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People in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects

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People in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects l•!CCLESIASTICAL MINISTRIES FOR LAY PEOPLE IN NIGERIA: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS 1-filary Odili Okeke I INTRODUCTION fficial eccleeiaetical ministries for lay people were introduced () into the Catholic Church by Paul VI (1). Before the introduc- 111111, official ministry in the Church was understood- strictly as 111r d ministry which belonged to the clergy. Vatican II had-opened 1 I II way to wider understanding of ministry, ministerium, as service, 11 word which the Council used to describe activities undertaken by l !11, people of God. In nineteen pla. ces, the Council use~ministerium 1 .. ,. uctivities of lay people in the Church and in the w~rld (2). The , 1111 rging consciousness of the place and role of lay people in the , urnmunity of believers made it theologicallly possible to apply to I I II activities oflay people the word previously reserved, in ecclesias- f 11•111 parlance, to the ordained. -· 'I'he use of ministry for activities of the laity did not, however, 11dmit lay people to ecclesiastical ministry. The development came wrth the reform of minor orders by Paul VI. Before the Motu ' . 1 'rnprio, Ministeria quaedam, candidates for the priesthood, and lu-nce for the sacred ministry, were admitted into the clerical status liy tonsure, and they had to receive the minor orders of porter, «xorcist, lector and acolyte before the major orders of subdiaconate, rluiconate and then priesthood. The minor orders were reserved for ,·11 rics, that is, those set apart for the sacred ministry. The reform 111' Paul VI abolished the tonsure, 'minor orders and the sub• d rnconate, and established the two ministries offector and acolyte, traving the episcopal conference the faculty to retain the sub• drnconate and to apply for new ministries as the need oftheirregions dictated (3). \ The relevance of this reform to our topic is that the Pope made tho ministries open to· 1ay people, and so they were no longer n,aerved to the candidates ·for the sacred ministry (4). By estab- 11Uitude of the community, cultural factors and local conditions has uff<icted the application of the law on ministries for lay people in lishing the ministries of lector and acolyte, which are open .. t<> lay Nigeria. people who are not destined for Holy Orders, and giving episcopal conferences the faculty to petition for more ministries according to 11. MINISTRIES FOR LAY PEOPLE IN NIGERIA· the needs of their regions, the Pope put into. effect the conciliar POLICIES AND PRACTICE understanding of the Church as a ministerial community in which all members of Christ's faithful share in their own way in the Nigeria is an African country with thirty six dioceses and two mission of the Church. missions sui iuris in a landmass of 923,768 sq. km. Its population The new Code of Canon Law adopted the discipline'of Ministeria 1~ 88.5 million. Some dioceses have many catholics and compara• Quaedam and in canon\t30 provided for the installation of lay people Lively many priests. The Archdiocese of Onitsha in the south-east• whose age and talents meet those prescribed by the decree of the urn part of the country, for example, had a Catholic population of episcopal conference. The canon also provided for lay people, men G52,670 and 142 priests in 1988. Some of the other dioceses have and women, to receive temporary assignments in liturgical actions very few Catholics and fewer priests. This means that the situation and to supply certain functions of installed ministers where the of the particular churches, in terms of landmass, ratio of Catholics needs of the Church require it and where ministers are not avail- . I to the whole population and ratio of priests to lay people, differs able. The provisions for the official ecclesiastical ministeries for lay considerably. Even though the ecclesiastical circumscriptions differ people and their capacity to participate in a ministerial way in in many ways, common policies and norms are still possible through liturgical actions were given in the context of the obligations and the instrumentality of the 'Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria rights of lay people. · ~BCN). The CBCN has the competence to give, by decree, the John Paul II, in the post-synodal Exhortation, Christifideles laici, requirements for people who are to be installed in the stable mini• locates the ministries in the communion of the Church, teaching stries oflector and acolyte. We will, therefore, review the particular that all ministries are a participation in the ministry of -Iesus Christ. laws made by the Bishops' Conference in this matter before examin• The participation oflay people is different from that of theor dained ing how the universal and particular laws are actually implemented not only in degree