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9. The laity carry out their manifold apostolate both in the Church
and in the world. In both areas there are various opportunities for
apostolic activity. We wish to list here the more important fields of
action, namely, church communities, the family, youth, the social
milieu, and national and international levels. Since in our times
women have an ever more active shale in the whole life of society, it
is very important that they participate more widely also in the various
fields of the Church's apostolate.
10. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and
king, the laity have their work cut out for them in the life and
activity of the Church. Their activity is so necessary within the
Church communities that without it the apostolate of the pastors is
often unable to achieve its full effectiveness. In the manner of the
men and women who helped Paul in spreading the Gospel (cf. Acts
18:18, 26; Rom. 16:3) the laity with the right apostolic
attitude supply what is lacking to their brethren and refresh the spirit
of pastors and of the rest of the faithful (cf. 1 Cor.
16:17-18). Strengthened by active participation in the
liturgical life of their community, they are eager to do their share of
the apostolic works of that community. They bring to the Church
people who perhaps are far removed from it, earnestly cooperate in
presenting the word of God especially by means of catechetical
instruction, and offer their special skills to make the care of souls
and the administration of the temporalities of the Church more
efficient and effective.
The parish offers an obvious example of the apostolate on the community
level inasmuch as it brings together the many human differences within
its boundaries and merges them into the universality of the
Church.[17] The laity should accustom themselves to working in the
parish in union with their priests,[18] bringing to the Church
community their own and the world's problems as well as questions
concerning human salvation, all of which they should examine and
resolve by deliberating in common. As far as possible the laity ought
to provide helpful collaboration for every apostolic and missionary
undertaking sponsored by their local parish.
They should develop an ever-increasing appreciation of their own
diocese, of which the parish is a kind of cell, ever ready at their
pastor's invitation to participate in diocesan projects. Indeed, to
fulfill the needs of cities and rural areas,[19] they should not
limit their cooperation to the parochial or diocesan boundaries but
strive to extend it to interparochial, interdiocesan, national, and
international fields. This is constantly becoming all the more
necessary because the daily increase in mobility of populations,
reciprocal relationships, and means of communication no longer allow
any sector of society to remain closed in upon itself. Thus they
should be concerned about the needs of the people of God dispersed
throughout the world. They should especially make missionary activity
their own by giving material or even personal assistance. It is a duty
and honor for Christians to return to God a part of the good things
that they receive from Him.
11. Since the Creator of all things has established conjugal
society as the beginning and basis of human society and, by His
grace, has made it a great mystery in Christ and the Church (cf.
Eph. 5:32), the apostolate of married persons and families is of
unique importance for the Church and civil society.
Christian husbands and wives are cooperators in grace and witnesses of
faith for each other, their children, and all others in their
household. They are the first to communicate the faith to their
children and to educate them by word and example for the Christian and
apostolic life. They prudently help them in the choice of their
vocation and carefully promote any sacred vocation which they may
discern in them.
It has always been the duty of Christian married partners but today it
is the greatest part of their apostolate to manifest and prove by their
own way of life the indissolubility and sacredness of the marriage
bond, strenuously to affirm the right and duty of parents and guardians
to educate children in a Christian manner, and to defend the dignity
and lawful autonomy of the family. They and the rest of the faithful,
therefore, should cooperate with men of good will to ensure the
preservation of these rights in civil legislation and to make sure that
governments give due attention to the needs of the family regarding
housing, the education of children, working conditions, social
security, and taxes; and that in policy decisions affecting migrants
their right to live together as a family should be safeguarded.[20]
This mission-to be the first and vital cell of society-the family has
received from God. It will fulfill this mission if it appears as the
domestic sanctuary of the Church by reason of the mutual affection of
its members and the prayer that they offer to God in common, if the
whole family makes itself a part of the liturgical worship of the
Church, and if it provides active hospitality and promotes justice and
other good works for the service of all the brethren in need. Among
the various activities of the family apostolate may be enumerated the
following: the adoption of abandoned infants, hospitality to
strangers, assistance in the operation of schools, helpful advice and
material assistance for adolescents, help to engaged couples in
preparing themselves better for marriage, catechetical work, support
of married couples and families involved in material and moral crises,
help for the aged not only by providing them with the necessities of
life but also by obtaining for them a fair share of the benefits of an
expanding economy.
