| 135 the Juridical Identity and the Apostolate of the Laity

ARTICOLO DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/ 10.30446/2611-4143.VOL20N47A2018PP135-163

THE JURIDICAL IDENTITY AND THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY IN SAINT VINCENT PALLOTTI

L’IDENTITÀ GIURIDICA E L’APOSTOLATO DEI LAICI IN SAN VINCENZO PALLOTTI

Peter Ndubuisi Ugwuegulem1

Abstract: From different per- Sommario: Da diversi punti di spectives, efforts have been made vista, molte persone hanno com- and continue to be made by many piuto sforzi e continuano a trac- people to trace and highlight the ciare e mettere in luce la relazione relationship between Pallotti and tra Pallotti e i laici. Al centro di the laity. At the heart of these dif- queste diverse prospettive, c’è la ferent perspectives, tends to be sola intenzione di mettere in luce the single intention of highlight- la visione originale e profetica di ing Pallotti’s original and pro- Pallotti sull’identità giuridica e phetic view on the juridical iden- l’apostolato dei laici dentro e fuo- tity and the apostolate of the laity ri la Chiesa. Per alcuni fu uno dei in and outside the Church. To più forti pionieri dell’azione cat- some people, he was one of the tolica, che favorì la partecipazio- strongest pioneers of the Catholic ne dei laici ad alcune delle azioni action, which accommodated the sociali e caritative della Chiesa. participation of the laity in some Per altri, Pallotti era più che un of the social and charitable ac- pioniere dell’azione cattolica in tions of the Church. To others, cui ai laici veniva dato il privile- Pallotti was more than a pioneer gio della partecipazione. Questo of catholic action within which secondo loro, è perché in Pallotti

1 Fr. Peter Ndubuisi Ugwuegulem, is a Pallottine priest from Nigeria. He was ordained a Catholic priest in August 2011. Since then, he has worked as a spiritual director in the Theology House at Mvolye Cameroon. After that, he was sent to Rome to do one year course on the spirituality of St. Vincent Pallotti. At the end of this program, he was sent to study Canon Law at the Pontificia Università Lateranense in Rome. Currently, he is the novice Master in Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected].

N. 46/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 135 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM the laity were given the privilege si può vedere uno sforzo ispirato- of participation. This according to re e unico per evidenziare, anche them, is because in Pallotti, one se in modo implicito, l’identità can see an inspirational and giuridica fondamentale dei laici unique effort to highlight, alt- che accorda loro il diritto fonda- hough in an implicit manner, the mentale all’apostolato rispetto al- fundamental juridical identity of la mentalità del suo tempo. In the laity that accords them fun- questo senso, hanno potuto soste- damental right to apostolate as nere che Pallotti andava oltre la against the mentality of his time. concezione di un’“azione cattoli- In this sense, they were able to ca” in cui la partecipazione dei uphold that Pallotti went beyond laici ad alcune delle azioni sociali the conception of a “catholic ac- e caritative della Chiesa è basata tion” in which the participation of sul privilegio, sulla concezione di the laity in some of the social and un apostolato fondamentale co- charitable actions of the Church struito su principi teologici, eccle- is on the basis of privilege, to the siologici e canonici e attaccato in- conception of a fundamental trinsecamente all’identità di tutti i apostolate built upon theological, cristiani. Quindi, invece di vedere ecclesiological and canonical i laici come coloro che hanno solo principles and attached intrinsi- il privilegio di impegnarsi in al- cally to the Christian identity of cune azioni cattoliche, entro de- all Christians. Hence, instead of terminati limiti concessi loro dalla seeing the laity as those who only gerarchia, Pallotti li presenta giu- have the privilege of engaging in stamente e coraggiosamente come some catholic actions, within par- aventi il diritto fondamentale e at- ticular set limits conceded to tivo di partecipare all’apostolato them by the hierarchy, Pallotti della Chiesa insieme al clero e ai rightly and courageously presents religiosi con pari dignità. La do- them as having the fundamental manda quindi è: come ha fatto a and active right to participate in spiegare questa sua concezione? the apostolate of the Church alto- gether with the clergy and religious with equal dignity. The question therefore is, how did he go about explaining this conception of his?

