Lumen Gentium 37

The right of all Catholics to speak and to be heard!

Skip to content

Home
About
Books
Articles
Influences
Prayers
Campaigns
- Lumen Gentium 37 (1964)
Contact

Search for:

Vatican II

« Back to Glossary Index

The Catholic Church Council of all of the world’s bishops, 1962-65.

Views: 46

« Back to Glossary Index

About Sean O'Conaill

Retired teacher of high school history and author. Now editing here and on acireland.ie - and campaigning for immediate implementation of Article 37 of Vatican II's 'Lumen Gentium'. A fuller profile can be found at 'About / Author' from the navigation menu above. View all posts by Sean O'Conaill →

Post navigation

← Secular Canon Law →

Lumen Gentium Article 37

Like all Christians, the laity have the right to receive in abundance the help of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially that of the word of God and the sacraments from the pastors.

To the latter the laity should disclose their needs and desires with that liberty and confidence which befits children of God and brothers of Christ.

By reason of the knowledge, competence or pre‑eminence which they have the laity are empowered ‑ indeed sometimes obliged ‑ to manifest their opinion on those things which pertain to the good of the Church.

...through the institutions established by the Church for that purpose ...
21945 days
have elapsed since November 21st, 1964, when this solemn Constitution on the Church, agreed by Vatican Council II was promulgated by Pope Paul VI.
1908 days
have elapsed since October 1st, 2019, when ACI presented to the Irish Bishops Conference at Maynooth a reminder of what Lumen Gentium promised in 1964 and Irish bishops never delivered - with catastrophic consequences for the Irish Church.

With the announcement by the Irish Bishops' Conference on March 10th, 2021 of their intent to lead the Irish Church on a 'Synodal Path' towards renewal there is hope that a longstanding injustice is to be addressed. However, given the continuing canon law obstacles to committed clerical collaboration with lay people, and the apparent lack of clerical enthusiasm for synodal interaction with lay people so far, the reality of this 'Synodal Path' remains to be widely seen.

All-Time Top Ten

Jesus as Model for the Common Priesthood of the People of God 30k views
The Common Priesthood of the People of God and the Renewal of the Church 28k views
A suggested strategy for the recovery of the Irish and Western Catholic Church 27.6k views
Catholic Church Internal Trials in the Diocese of Derry, Ireland, in 2019 21k views
Lumen Gentium 37 20.2k views
René Girard 19.4k views
Lumen Gentium 37 (1964) – Genesis of A Campaign 18.1k views
A Priesthood of All Believers? 14.5k views
Brian and Vera O’Conaill 11.8k views
Lumen Gentium 37 and Meeting with Bishop Donal McKeown, Fri 26th July 2019 10.2k views

Latest Trending

The Gospel as a Takedown of Celebrity 3.7k views
Comeuppance or Confession – A ‘Reckoning’ on Clerical Abuse? 3.5k views
2024: Irish Catholic Vocations Office Mired in Clericalism 3k views
René Girard: The Creed Overcomes the World 2.6k views
Church Is Mission? 2.6k views
On Exodus? From What? 2.5k views
‘The Lightest Burden’ – Origin and Purpose 2.1k views
Why did Jesus of Nazareth accept Crucifixion? 1.9k views
No Historical Transparency in the Church? 1.8k views
Apocalypse Soon – or New Pentecost? 1.8k views
The Prayer That Changed Everything for Me 1.6k views
This Must Not Happen! 555 views

ACI Submission I to Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference 2019

The Common Priesthood of the People of God and the Renewal of the Church

It was Catholic parents and victims of clerical abuse who taught Catholic Bishops to prioritise the safeguarding of children in the church

ACI Submission II to Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference 2019

Jesus as Model for the Common Priesthood of the People of God

It was for challenging religious profiteering, hypocrisy and injustice that Jesus was accused and crucified. He is therefore a model for the common priesthood of the laity and for the challenging of injustice - in society and within the church.

ACI Submission III to Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference 2019

A Suggested Strategy for the Recovery of the Irish and Western Catholic Church

Recovery of the church depends upon acknowledgment of the indispensable role of the common priesthood of the lay people of God and the explicit abandonment by bishops and clergy of paternalism and clericalism - the expectation of deference from lay people rather than honesty and integrity.

Site Statistics – November 2024

In the month of November 2024 there were 8,248 visits to this site,

from readers in a total of 103 different countries globally,

in a total of 21,632 page viewings.

Again the most frequently visited pages were the top three in the ‘All-Time Top Ten Posts’ list – relating to ‘Jesus as Model for the Common Priesthood’. And among more recent posts This Must Not Happen! was most frequently visited.

Top of the list of viewing countries were Japan (1,114 visits) and USA (981 visits) - with Pakistan, India, Germany and Singapore following in that order.

Again a huge thanks from me to all - and to the Source of all insight!

Sean O’Conaill
1st December 2024

Other Trending Posts

The Frustrated Potential of the Alienated Church 4.8k views
The Mass: a ‘Holy Sacrifice’? 4.4k views
How White Men Lost the Meaning of Redemption 3.9k views
What is it to be Holy? 3.5k views
The Role of the Priest: Sacrifice or Self-sacrifice? 3.4k views
Salvation and Social Media 3.3k views
Catholic Education and the Future: Insights from René Girard 3.2k views
Faith Formation and Fear of Shame 3k views
What do we mean by the Kingdom of God? 3k views
Was Jesus a whistleblower too? 2.8k views
Did God want Jesus Dead? 2.4k views
21st Century ‘Status Anxiety’ is Gospel ‘Worldliness’ 2.2k views
The Creed is for Whistle-Blowers, not Dogmatists 2.2k views
The ‘war’ against Pope Francis: where do Irish bishops stand? 1.8k views
The Scandal of the 2011 Missal 1.7k views
Trusting the Gifts of the Spirit among the People of God 1.7k views
New Light on the Problem of Atonement 1.6k views
The Disgracing of Catholic Monarchism 1.4k views
The Blasphemy of Christian Imperialism in 2022 1.3k views

Catholic Church Internal Trials in the Diocese of Derry, Ireland, in 2019

A brief account of personal experience of more than five decades of clerical apartheid and inertia in Derry Catholic Diocese in the wake of Vatican II (1966-2019)

It was these experiences - and similar experiences by other ACI members - that led to the 2019 appeal by ACI to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference for the immediate honouring of the promise implicit in Lumen Gentium 37 (1964).

With the declaration of March 2021 of a Synodal Pathway for the Irish Church, and Derry’s own synodal discussions in the spring of 2022, there was hope for change in this inertial situation. However 'synodality' has not yet become embedded in the ordinary lives of Derry Catholics, and clerical enthusiasm for it is hard to find. It cannot yet be said that the process of decline in the diocese - an inevitable consequence of clerical aloofness - has turned a corner.

Proudly powered by WordPress