The Second Vatican Council had as its heart the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium to reflect on the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ and the People of God, as well as recovering all the “definitions” that Scripture, the Fathers and theology have given of the Church.
A figure that emerges in the attention of the Council is that of the faithful-layman called Cristifideles to embody the Christocentricity of the baptized. The role of the laity is already found in the spreading of the Gospel and also in the discipleship of Jesus himself.
It is appropriate to recall that it was largely the laity who spread the Christian proposal in all areas of the Greco-Roman world at the time (think of the merchants, the soldiers, the former Pharisees like Paul of Tarsus, the women, the philosophers like Justin ) then came the apostles and their successors to establish and “implant” the Church. So it happened for Aquileia where the “Good News” appeared and spread thanks to the merchants from the East, especially from Alexandria in Egypt. Then Ermacora bishop and Fortunato deacon were sent from Alexandria.
The rediscovery of the apostolate of the laity for evangelization and for the life of the Church in the last century, before Vatican II, is due to Pius XI, with the mandate to the Catholic laity to collaborate with the ecclesiastical hierarchy and be a leaven in reality secular. Catholic Action arises precisely with this purpose and mission.
In the Church of the middle of the last century various lay associations for spirituality and the apostolate in the world arise. Pius XII approves with the Provida Mater the Secular Institutes, made up of lay men and women, consecrated and associated, who live their commitment of discipleship to Christ in the material, cultural, social or health work environments to be evangelical leaven in a world that it changes and often turns away from spiritual and moral values.
So already with Rerum Novarum Pope Leo XIII at the dawn of the twentieth century asked the whole Church to make its own the commitments of that attention to the world of work, to protect and give dignity to the human person who was subordinated, in his values, to the success of the profit of a few.
The Second Vatican Council wants to “take back” the figure, identity and mission of the laity and does so not only in the constitution Lumen Gentium but also in the decree Apostolicam Actuositatem, entirely dedicated to the Cristifideles. What theologically gives a fundamental characteristic is chapter II of Lumen Gentium, titled De Populo Dei, where in nos. 10 and 11 it is emphasized that the Christifideles, by virtue of baptism, are “consecrantur … in sacerdotium sanctum” (n.10). This common priesthood of the faithful differs – as the Council says – from the hierarchical priesthood essentially and not only by degrees but are ordained to one another. This identity dimension of the laity, an integral part of the People of God, also makes them co-responsible not only for evangelization, but also with the Pastor, for the very life of the Christian community. In fact, the Council says, citing 1 Pt. 2,4-10, that “the laity are consecrated to form a royal priesthood and a holy nation” (AA n.3). The formation of the “holy nation” implies communion and co-responsibility.
It is precisely in this line aimed at building up the people of God, with and under the guidance of Pastors, that Pope Francis, in addition to wanting to establish some ministries in stability such as those of readers and catechists without gender discrimination, also wanted to give an extension to the “actors” of the Synod which began as an assembly reserved for Bishops, then extended to Bishops and priests and some lay people, as in the reform of the diocesan Synod after Vatican II.
Now the Pope wants a Synod precisely on synodality, which he understands as the duty-right of the members of the entire people of God to fully live the gift of being Church. The Synod for a Synodal Church was solemnly opened by Pope Francis in Rome on 9-10 October 2021 and on 17 October in particular Churches around the world. A fundamental date will be the celebration of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. In the meantime, each particular Church, at the request of the Bishop, successor of the Apostles, in communion with the Successor of Peter, gathers with every member of it. : presbyters, deacons, religious, consecrated lay people and all faithful, of all social classes and ages, to reflect on the need to “allow oneself to be questioned and educated by the Spirit in a truly synodal mentality, entering with courage and freedom of heart into a process of conversion “(Synod 2021-2023 prep. Doc. Nn. 7-9).
What must constantly remind us, in this experience, is the need for every parish community, every lay association, every ecclesial body to keep in mind that “synodality represents the high road for the Church (sixty years after Vatican Council II) to renewed under the action of the Spirit and thanks to listening to the Word … What the Lord asks of us, in a certain sense, is already all contained in the word Synod, which is an ancient and venerable word in the Tradition of the Church, the meaning of which will recall the deeper contents of Revelation. It is the Lord Jesus who presents himself as: the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14,6), and Christians, following him, are called the disciples of the way (cf. Acts 9,2 etc…).
Synodality in this perspective is much more than the celebration of ecclesial meetings and assemblies of bishops, or a matter of simple administration within the Church. It indicates the specific modus vivendi et operandi of the Church-people of God which concretely manifests and realizes its being communion in walking together, in gathering in assembly and in actively participating with all its members in its evangelizing mission “(Synod 2021- 2023 prep. Doc. Nos. 9-10).
This is what Pope Francis asks of the entire people of God, bishops, presbyters, religious, consecrated laity, lay people of all ages and social status: to listen not only to practicing believers but also to the so-called “distant” and the peripheries, so that the joys and anxieties of the men and women of our time, who are the very recipients of the reason why Christ wanted his Church in the world, reach the hearts of Christ’s disciples.
* episcopal vicar for the laity and culture – diocese of Trieste
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