IN HIS hook, Moral Monopoly, Tom Inglis speaks of the Catholic Church "as a power bloc that operates mainly in the social and moral spheres of Irish life, but which has a major influence in political and economic life."

In John Whyte's study, Church and State in Modern Ireland, there is no suggestion that "church" refers to anything other than the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Whyte discerns the loyalty of Irish Catholics to their church "in the tradition that they do not criticise their clergy in public."

If scholars define the church in terms of hierarchy and power bloc, who then are the laity? Where do they fit into the church? In the course of a famous encounter between John Henry Newman and his bishop, Bishop Ullathorne, in the middle of the last century, Ullathorne asked that precise question of Newman: "Who are the laity?" Newman answered simply that the church would look foolish without them.

Newman, the 150th anniversary of whose reunion with the Catholic Church was celebrated late last year in Oxford, identified the exclusion of the laity from full participation in the life of the church as a crippling defect. It was during his time in Ireland, when he was Rector of the Catholic University, the remote ancestor of UCD, that Newman became preoccupied with bringing the laity back into the fullness of the church.

HE stated it as a principle that "in all times the laity have been the measure of the Catholic spirit", that is, the standard by which the effectiveness of the church is to be judged. Newman feared for a church that was an exclusively clerical concern. He spoke of the Irish clergy thinking that Ireland would only become the Isle of Saints again "when it has a population of peasants ruled by a patriotic priesthood patriarchally."

By contrast, Newman wanted a laity who knew their religion: "I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth".

Newman devoted a large portion of his life to the question of how to reconcile the abuses of the external forms with the inner principles of the church. The principal symptom of this dissociation between practice and principle was the chasm between clergy and laity.

Writing to John Hungerford Pollen, architect of the exquisite University church which Newman built on St Stephen's Green, he said "a firm unruffled faith in the Catholic Church" should not preclude giving "strong expression to our common conviction of the miserable deficiencies which exist." Newman is long dead but his thinking resonates keenly with the present position of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Newman presents the church as a communion, with a common conscience, that of all its members. The church is not to be looked upon as a mere juridical entity, ruled over by officers, as is the case in Whyte and Inglis. Bishops, priests and laity form one body, and there must be consultation and trust, for the laity are an essential part of the church.

This teaching of Newman's derives from St Paul, the great exponent of the church as Body of Christ, and from the early church fathers. It is identical with that incorporated in the key second Vatican Council document, Lumen Gentium. ,He declined an invitation to attend the first Vatican Council, but Vatican Two has justly been described as "Newman's Council".

In the 30 years since the second council, what has been happening to the laity in Ireland? Fewer attend Mass, though of those who attend, the majority receive communion. Few go to confession. In some inner city parishes, priests report baptisms, but marriages are rare. First holy communion and confirmation continue as major life events for schoolchildren.

The divorce referendum, regarded by some as the last great showdown between church and state, was in fact more subtle. When it is accepted that the laity together with the clergy, are the church, then both church and State were divided on a major issue.

But can participation in the life of the church be measured solely by receiving the sacraments or a certain line on legislative matters? If the meaning of the Mass - the re enactment of Christ's giving of His life for all at Calvary - is not grasped and lived, then the fruits of participation at Mass cannot flourish.

How can the final prayer at Mass - "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" - be lived other than through the love of neighbour? This was the lesson Christ taught Paul in dramatic fashion on the road to Damascus. The key imperative of Catholic life is service of one's fellow men and women, even to the giving of one's life for them. This is what the Wicklow born headmaster Philip Lawrence did in London last year. But it can also be done in a myriad of private ways.

For the laity to participate in the life of the church does not necessarily mean to obtain a share in power which can corrupt. Christ was born in a stable. He washed the feet of his disciples - all of whom, except John, would desert Him in His hour of greatest need.

Participation by the laity means to spread the news of the Incarnation - not just by words but by deeds. This starts with the individual, but individuals on their own need support, so organisations have a vital role. At different moments in history such organisations have emerged from the church for example, the Vincent de Paul Society in France and the Legion of Mary in Ireland. The latter, founded by an Irishman influenced by the writings of Newman in 1921, at a time when the clerical church was at its height, now has two million active members worldwide engaged in all forms of service.

For the church to be renewed in Ireland ways must be found at every level, starting locally, to unite priests and people in the great enterprise of the Gospel. Ia this endeavour, New man offers guidance for priests and laity in both his writings and his life.

The same man whose works include The Development of Doctrine and The Idea of a University wrote countless letters on the details of individual lives. From his first days as an Anglican curate to his last days as an old cardinal he served Christ by serving people. "Amid the encircling gloom", of the Irish church, Newman provides a "kindly light".