16 Potential Catholic Learning Around Lay Participation in Decision‐making

Abstract

Abstract This chapter considers the issue of the participation of Roman Catholic laity in church governance from a theological, ecumenical, and political perspective. On the historical path, it looks at where the question of lay governance had generally arrived with the Second Vatican Council's seminal work on the laity. On the theological path, it examines recent developments in thinking on ordained and baptismal priesthood within Catholicism, partially inspired by ecumenical learning. On the political path, it turns to developments in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States in the last five years.