By Rita McInerney

More nurturing of lay spirituality, utilization of talents, education, lay-clergy collaboration, and a strong desire that their recommendations be acted upon were among the desires of Catholics voiced at the consultation held March 13-15 in San Antonio, Texas, in preparation for the world Synod of Bishops on the Laity in October.

The four delegates attending from the archdiocese of Atlanta returned home with feelings of hope and affirmation and new awareness of the needs of minorities, including the role of women in the church.

A high point of the three-day session, one of four held around the country in preparation for the synod, was a presentation by Father Bob Kinast, a priest of the archdiocese who is serving as a consultant to the bishops' Committee on the Laity. He synthesized the 15,000 replies of lay people to a survey distributed in dioceses across the country. His one-hour presentation was described by one local delegate as "brilliantly done."

The delegates, Mary Ann Fischer, adult education and RCIA director art St. Ann's Church, Marietta; Jack Jansen, head of the finance committee at St. Pius X Church, Conyers; Bob Schellman, governor of Serra's 18^th District, of Holy Family, Marietta, and Anita Willoughby, pastoral associate at St. Jude's, Sandy Springs, had reviewed survey forms filled out by Catholics in the archdiocese.

These surveys had been returned to the office of Father Peter Ludden, chancellor, after being discussed in some parishes. Delegates divided the 91 responses, aiming for a cross-section of city, suburban and rural opinions.

Mrs. Fischer said of the surveys they studied the common cry focused on the caring, feeding and nourishing of lay spirituality. This conformed with the replies in the 30 surveys returned at her parish.

At the San Antonio consultation the 104 delegates were equally divided into small groups, each of which selected a topic for reflection and discussion. Mrs. Fisher's group chose lay spirituality.

"What I saw was people working through that need for ongoing spiritual nourishment that prepares you to go out into the marketplace. Working in the world, being fed, having something to give back -- one feeds on the other. There was a sense of taking up the call, affirmation was a word often used." Her own reflection, from her vantage point at St. Ann's, was that "we exist in that climate of ongoing affirmation and you do your work empowered with that. That was not the experience of many people there. There was some pain in my group, struggles on both the diocesan and parish level."

Mrs. Fischer said she picked up a "real sense of the assent to disassociate the women's issue from the ordination issue" and to work instead on significant rules for women ion the church. "We're not sending the bishops to Rome with red flares. On the question of ordination the majority said yes, but there wasn't the sense it had to be today. The issue was looked at with very realistic eyes."

Jack Jansen found a desire on the part of the laity to utilize talents, to be involved, in the surveys from archdiocesan Catholics that he read. The need for spiritual direction he views is a ministry that, with proper training, could involve the laity. There is a sense among some, he said, of frustration, that their attempts to fully utilize their talents meet with resistance on the part of some clergy. "They want to serve, they feel the need very strongly, of wanting to use their talents in a competent manner rather than on a catch-can basis," he said.

Jansen said in his San Antonio group five people were either directly or indirectly tied into diocesan work. These delegates, he said, felt the economic pastoral should apply to them, to erase their feeling of being second-class citizens.

He repeated a comment made within the group: "There is no lack of vocations to ministry, only a lack of vision." Within the church, he said, there are fantastic talents and abilities but vision is needed to bring these to the front. Caring people who want to serve are basically asking the hierarchy to give them the opportunity.

He came back from San Antonio with the feeling that the "hierarchy needs to give us evidence of their caring and support. I feel the synod will help the hierarchy be more open and ready to accept the baptismal consciousness of the laity to be active.

It's going to gain more momentum. The ability of the priests and pastors to embrace this will hopefully be the outcome of the synod."

Jansen was a member of the group reporting on human sexuality which mentioned some positive scriptural images of male-female relationships and, among dissatisfactions, the use of Scripture to perpetuate female dependency roles.

"In my group," Bob Schellman said, "there was concern that minorities be included in the roles of the laity. There was not so much concern about liturgical roles and the roles of the ordained ministry as I had expected, but more concern that the roles now being handled by the laity be improved in the relationship with the clergy. Being informed, planning -- the almost exclusive province of the pastors -- must be shared, with the laity having responsibilities."

