text: The lack of lay engagement with the life of your standard Catholic parish is not a mystery, and it is not (as Lowney suggests) some sort of moral failing on the part of the laity.  It is a perfectly rational response to the structure of the Catholic Church, in which everything the laity does is subject to a complete and unilateral veto by the clergy.  Why waste your time when the fruits of that time can be tossed out, with no recourse?  
  
  This is a structural problem, which can only be fixed via a structural solution--opening the governance structure of the parish (and other levels of the Church, too, but let's start local) to real lay oversight.  If the lay people feel they have a legitimate say in the direction of the parish, then they will engage.  Right now, lay people understand that they have no real say in the direction of their parish.  That's why they don't engage.