Clericalism is “the fruit of a wrong way of living the ecclesiology proposed by the Second Vatican Council” and “one of the greatest deformations that Latin America must face”. Pope Francis wrote this in a letter, signed on 19th of March, to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, President of the Pontifical Council for Latin America, following his meeting, on 4 March, with the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the body on the theme “the indispensable commitment of the lay faithful in the public life” of Latin American countries. According to the Pope, “not only does clericalism cancel the personality of Christians, but it also tends to belittle and underestimate the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has infused in the hearts of our people. Clericalism leads to a homogenisation of the laity; treating it as an ‘emissary’ limits the various initiatives and efforts and, I dare say, the boldness necessary to be able to bring the Good News of the Gospel to all areas of social and above all political activity. Clericalism, far from inspiring various contributions and proposals, gradually extinguishes the prophetic flame of which the entire Church is called to bear witness in the heart of her peoples. Clericalism forgets that the visibility and the sacramental nature of the Church belong to the entire people of God (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 9-14), and not just to a few enlightened ones. Pope Francis also recalls a “very interesting phenomenon that has emerged in Latin America”: “popular pastoral ministry” which is “one of the few places in which the People of God is free from the influence of clericalism”; “one of the few places in which the people (including its pastors) and the Holy Spirit can meet without that clericalism which seeks to control and hinder God’s anointing of his people”. Hence the invitation to “trust in our People, in its memory and sense, trust that the Holy Spirit acts in and with it, and that this Spirit is not merely the ‘property’ of the ecclesial hierarchy”.