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By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Nov 14, 2022

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

Vatican II called for active participation by the laity in the Eucharistic liturgy. No one, to my knowledge, disputes that active participation is desirable. The question is: what does “active participation” mean? Let me offer an answer, in a roundabout way.

Eighteen years have passed— yet the memory is still fresh— since that happy evening when Keith Foulke grabbed a bouncing ball, tossed to first base, and the den in the Lawler household exploded in jubilation. After years of painful disappointment, we had won the World Series!

Did you notice that I said we won? Unless I am much mistaken, nobody who wore a Red Sox uniform that night was aware of the Lawler family’s existence. We had thrown no pitches, fielded no flies, stolen no bases. We had contributed nothing tangible to the victory. Yet there was no doubt in our minds that we had won. …

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