Philippine group seeks to further empower the lay as it holds laity week in September

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas is set to host the National Laity Week in the Philippines in September this year.

Coinciding the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint who was lay, Laiko would underscore the critical role of the lay in building the Church and in the transformation of the Philippine society during the week-long annual observance.

Waving the theme: "Enabled Laity ... Key to a Successful Synodal Journey", Laiko has stated in a primer released today that the theme continues to spring from the Synod of Synodality of 2021-2024.

According to Laiko, the Synod wishes to "ensure more 'diversity' within the internal life of the Church."

Laiko has also echoed that Synod seeks to act in the place of people living on the margins of society.

The Synod of Synodality, Laiko said, also wishes to "ensure that the views of the 'marginalized' are properly represented in the synod dialogue, the purpose of which is to allow the Church to better listen and articulate the census fidelum, or the consensus of the faithful, which the Church teaches is an authentic guarantor of the faith expressed by the Church."

The week-long observance would run from September 23 to September 30. It would see active participation of lay groups in different dioceses across the country simultaneously.

Laiko invites lay groups to make the celebration "more significant" and "ensure more diversity."

"We wish to call on and engage our fellow sojourners to work together for a more enabled laity in their dioceses," Laiko said.

Laiko is the lay arm of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' Episcopal Commission on Laity. - Oliver Samson