but also in essence '(5), and he points out that one and what the factors responsible for them are. does not become a minister by performing a function but by ordina• " tion or installation as the case may b~. After, warning against II. 1 TH~ PARTICULAR LAW ON MINISTRIES FOR possible-abuses in the application of th~ re~ provisions of law, he LAY PEOPLE IN NIGERIA states that the ministries and roles of lay people ought to be _exercised in conformity with their specific lay vocation. Because of In the wake of the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, .the problem of what constitutes the limit of the specific lay vocation the CBCN had to make provision, in accordance with Canon 230, 1, in the Church, the Pope is to set up a Commission to provide an for the implementation of the norms for the ministries of Lector and in-depth study of the various theological, liturgical, juridical and acolyte for the lay members of Christ's faithful. The CBCN in its pastoral considerations associated with the great increase of mini• decree specified the requirements for the candidates for_these min• stries entrusted to the lay faithful (6). istries. The Candidate must have a good reputation in the com• There is a growing interest in these ministries in various parts of munity, must be properly married and, if single, must be a fully I the world, as is evidenced by studies (7). I intend to show how the mature adult. There was no definite minimum age but the upper universal law on ministries for the laity has been implemented in age-limit was 60 years (8). The decree gave other requirements for the Church in Nigeria and the factors that influenced the implemen• those to be installed as lectors and for those to be installed as tation. This study is meant to bring out how the combination of the 3 2 acolytes. For the lectors, the ability to speak or read the English -~ost. dioceses reoorted that no one had been installed in the Language is not an absolute requirement. They must, however, have ministriee oflector and acolyte. Bishop Makozi installed ten lay men enough education to read the language in use in the place they must as lectors when ~e was the Bishop of Lokoja. lt was reported that possess a singing voice; and they must be able to instruct others (9). fiv~ people were installed as lectors in the cathedral in Maiduguri Catechists are natural candidates for the order of acolyte (10). whil~ ten men_ were made extraordinary ministers of Holy Com• The decree went on to give some of the functions to be entrusted mumon. !he-d1oc_es_e of Oyo has some installed lectors, acolytes and to the acolyte, and to determine the liturgical roles and dress of the oxt~ordm~ry i:rumsters of the Eucharist. Many dioceses permit installed acolyte. His role must be more prominent and intimate, maJo_r seminarians and male religious to distribute Holy Com• in the E·ucharistisc celebration, than that of the Mass servers and munion. The case of religious women. is different. Only in some he should wear a distinctive garb. He may be called upon to help in diocese in the North and the West are they allowed to distribute distributing Holy Communion to lessen the overall time of the Holy Communion. celebration; and he can be called upon to expose the Blessed Sacra• From the repl~es, mos~ l~y people would like more lay people to ment for adoration but without giving the blessing (11) help as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. This is one area The CBCN has made the necessary legislative provisions for the where the situation of emergency and chronic necessity as envisaged establishment of m inistries for the laity in Nigeria. Some provisions by John Paul II demands urgent attention and consideration. In are not specific. The minimum age is given as _a fully mature adult, some churches, priests spend over 45 minutes distributing Holy a criterion that is relative. Secondly, even though the new Code does Comr~n~mon at Sunday Masses, if there are no major seminarians not contain the faculty for episcopal conferences to apply to the or religious Brothers available. Apostolic See for new ministries, it is certain that the faculty given While some diocese have done something in the area of ministries Ministeria quaedam is still there since the CBCN has not made any for lay people, most of the diocese, especially in the South eastern proposals for new ministries for lay people, diocesan bishops in part of the country, have shown no interest in the matter. I will Nigeria can, install lay men only into the two ministries established oxamine the factors responsible for this situation. by the universal law. We will soon see how far they have done so. IIJ. FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SITUATION 11.2 THE SITUATION AS REGARDS MINISTRIES FOR LAY PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA Many factors are responstbls for the general lack of interest and action in the area of ministries for lay people.
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