From Eugene Cullen Kennedy: Practiced Catholics

Practiced Catholics have been around since the beginning of Christianity. The early theologians referred to them when they urged Catholics to follow the “sensus fidelium,” or the feelings, as we might say, of the faithful believers. These are the Catholics who provide a reliable sense of what the Church teaches in the way they pray and he way the live.

Practiced Catholics offer a rule of thumb for belief according to the venerable insight that, if you want to know what the Church teaches or what is right, ask what the “sanior et major pars fidelium” believes or does. That means it is always safe to follow the path of the “larger and healthier portion of believers.” Had the Church handed the problem of sex abuse over to a group of practiced Catholics, it would have been resolved many years ago.

The Church prides itself in its “munera” or “gifts.” One of these is given only to practiced Catholics, the Gift of Reception. By this special guidance of the Spirit no teaching can be considered Catholic unless it is received by that same healthy majority of the faithful.

(Italics mine)

http://ncronline.org/blogs/bulletins-human-side/practiced-catholics