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1 Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem

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1 Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem) Victor Clore http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html We have discussed the four cornerstone constitutions that inform the spirit and content of the entire Vatican Council. Now we turn to the other twelve documents that take up some teachings in more detail. There are nine decrees, and three declarations. A decree directs the church to do something as a consequence of some church teaching. A declaration states a fact of life, a right that a human person enjoys by nature, which calls for a specific behavior or attitude on the part of the church. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity is founded in all four constitutions. We will review these statements first, and then examine how this decree expands on this doctrine. Dei Verbum, the first constitution we examined, stakes out the vision of enfranchising the lay members of the church. Access to Scripture ought to be widely available to the Christian faithful (22). All the Christian faithful should learn Christ by frequent reading of the divine scriptures. Prayer accompanies reading so it becomes a dialogue between God and human reader. All priests, deacons and catechists, in fact, all the faithful, should immerse themselves in the scriptures by constant spiritual reading and diligent study (25). Sacrosanctum Concilium, the first constitution that was signed and published, sings the mantra: All believers are to be led to take a full, active and conscious participation in liturgical celebration (14, 19, 30, 48). Liturgy interacts with the people. God speaks, Christ brings the Good News, the people respond (33). The congregation actively engages in responses, psalmody, hymns, actions, movements, bodily expression, and periods of silent prayer (30-31). Servers, readers, commentators, ministers of music, choir and musical composers are genuine liturgical ministries (29,113-115, 118). These ministries encourage all of the believers to take an active part (121). The church makes every effort to prevent people from being outsiders or silent onlookers: having a good understanding of this Mystery, aware of what is happening, devoutly involved, formed in God’s Word, refreshed at the Lord’s table, offering themselves as they offer the immaculate victim – they themselves make the offering with the priest, so God may be all in all (48). Every local parish is networked with all the others around the cathedral, especially at Sunday Mass. Every celebration of Eucharist is the Church; the Church is in every Eucharist (41). Lumen Gentium, the constitution about the basic nature of the Church, explicitly recognizes opportunities and responsibilities for all the members. The Church itself is a sacrament of intimate union with God; and the images used to describe the Church clearly assume that everyone is involved: the temple of living stones, the Body of Christ (1). The common priesthood of the faithful means that all members “join in the offering of the Eucharist, and they exercise their priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer… and by active charity (10). “The sacred pastors are well aware how much the faithful contribute to the well-being of the whole church. They [the pastors] know that they were not instituted by Christ to undertake by themselves alone the church’s whole mission of salvation to the world; it is their noble task to tend the faithful, and to acknowledge their ministries and their charisms, so that all may cooperate each in her or his own way, unanimously, in the common task (30).” [Note that in this paragraph, they use the word “ministries” regarding all of the faithful.] All the faithful, whatever their condition or rank, are called to the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity (40). “The sacred pastors are to acknowledge and promote the dignity and the responsibility of the laity, make use of their prudent counsel, confidently entrust to them offices in service of the church and leave them freedom and space to act; indeed, encourage them to take up work on their own initiative (37).” There are two distinct forms of apostolate for all the faithful: 1) Everyone is commissioned to the apostolate by the Lord himself, and it is only through them, by baptism and confirmation, that the church can be active and can become the salt of the earth (33). 2) The faithful can also be called to a more immediate cooperation in the apostolate of the hierarchy. The hierarchy may routinely appoint qualified lay persons to carry out certain ecclesiastical offices (33). Moreover, in a shortage of sacred ministers, non-ordained people to some extent may also supply some sacred offices (35). As the bishops were meeting, bishops from missionary lands strongly supported reinstating the diaconate as an official ministry to help address their severe shortage of priests. This was hotly debated. Some were using the term “lay deacons;” others, concerned that the church’s “ministry” might be seriously diluted, made sure that it was clear that deacons would be a part of the ordained hierarchy; and the ministries that were listed were tasks that (at that time) were routinely carried out by ordained priests in more affluent places (29). 1 But the fact that they opened the diaconate to married men officially extended the formal ministry of the church beyond the cloister of the monastery and the celibate clergy. Even while maintaining the clear distinction between the hierarchical ministry and the apostolate of all the faithful, this return to the Church’s source in the Apostolic Church shines a spotlight on the fact that all the faithful are engaged in service of the Church. Chapters 5 (The Universal Call to Holiness) and 6 (The Religious) do not acknowledge the empowerment of all the faithful as strongly as Chapters 3 and 5 would imply. Nevertheless, holiness is stated as a character of all those who abide in God, into whose hearts the Holy Spirit has poured love (Rom 5:5). Charity is the essential nature of holiness; true disciples of Christ are noted both for love of God and love of neighbor. The evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) are recommended as models for all the faithful (42), but it is not spelled out how the general population might take on this Gospel way of life. This is left for further development. Lumen Gentium places the Virgin Mary at the climax of our consideration of the Church. Mary surpasses all other creatures. At the same time, however, she is united in Adam’s race with all human beings who are to be saved. Therefore she is also acknowledged as the super-eminent and uniquely special member of the church, as well as its model in faith and love and its most outstanding exemplar (53). In other words, Mary is a member of the faithful, the first of the saved. Her expression of unconditional love, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” is the motto for all the faithful. Instinctively we acknowledge this three times a day as we pray the Angelus. Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution, takes Lumen Gentium at its word (10, 30, 33, 37, 42) and spins out ways in which the whole Church is to be engaged with the joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of the world. The Spirit of the Lord fills the whole earth. The people of God (and the human race of which it is a part) are of service to each other; the church’s mission is religious, and by that very fact outstandingly human (11). Human dignity requires that we act through free choice, motivated personally from within (17). “Faithful to conscience, Christians unite with all other people in searching for true solutions to the many moral problems which arise in individuals and in society (16).” No one can indulge in a merely individualist morality. As groups and individuals we cultivate moral and social virtues and propagate them throughout society. Justice and charity are fulfilled when everyone personally contributes to the common good, and supports institutions that improve the common good. Our responsibility transcends our particular groups – it extends to the entire world. With the help of grace, we will be new people and builders of a new humanity (30). The sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood is the foretaste of the heavenly banquet (38). Christ works in human hearts through the Spirit: the faithful energize the life of the church, and give the world a Christian spirit (43.4). The gifts of the Spirit vary: some are called to give clear witness to a desire for the heavenly home; others are called to the earthly service of humanity. “Christians should rejoice that they are in a position to engage in all their earthly activities and they should bring their human, domestic, professional, scientific and technical activities into a living synthesis with religious values which orient and coordinate everything to the glory of God (43.1).” Anticipating the new earth in eternity should not weaken, but rather stimulate cultivating this temporal earth where a new human family is increasing and can even now constitute a foreshadowing of the new age, mysteriously emerging already: a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace (#39) The church proclaims the rights of humanity and the value of modern times (41). Traditional values are being challenged, especially by the young, “who are at times impatient, if not in revolt, and who have become aware of their importance to society and wish to be active at an earlier age (7).” Our religious mission assists in constructing and strengthening the human community, initiating works that serve everyone, especially the needy.
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