Keywords: juridical identity, lay Parole-chiave: identità giuridica, apostolate apostolato dei laici

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The purpose of this article

This article has the purpose of achieving three things. The first purpose focuses on producing an elaborate, systematic, orderly, schol- arly and scientific work that will highlight mostly, the indispensability of the apostolic role of the lay people in ensuring the future survival of the life, apostolate and mission of the Church in a fast growing and changing world. As such, it will serve as a powerful instrument that will empower the great number of the laity in the Church to become fully aware of their indispensable apostolic role in the Church. A role that is not in any way conceded to them by any ecclesiastical authority but remains constitutive and essential to their Christian vocation on the basis of their baptism and confirmation. It has the purpose of provoking them into active apostles in the Church, who, together with priests and religious, will continue to sustain the Church and its apostolate and mission from one generation to another. The second purpose is to use this article as an effective instrument that will enable the hierarchy continue in their all important responsibility of making the laypeople become more aware of their active apostolic responsibility in and outside the Church. Consequently, they will be enabled to create the mature space and collaborative spirit that will nourish this responsibility. By so doing, laypeople will become more aware of their true place within the Church. They will become more aware of their apostolic obligations and rights, which will have the ultimate purpose of producing a vibrant and living Church ready to carry its mission and apostolate to every corner of the world. This will then bring about a Church were a vibrant community life and constitutive apostolic activity of all will not be sacrificed at the altar of clerical or hierarchical authority. We will indeed have a Church, where the structure will rightly be in service to the active life and active participation of all her members in line with the inspiration of Vincent Pallotti. The last aim of this article is to highlight the fact that at the heart of the survival of the life, apostolate and mission of the Church are the principles of “communion”, “co-responsibility”, “solidarity” “eccle- siality”, and “collaborative and active participation of all the Christi- fideles” in the very life, apostolate and mission of the Church but in accordance with the status and condition of life particular to each person. Consequently, it emphasizes the truth that the Church is indeed

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«a community of the people of God, in constant communion», comprising of members with diverse states of life, who in accordance with their diverse states of life, have a common and peculiar mission and apostolate of bringing to fulfillment, the very apostolate and mission, which Christ handed over to the Church.

Introduction

Many contemporary political and social issues revolve around conflicting claims of disparate identities involving different groups, since the conception of identity influences, in many different ways, human thoughts and actions. In the world today, the politics of global confrontation is frequently seen as a corollary of religious or cultural divisions in the world. The world is seen implicitly as a federation of religions or of civilizations, thereby ignoring all the other ways in which people see themselves, civilizational or religious partitioning of the world population leads to the approach through which human identity is understood as being members of an exactly one group (in this case defined by civilization or religion). Amartya Sen’s explanations of Identity bring out the importance of identity in human life. We are not going to treat Pallotti’s notion of the juridical identity of laity on Sen’s explanation, although it really helps to clarify issues on identity in general. We are going to examine Pallotti’s notion on the juridical identity and apostolate of the laity from the point of view of associations and affiliations in the ecclesiastical context. This will essentially be dealing with the canonical expositions “De Christifidelium Consociationibus”. This implies that in the Church, there are associations of Christ’s faithful who devote themselves to works of the apostolate; evangelization, works of piety or charity as described in (can. 289 § 1) of the 1983 CIC.

1. The religious context of Pallotti’s time

For a better and a deeper understanding of Pallotti’s notion of the juridical identity and apostolate of the laity, it is pertinent we understand the ecclesiology, the situation and the image of the Church of his time. The ecclesiological conception of Pallotti’s time was clearly apologetic and counter-modernistic. It had treaties essentially limited to the doctrine concerning the hierarchy and this was in total reaction

