Having considered the possibility of introducing lay people as members since the late 1960s, Scarboro Missions approved Fr. Joseph Curcio's proposal to establish an office in order to experiment with, and assess the feasibility of, the introduction of laymen into missionary work. Founded in December 1972, the Office on the Laity was also developed as a service of information for those seeking acceptance regarding missionary work. That is, Fr. Curcio also founded the Office as a means for laymen to acquire instruction for the purpose of helping them come to a decision regarding their motivations. In 1974, Scarboro Missions slowly began accepting laity into the Society through the Office on the Laity, wherein they offered a four-month long formation for cross-cultural mission work for single men, single women, and married couples.
During the 1987 Chapter, it was formally recognized that lay associate membership should no longer be considered an experiment, and the establishment of a Lay Department was mandated. As a result, the Department of Lay Association (DLA) was formed in September 1987, which gave lay associate members more responsibility and helped legitimize the lay mission vocation. The DLA itself was run by the Society's lay members and served to facilitate communication between them and the priests of Scarboro Missions, and to support the laity and the lay movement's growth. As such, it worked closely with the Formation-Education Department, which by now was predominantly training lay candidates interested in missionary work.
In 1993, the DLA was reconstituted as the Lay Mission Office (LMO), at which point laity were given more autonomy and authority over their own affairs within the Society. This restructuring served as an attempt to better integrate lay members with the community of priests at Scarboro Missions. The founding of the LMO thus renewed the laity's sense of belonging within the community by providing them with a space of their own while still remaining connected with the Society structure. LMO staff were given the responsibility of training, recruiting, sending, and directing new lay missioners, as well as supporting members in mission. Before long, the department instilled itself as a crucial part of Scarboro Missions.
The Lay Mission Office officially closed in 2018.
This subseries consists of records produced by the three successive offices. These include: discussions on lay membership and recruitment, policies and guidelines on laity membership, meeting and workshop transcripts, lay mission reports, departmental reports, circulars, correspondence, and lists of lay members.
