Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The missionary task to share with all mankind the news of salvation part salvation, is exercised by the whole Church, although in different roles. In the context of the Church's mission, the Lord entrusts to the lay faithful, in communion with the other members of the people of God, a good part of the responsibility: “For their sacred pastors know how much the laity contribute to the welfare of the entire Church. Pastors also know that they were not meant by Christ to shoulder alone the entire saving mission of the Church towards the world, on the contrary they understand that it is their noble duty so to shepherd the faithful and recognise their services and charismatic gifts that all, according to their proper roles, may cooperate in this common undertaking with one heart” (LG 30).
The same awareness is expressed in the document dedicated to the Lay Apostolate: “Christ conferred on the apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying and ruling in His name and power. But the laity too share in the priestly, prophetic and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own role to play in the mission of the whole People of God in the Church and in the world” (AA 2), in both the “spiritual and temporal order” (AA 5).
Therefore the laity's duty and right to play their part in missionary activity is fully recognised since “they share in the Church's mission ”, to which they are assigned “by the Lord himself through baptism and confirmation” (LG 33). Indeed in the Church's mission lay people “have their own essential role to play ”, in the sense that “the effort to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the community in which a person lives, is so much the duty and responsibility of the laity that it can never be properly performed by others” (AA 13). Indeed their activity is necessary since “without it the apostolate of the clergy is generally unable to achieve its full effectiveness” (AA 10).
The Roman Pontiffs in their Magisterium were no less explicit. For example Paul VI in “Evangelii Nuntiandi” explains that the apostolic mandate “applies, although in different ways, to all Christians. And this is why Peter calls the latter ‘a people whom God has chosen to proclaim his wondrous works (1 Pt 2, 9), wonders which each has heard in his own tongue” (n. 13). The same is said by John Paul II: “ The mission ad gentes is incumbent upon the entire People of God. Whereas the foundation of a new church requires the Eucharist and hence the priestly ministry, missionary activity, which is carried out in a wide variety of ways, is the task of all the Christian faithful. It is clear that from the very origins of Christianity, the laity - as individuals, families, and entire communities - shared in spreading the faith … they are bound by the general obligation and they have the right, whether as individuals or in associations, to strive so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all people throughout the world. This obligation is all the more insistent in circumstances in which only through them are people able to hear the Gospel and to know Christ." Furthermore, because of their secular character, they especially are called "to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and ordering these in accordance with the will of God.” (Redemptoris missio, n. 71).
Also Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for the 80th World Mission Sunday says: “Besides those in front line on the frontiers of evangelisation and I am thinking with gratitude of missionaries - many others, children, young people, adults with their prayers and different forms of cooperation help to spread the Kingdom of God on earth ” (World Mission Sunday Message 2006, n.4).
In keeping with Vatican II and papal teaching since the Council, the Code of Canon Law values the laity considering them, like the other baptised, members of the one people of God, who share in Christ's triple priestly, prophetic and royal office, called, according to their condition to carry on the mission which God entrusted to His Church.
The missionary vocation of the laity is therefore inherent to that fact that they are Christians: before any “mandate” of the Hierarchy, it is by Christ himself that the laity are “sent”, they participate fully in the Church's mission and “seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and ordering them according to the plan of God” (LG 31), exercising their priestly, prophetic and royal office. (11 - to be continued) (Agenzia Fides 29/1/2008; righe 52, parole 772)