At all times and places but particularly in areas where the first seeds
of the Gospel are being sown, or where the Church is just beginning,
or is involved in some serious difficulty, Christian families can give
effective testimony to Christ before the world by remaining faithful to
the Gospel and by providing a model of Christian marriage through
their whole way of life.[21]
To facilitate the attainment of the goals of their apostolate, it can
be useful for families to be brought together into groups.[22]
12. Young persons exert very important influence in modern
society.[23] There has been a radical change in the circumstances of
their lives, their mental attitudes, and their relationships with
their own families. Frequently they move too quickly into a new social
and economic status. While their social and even their political
importance is growing from day to day, they seem to be unable to cope
adequately with their new responsibilities.
Their heightened influence in society demands of them a proportionate
apostolic activity, but their natural qualities also fit them for this
activity. As they become more conscious of their own personalities,
they are impelled by a zest for life and a ready eagerness to assume
their own responsibility, and they yearn to play their part in social
and cultural life. If this zeal is imbued with the spirit of Christ
and is inspired by obedience and love for the Church, it can be
expected to be very fruitful. They should become the first to carry on
the apostolate directly to other young persons, concentrating their
apostolic efforts within their own circle, according to the needs of
the social environment in which they live.[24]
Adults ought to engage in such friendly discussion with young people
that both age groups, overcoming the age barrier, may become better
acquainted and share the special benefits each generation can offer the
other. Adults should stimulate young persons first by good example to
take part in the apostolate and, if the opportunity presents itself,
by offering them effective advice and willing assistance. By the same
token young people should cultivate toward adults respect and trust,
and although they are naturally attracted to novelties, they should
duly appreciate praiseworthy traditions.
13. The apostolate in the social milieu, that is, the effort to
infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws, and
structures of the community in which one lives, is so much the duty and
responsibility of the laity that it can never be performed properly by
others. In this area the laity can exercise the apostolate of like
toward like. It is here that they complement the testimony of life
with the testimony of the word.[25] It is here where they work or
practice their profession or study or reside or spend their leisure time
or have their companionship that they are more capable of helping their
brethren.
The laity fulfill this mission of the Church in the world especially
by conforming their lives to their faith so that they become the light
of the world as well as by practicing honesty in all their dealings so
that they attract all to the love of the true and the good and finally
to the Church and to Christ. They fulfill their mission also by
fraternal charity which presses them to share in the living conditions,
labors, sorrows, and aspirations of their brethren with the result
that the hearts of all about them are quietly prepared for the workings
of saving grace. Another requisite for the accomplishment of their
task is a full consciousness of their role in building up society
whereby they strive to perform their domestic, social, and
professional duties with such Christian generosity that their manner of
acting should gradually penetrate the whole world of life and labor.
This apostolate should reach out to all wherever they may be
encountered; it should not exclude any spiritual or temporal benefit
which they have the ability to confer. True apostles however, are not
content with this activity alone but endeavor to announce Christ to
their neighbors by means of the spoken word as well. For there are
many persons who can hear the Gospel and recognize Christ only through
the laity who live near them.
Children also have their own apostolic work to do. According to their
ability they are true living witnesses of Christ among their
companions.
10. A vast field for the apostolate has opened up on the national
and international levels where the laity especially assist with their
Christian wisdom. In loyalty to their country and in faithful
fulfillment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel
themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Thus they should
make the weight of their opinion felt in order that the civil authority
may act with justice and that legislation may conform to moral precepts
and the common good. Catholics skilled in public affairs and
adequately enlightened in faith and Christian doctrine should not
refuse to administer pubic affairs since by doing this in a worthy
manner they can both further the common good and at the same time
prepare the way for the Gospel.
Catholics should try to cooperate with all men and women of good will
to promote whatever is true, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever
lovable (cf. Phil. 4:8). They should hold discussions with
them, excel them in prudence and courtesy, and initiate research on
social and public practices which should be improved in line with the
spirit of the Gospel.
Among the signs of our times, the irresistibly increasing sense of the
solidarity of all peoples is especially noteworthy. It is a function
of the lay apostolate sedulously to promote this awareness and to
transform it into a sincere and genuine love of brotherhood.
Furthermore, the laity should be aware of the international field and
of the questions and solutions, doctrinal as well as practical, which
arise in this field, with special reverence to developing
nations.[26]
All who work in or give help to foreign nations must remember that
relations among peoples should be a genuine fraternal exchange in which
each party is at the same time a giver and a receiver. Travelers,
whether their interest is international affairs, business, or
leisure, should remember that they are itinerant heralds of Christ
wherever they go and should act accordingly.
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