"For the bishops and the clergy there must be a learning process, listening and learning from the laity. One of the major concerns voiced by the delegates was that the bishops would do something, not just listen," he said. "It's not just words, it's action we want," was the call at the end of the consultation.

Bishop Stanley J. Ott, of Baton Rouge, LA, head of the Committee on the Laity of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he would do all he could to make their views known at the synod, Schellman reported. He added that Bishop Ott reminded them that the four American bishops elected to attend the synod will be just one voice and their views would have to be synthesized with all other nationals seeking to be heard. "It reminded us of the universality of our church, the grounds from which our pope speaks. It cannot be parochial and has to be multi-national."

Schellman said the bishop, in response to a delegate's question, said the American bishops would definitely make an effort to issue post-synod documents applying the results of the consultations to the church in the U.S.

In his San Antonio group, Schellman learned of the concern of two black Catholics that he black influence in the church is not being allowed to express itself fully, and felt the pain of the young black man who is now a member of the parish council of the "white" church that was barred to him in his youth. He told the others in his group that is was "unbelievable for me to be here."

Schellman left San Antonio reassured the church is doing the best it can under the circumstances. "The word is patience, those of us who have concern must keep our thoughts and work in unison and be very patient."

Mrs. Willoughby said she heard a lot of men and women supporting equality for women in the church. A lot of the women present were professional employees of the church, and some expressed pain and frustration at discrimination, low wages or lack of security in some dioceses.

Her group discussed youth as a topic and saw as some of the good things happening the elements of service and prayer included in catechetical programs, the numbers of well-meaning adults willing to work with the youth, and the examples that youth often set for adults. The group listed among dissatisfactions a concern about sexuality and the need to deal with that subject, the need to listen more to youth and to use their experiences in developing programs on issues and problems they face, the need for specific ministries to abused youth and those using drugs, and the lack of year-long programs.

The consultation for her was "an example of what is needed in the church as far as lay-clergy collaboration, listening and dialoguing, the sharing of dreams and hopes." It reinforced her belief that there is an "awareness on the part of the laity that we are empowered and there are many things we can do to actively live and share the Gospel. There is a sense of awareness that through baptism we share ministry and can make a difference. Some of those who seemed frustrated about the outcome were those not too actively involved. Yet both share in the mission of the church to the world -- we have different gifts."

In a telephone interview with The Georgia Bulletin, Father Kinast expressed some conclusions he had reached after looking at the surveys and listening to delegates at the consultations. (San Antonio was one of four held across the country.)

"I think people that we have been hearing from would like to do more, make decisions, shape the life of the church." And the feeling by lay people of resistance from the clergy to lay leadership is pretty widespread, he said, many feeling the service they would like to offer would be blocked or stymied.

Openness, confidence, understanding and trust are needed to promote better collaboration, he said. There is some anger, lots of frustration, from people active already in areas where they feel bogged down. Some clergy seem unwilling and unable to share the ministry, he said, or do not know how to delegate authority. "We should all be working together," he said.

There is also among the delegates, he has found, a sensitivity to the needs of overworked priests and a frustration with other lay people who don't want to get involved. "Where are these people?" is the question often asked.

There is, he said, a strong feeling that women are not seen as equals, apart from the issue of ordination. He has discerned a pattern in the consultations that discrimination is expressed much more in the use of language. Men and women pick up on this insensitivity, he said.

Of the input of delegates at the consultations, Father Kinast said, "We will convey to them (the bishops) what we have seen and heard." What happens after that he couldn't say. "Bishops see their role as being sandwiched in with reports of other countries. (A synod) is more complicated than a private audience with the pope."

Lay persons at the consultations have expressed high regard for the bishops selected as delegates but also concern that issues may be softened or critical opinions may be diluted, Father Kinast said.

"There is a lot of trust that the bishops are listening and will reflect faithfully what they hear. There is more concern by the delegates that they cannot speak directly for themselves; it comes up in all the consultations. There is some real dissatisfaction that for a synod on this topic only bishops are delegates and the feeling that lay people should be able to speak directly for themselves."

(Individuals wishing to provide their views on the laity can write directly to the Bishops' Committee on the Laity, 1312 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C., 20005)