2014 Year of the Laity

The 120-strong Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has declared
2014 as the Year of the Laity as it cites the need for social transformation amid what it calls as
systemic corruption that destroys the countrys political and economic landscapes.
In a pastoral exhortation, Filipino Catholic Laity: Called to be SaintsSent Forth as
Heroes, the bishops stressed the need to empower the laity as it urges the faithful to unite in
groups, which through prayer, discernment and concerted action, will renew the social and
political fabric of our country.
Individual goodness is not sufficient anymore. The good individual will only be
swallowed up by the evil system. While individual witness is important, it is in unity that good
Christian people will get their strength and attain victory, the prelates said in a CBCP News
post.
It is certainly a shameful proof of our failure to evangelize our country that our churches
are filled with people, our religious festivities are fervent, our Catholic schools are many, but our
country is mired in poverty and in corruption. Many, perhaps the majority of the corrupt people
in politics and in business are graduates of our own Catholic
schools and are practicing Catholics. The majority of those who cheat in elections and those who
sell their votes are also baptized Catholics. This is also true of the bribe takers in public offices
and the looters of our public coffers, it added.
The bishops cited the importance of strengthening and living ones faith through reading
the Scriptures, seeking recourse to the sacraments, and contributing to the mission of new
evangelization even through simple means. It is only through an integral faith that
systemic concerns hounding the country may be resolved. Make your faith bear on your day to
day decisions and activities, they said.
The CBCP, likewise, lauded the faith, resilience, and great display of dignity shown by
Filipinos in the face of the recent devastating calamities.
The first and most important truth about the Filipino Catholic laity is not poverty but the
greatness of their dignity. This
dignity derives from Gods unmerited choice of you to belong to Gods holy people, it said.
Year 2014: Laity
This year especially celebrates both the sacrament of Baptism by which all the faithful
become Gods sons and daughters and the sacrament of Confirmation by which they become
witnesses of Christ to others. Yet the gifts of the Holy Spirit through these sacraments often
remain dormant. This year is to be devoted to the renewal of the laity, to their empowerment or
more accurately to activating their charisms from the Spirit, so that they may indeed take up their
role as co-responsible agents of evangelization and lead in the task of social transformation. In
this regard, of paramount global importance is the ecological challenge of climate change