Lake County Ohio Weal

Making boards of large corporations more accountable is not a new or foreign idea. Its recent American roots come from the business world. A central thesis of Robert Greenleaf’s book Servant Leadership (1977) is that board members of large corporations (both profit and nonprofit) should become responsible servant leaders in order that: the outcome be that people in, and affected by, the institution will grow healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely to become servants of society. (SL 116) One of Greenleaf’s college professors had argued that large organizations dominating our culture were mediocre, and challenged his students to reform them from within. Greenleaf become an employee of the largest, AT&T. At the end of his career he was senior executive responsible for values, organization and the growth of other senior executives. Choosing retirement at age sixty to spend his time writing and consulting, he affirmed he had no regrets for choosing the business s...

GATHERINGS, NETWORKS & SERVANT LEADERSHIP Leadership and following (discipleship) are two sides to the same coin. “Discriminating and determined servants as followers are just as important as servant leaders, and everyone, may from time to time, be in both roles.” SL (18*) In a relationship between two persons, person A leads only if person B decides to follow. THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP “I now embrace the theory of prophecy, which holds that prophetic voices of great clarity and with quality of insight equal to that of any age, are speaking cogently all the time.” SL (22) Greenleaf recognizes the graced nature of servant leadership; the charism of discernment is given not only given to the prophet but also to seekers. “It is seekers who make prophets and the initiative of any one of us in searching for and responding to the voice of contemporary prophets may mark the turning point in their growth and service” SL (22) Therefore servant leader...

BEYOND PERSONAL PIETY: The Laity's Role in the Church's Mission

CHAPTER VI FORMATION FOR SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 28. Spiritual leadership can attain its maximum effectiveness only through a diversified and thorough formation. This formation for spiritual leadership should rest upon those bases which have been stated and proclaimed by this most holy council in other documents.[1] In addition to the formation which is common for all Christians, many forms of spiritual leadership demand also a specific and particular formation because of the variety of persons and circumstances. 29. Since the baptized share in their own way in the mission of the People of God, their spiritual leadership formation is specially characterized by the distinctively secular and particular quality of the baptized state and by its own form of the spiritual life. The formation for spiritual leadership presupposes a certain human and well-rounded formation adapted to the natural abilities and conditions of each baptized person. Well-informed about the modern world, th...

CHAPTER V SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIPS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS 23. Whether baptized spiritual leadership is exercised by the faithful as individuals or as members of organizations, it should be incorporated into the spiritual leadership of the whole People of God according to a right system of relationships. Indeed, union with those whom the Holy Spirit has assigned to rule His Church (cf. Acts 20:28) is an essential element of the Christian spiritual leadership. No less necessary is cooperation among various projects of spiritual leadership which must be suitably directed by the hierarchy. Indeed, the spirit of unity should be promoted in order that fraternal charity may be resplendent in the whole mission of the People of God, common goals may be attained, and destructive rivalries avoided. For this there is need for mutual esteem among all the forms of spiritual leadership in the Church and, with due respect for the particular character of each organization, proper coordination. T...

CHAPTER IV THE VARIOUS FORMS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 15. The baptized can engage in spiritual leadership either as individuals or together as members of various groups or associations. 16. Individual spiritual leadership, flowing generously from its source in a truly Christian life (cf. John 4:14), is the origin and condition of all baptized spiritual leadership, even of the organized type, and it admits of no substitute. Regardless of status, all baptized persons (including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations) are called to this type of spiritual leadership and obliged to engage in it. This type of spiritual leadership is useful at all times and places, but in certain circumstances it is the only one appropriate and feasible. There are many forms of spiritual leadership whereby the baptized build up the People of God, sanctify the world, and give it life in Christ. A particular form of the individual spiritual leadership as well ...

CHAPTER III THE VARIOUS FIELDS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 9. The baptized carry out their manifold spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world. In both areas there are various opportunities for spiritual leadership. We wish to list here the more important fields of spiritual leadership, namely, church communities, the family, youth, the social milieu, and national and international levels. Since in our times women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that they participate more widely also in the various fields of the People of God's spiritual leadership. 10. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the baptized have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the People of God. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the activity of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness. The parish offers an obvious example of spiritual lead...

CHAPTER II. OBJECTIVES OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 5. Christ's redemptive work, while essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the People of God is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. In fulfilling this mission of the People of God, the baptized exercise their spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world, in both the religious and the temporal orders. The spiritual leadership of the People of God and of all its members is primarily designed to manifest Christ's message by words and deeds and to communicate His grace to the world It is especially on this level that the leadership of the baptized and the pastoral ministry are mutually complementary. There are innumerable opportunities open to the baptized for the exercise of their spiritual leadership of evangelization and sanc...

THE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP OF THE BAPTIZED Chapter 2 The Vocation of the Laity to the Apostolate THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY A translation, commentary and interpretation for our time in the USA in which "apostolate" is rendered as SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP preceded by (voluntary) when it is most likely unpaid leadership the term "laity" is rendered as THE BAPTIZED the word "men" is replaced by MANKIND or EVERYONE and the LATIN word Ecclesia is replace by PEOPLE OF GOD when it may apply to all Christians, but is retained as ECCLESIA (NETWORK, GATHERING) when it applies mainly to Catholics as opposed to all Christians. "CHURCH" The word “church’ in English has such strong associations with the clergy and worship buildings that I avoid not only in spiritual writing but also as a social scientist that I never talk about the Catholic Church but rather about Catholicism which I define...

WHAT HAPPENED AT VATICAN II by John W. O'Malley The biggest meeting in the history of the world? Ante-Preparatory Commission: A letter asking for their ideas “with complete freedom and honesty went to 2,598 elicited 1,998 responses (77%) from six lines to 27 pages. They filled eight large-format volumes, totally over five thousand pages. The documentation from this phase filled twelve volumes. Ten Preparatory Commissions were headed by cardinals who with one exception were prefects of a department of the Curia. The exception was the Apostolate of the Laity because there was not any department for the laity. The preparatory commission generated another seven volumes; all together the official documentation of the council itself was 32 volumes, many running more than nine hundred pages. A total of 2860 council fathers attended part of all of the four sessions. In contrast only 750 bishops participated in Vatican II. They represented 116 different countries: 36 percent from E...