Nigeria has gone through many phases; that many will not take any new programme with a pinch of salt. We still remember WAI, SAP, etc. and it seems nothing has really changed.  If you don’t know, ask an adult, at least fifty years old and above. 

In the Church, it seems we are also following the same cycle of events and programmes with no meaningful change, or maybe not too noticeable to many or not as extensive as some of us would have loved to see them. The various Jubilee celebrations, the celebrations of the different years dedicated to one theme or the other, etc. are means to make us better Church, better Christians and assist us to follow Christ more faithfully.  Sometimes, it seems we are asking too much because many people could not be bothered about anything.  While they complain about the status quo, they are not ready to do the needful to change the status quo. One such area is about the co-responsibility of all the faithful.

The Church teaches that by the virtue of our baptism, we are members of the Church and children of God. These two statuses bestow on us rights and obligations. As members of the Church, it is our obligation to contribute our quota to ensure that the mission Christ entrusted to the Church is faithfully carried out.  Each of us must contribute according to our state and to the best of our abilities.

In many places, this is not yet the reality. Why? Because some people continue to see the Church as Father’s Church and their only obligation is just to go and pray. At best, some people see their obligations simply in terms of helping the priest.  As people in covenant relationship with God, we are obligated to him, and this obligation can only be fulfilled by ourselves. No one can or should do it for us.

In Yoruba, the saying is “Elomiran ko ni gba ise wa se.”  This means no one will take our position or supplant us. A good Christian will respond with an “Amen” because he or she knows the implication of someone supplanting us. Consequently, for a long time Catholic, especially the lay faithful are urged to collaborate with Priests in the affairs of the Church.

Collaboration is part and parcel of team life. If those in a group or organization do not collaborate, then the group’s vision and goals will not be accomplished. To collaborate is to work together, to join hands to accomplish a desired goal.  We need to collaborate in the Church.

But some experts have highlighted the nuance, not often thought about, but present in any reality involving collaboration. It is that it appears someone is the owner of the vision, or the task and others come to join him or her and assist him or her to accomplish the goal. This entails a differential sense of belonging. When we apply this to the Church, it is still a way of saying that the Church belongs to priests and the laity are only being called to assist priests. This is far from the truth.

The Church belongs to all Christ’s faithful, and they include both the ordained and the non-ordained members of the Church. The Church belongs to priests and sisters, and all the lay faithful, both young and old. The lay faithful then, are not just being invited to assist priests, they are called upon to fulfill their roles in the Church.

Hence during the Vatican II Council process, we are reminded of the co-responsibility of all the faithful. This injunction lay fallowed for such a long time that it wasn’t until the reign of Pope Benedict the XVI that the teaching was again brought to the fore when he told the laity that they are not called to collaborate only, but to be co-responsible with priests.

People are co-responsible when they recognize and accept the fact that the Church is theirs and that they have a role to play for its proper functioning and growth. Co-responsibility of all entails that fact that all must be willing to discern what their state of life demands from them as members of the Church, and they begin to carry it out without push or manipulation by priests or those in the hierarchy.

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council already reminds us that there are certain tasks that the laity are best suited for  because  of their presence in the temporal order. As such they should not wait for priests or the hierarchy to call them before they begin to work to bring about the transformation of the temporal order.

To actualize the Co-responsibility of all in the Church, everyone must know his or her place in the Church and discern critically what the Church wants of him or her in that position. They must then understand that they are obligated to God through the Church, and that defaulting is tantamount to becoming disloyal or unfaithful to God.

I am co-responsible because I belong to God , I do not own myself and the Church is the instrument that God has put in place to accomplish his purpose in the world. Being co-responsible is collaborating with God for the establishment of His kingdom. I wouldn’t want that sacred task to flounder or fail because of me, or though indifference, negligence, or laziness. Would you want it to fail?