Vatican II on the relation of the laity and the bishops of the Church
The Church teaches us:
Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
Section 37:
Like all Christians, the laity have the right to receive in abundance the help of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially that of the word of God and the sacraments from the pastors. To the latter, the laity should disclose their needs and desires with that liberty and confidence which befits children of God and brothers of Christ. By reason of the knowledge, competence or pre-eminence which they have the laity are empowered — indeed sometimes obliged — to manifest their opinion on those things which pertain to the good of the Church.
Sometimes the message imposes an obligation:
If the occasion should arise this should be done through the institutions established by the Church for that purpose and always with truth, courage and prudence and with reverence and charity towards those who, by reason of their office, represent the person of Christ.
Like all Christians, the laity should promptly accept in Christian obedience what is decided by the pastors who, as teachers and rulers of the Church, represent Christ. In this they will follow Christ’s example who, by his obedience unto death, opened the blessed way of the liberty of the sons of God to all men.
(translation from the Flannery edition)
Part Two
Since the sensible Gordon Zaft posted an eloquent but brief comment to ask, more or less, “what’s the point, RC?” I’ll expand on the above.
The Council indicates that we laity should express our opinions and criticisms through the Church’s own institutions and with reverence toward the bishops.
I wanted to bring this up simply because it’s not a popular teaching right now; I haven’t lived up to it, and neither have a lot of us lay folks. The various voices engaged in daily condemnation of various bishops must not be aware of it.
Notice the two points: (1) with reverence and (2) through the Church’s own institutions. I mean: can you believe that? The Church wants us to give our opinions to the bishops through the Church’s own institutions. It sounds as if we should not be denouncing them publicly. I don’t know if we can get used to that!
Of course, this raises some questions, such as: what are those institutions — I really don’t know what the Council is referring to.
Now, I don’t mean to make an argument that it’s immoral to criticize Church problems in public: the right specified in canon 212 to make one’s views known to the faithful rules that out. But I do wonder what the Council had in mind.