The Role of the Laity

Last week, the Vatican released a message Pope Benedict XVI sent to the 6^th Assembly of the International Catholic Action Forum. In this message, he reminded the laity that they are “co-responsible” for the Church’s mission, not merely “collaborators” with the clergy.  Lay people are therefore called to work in communion with Church leaders, and they are called to take formation very seriously. He said:

Feel the commitment to work for the Church’s mission to be your own…through prayer, through study, through active participation in ecclesial life, through an attentive and positive gaze at the world, in the continual search for the signs of the times.

Society needs courageous witnesses, he went on to say, so that people in darkness may see the light of the Gospel and find hope.

An example of this courageous witness can be seen in St. Juan Diego, who was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in 2002. Juan Diego was the poor, native of Mexico who reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe—an apparition that significantly inspired hope and the spread of Catholicism in Mexico, and one that still inspires people today.

In an address given to the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL) last week, Supreme Knight of the Knight of Columbus, Carl Anderson, encouraged his listeners to be like Juan Diego:

The New Evangelization calls each of us to be like Saint Juan Diego—to be public witnesses to our faith.

…The layman, Juan Diego, became the Gospel personified and carried his love of the Mother of God and her son to an entire “New World.”

…all of us must take care to align our life and our moral compass to “the Star of the New Evangelization.” We must lead by example, and like Juan Diego, we must overcome any fears we may have in standing up for what is right.

Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, please pray that we may have courage like your son Juan Diego, and that lay people may work with Church leaders in spreading the Good News throughout the Earth.