Lay Minister refers to Roman Catholics who have an official or semi-official function in the Church but who have not received Holy Orders nor professed religious vows. The Second Vatican Council taught that the laitys specific character is secularity, i.e. as Christians who live the life of Christ in the world. The role of Christian lay people is to sanctify the created world by directing it to become more Christian in its structures and systems : It belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in the affairs of the world and directing them according to Gods will (Lumen Gentium). The laity are full members of the Church, who fully share in Churchs purpose of sanctification, of inner union of men with God, (CCC 775) acting with freedom and personal responsibility and not as mere agents of the hierarchy. Due to their baptism, they are members of Gods family, the Church, and they grow in intimate union with God, in and by means of the world. It is not a matter of departing from the world as the monks and the nuns do that they sanctify themselves; it is precisely through the material world sanctified by the coming of the God made flesh, i.e. made material, that they reach God. Doctors, mothers of a family, farmers, bank tellers, drivers, by doing their jobs in the world with a Christian spirit are already extending the Kingdom of God. According to the repeated statements of Popes and lay Catholic leaders, the laity should say we are the Church, in the same way that the saints said that Christ lives in me. The involvement of the laity has taken diverse forms including participation in the life of the parish, unions of prayer, confraternities, communes, guilds, lay apostolates, Catholic Action, secular institutes, and lay ecclesial movements. The role of the laity in the Church includes lay ministers. Also, as a result of the clergy shortage, members of the laity have had to perform some of the roles previously performed by priests.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 08:32:44 +0000
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