastical leaders, the records and policies now in use. The bishops and priests are here tonight not to moderate, but to listen and learn.

After the Congress, laymen will be invited to meet with priests’ committees for the Synod, elected auditors will attend it, and all three groups will make up an Appraisal Committee to plan for the future. The laity will be full partners with the sisters and priests in this year of reorganization.

It was arranged that way because Vatican II calls for it, and the tradition of the laity in North Georgia more than justifies it. You have been reading of the new unfolding of Church life outlined in the Constitutions on the Church and the Liturgy, the decrees on the laity, priests and bishop. Local history gives us a clue to the layman’s part. Over a century ago, this region felt the strong, optimistic force of one of our greatest American bishops, John England of Charleston (NC, SC, all of GA). From 1822 to 1842, the diocese was administered by bishop, priests and laymen. Like our own Lay Congress, England’s annual convention brought together elected delegates under the presidency of the bishop. Like our own, each parish had its own board of elected laymen. England referred to the Convention as “a body of sage, prudent and religious counselors to aid the proper ecclesiastical government of the Church by their duties and exertions.”

Then, early this century, Georgia experienced another golden age of the laity. To combat anti-Catholic bigotry with intelligence, vigor and courtesy, Catholic men with the support of Bishop Kieley, formed the Georgia Laymen’s Association. They founded the Georgia Bulletin. For 20 years, they brought light and dignity to the Catholic cause.

With this background, and my own experience with the men and women of the archdiocese, I convoke this Congress with confidence and high hopes. I do not believe that prudence means fearful hesitation, nor that excessive caution and timidity are the hallmarks of a living faith. If we are afraid to venture out and take risks, we deprive our times of martyrs and scholars, and even ordinary saints.

The times, despite confusion and cruelty, breathe a new hope. To realize that hope, we must inventory ourselves, our parishes, our archdiocese. The Council has made the Church take down that time-honored slogan, “Business As Usual.” And yet it would be false to replace it with another sign, “Under New Management.” It is not under new management, nor should it be. Today rather, each one’s role is enlarged. The Holy Father travels on global missions that Leo XIII never thought of. Bishops look beyond their dioceses; priests beyond their parishes. The laity has a new role too (whether emerging, emergent, embalmed or just liturgically unemployed). To share in the rights of Christian freemen and their duties too. To take part in both decision making and service giving. To be partners with bishops and priests in the building of God’s house. None of us stands alone with his tools in his hands. A laity without a priest, a priest without laity, is as odd as a door without a knob, or worse, a knob without a door.

In this mutual work of building up, we have much to learn. On our side, clergy conferences and retreats are being used as starting points. And you too must learn: A basic understanding of the structure within which Church moves and lives; theology, history, canon and civil law that affect the Church; a deeper grasp of lay responsibility which comes only with patience, training, continuity and a balance priority of interests (home, neighborhood, job, community, social life).

The aftermath of the Lay Congress must help laymen to understand the structure of the Church today, the component parts of that wide responsibility. In this archdiocese we are blessed in three particulars: a body of priests whose reading and thinking are matched by their zeal; the workshops at Ignatius House, and the plans for lectures by men like Dean Cannon and Dr. Albert Outler, theologians and Protestant observers at Vatican II; the scripture scholar Barnabas Ahearn; the moralist Bernard Haring; the lay scholar Daniel Callahan, and in January, the mighty Cardinal Suenens.

There is much work to do, ideas to be thought out. But with God all things are possible, even with out tiny efforts. If we are to build the archdiocese in earnest, not in vain, God must draw the plans and His Spirit must permeate the construction.

Officers, delegates, alternates, committees, you are with the priests and sisters, my fellow architects. I ask that you pledge with me, not only your time, talents and energies, but most of all your greatest gift - yourselves.