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against the protestant reformation and modernism2. As such, salvation was exclusively mediated through the hierarchy established by Christ and especially through the Pope. Laypeople were merely passive re- ceivers of the gifts of salvation and only the Pope and the Bishops were the moderators and responsible for the apostolate3. The above context was described by Yves Congar as a “hierarchical ecclesiology” embodied in the whole concept of clericalism, where great emphasis was placed on the hierarchical or pyramidal as- pect of the Church4. Consequently, there was very little or no ecclesial responsibility for the laity. Their simple and everyday responsibility was to pray, listen to the clergy; make offerings to the Church and above all, take orders and instructions from the hierarchy. Hence, there existed a radical and sharp separation between the hierarchy who were so powerful and domineering and the insignificant and powerless laity. This exclusive and powerful clerical mentality that was dominat- ing the Church of that time was very visible in the declaration, which Pope Gregory XVI made in 1835 on Church and State: “Commissum Divinitus” to the clergy of Switzerland. In this declaration against those who claimed to be fighting for the protection of the rights of the laity, the Pope argued that no one can ignore the fact that the Church is “an unequal society” in which God has reserved for some the mission to command and the others the mission to obey. The clergy were the ones with the reserved mission to command while the laypeople were the ones with the mission to obey the decisions of the clergy5. The fundamental thing that can be said of this time is that the visible Church was equals to the institution and the hierarchy6. This was because in most of the documents, there were two categories of people within the same Church: the spiritual people who were the “Priests” and “Monks” and the carnal people who were “the laypeople” because they were considered to be living according to the flesh and in the world7.

2 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church. A study for a theology of the laity by a master of Twentieth–Century, Westminster–Maryland 1985, pp. 42- 47. 3 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church. p. 53. 4 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Ministeri e comunione ecclesiale, Bologna 1973, p. 12. 5 Cf. GREGORIUS PP. XVI, Encyclicae: Commissum Divinitus, in URL: , (17/05/1835), n. 4. 6 Cf. A. ROSMINI, Delle cinque piaghe della santa Chiesa, Milano 1997, p. 51. 7 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church, pp. 10-11

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From 1903 to 1914, Pope Pious X, made successive efforts to not only confirm the above declared idea but also modified it. Hence, when on the 9th of December 1905, France emanated the law separat- ing the Church from the state, Pope Pious X responded in protest through a publication titled; Vehementer Nos. In this document the Pope clearly expressed that the Church is a society of men containing within its own fold, Lords who have full and perfect powers for ruling, teaching and judging and the multitude whose role is only to obey and follow. Hence he states as follows: «The Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the different de- grees of the hierarchy and the multitude of the faithful. So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members towards that end; the duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like docile flock, to follow the Pastors»8.

The above quotation, presents a clear conception of a traditional theology that had a pyramidal idea of a Church, with the Pontifical Monarch who had a very strong concentration on his jurisdictional and sacramental power at the topmost. The laypeople on their own, were not only placed at the base of this pyramid, but were greatly expected to totally submit themselves to the clergy like group of minors whose exclusive and fundamental responsibility was no other than submitting themselves to the directions and authority of the clergy9. Thus, they had by that time, a very passive juridical identity and a strong passive apostolate in the Church. This idea could be traced back to an earlier idea identified with Gratian. He, with his notion of “Dio sunt genera christianorum” which he took from Saint Jerome’s text, spoke of two kinds of Chris- tians – the cleric and the laypeople (laos). He, on the one hand, identi-

8 PIUX PP. X, Encyclicas: Vehementer Nos, 11 Februarius 1906, in ASS XXXIX (1906), n. 8. 9 Cf. A. LONDERO, Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, in Fate risplendere la santità di Dio. Atti del Convegno: Apostolato Universale, Rivista semestrale dell’Istituto s. Vincenzo Pallotti, Anno XV – Numero speciale (2013), Roma 2013, p. 68.

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fied the clergy as those occupied with divine office to serve as guides of the people of God whom they govern by election of God and as those at the service of God dedicated to contemplation and prayers and totally separated from temporal things. On the other hand, he identified the laypeople as those allowed to possess temporal goods, but only what they need for use. They are allowed to marry, to till the earth, to pronounce judgment on peoples’ disputes and plead in court of law, to lay their offerings on the altar, to pay their tithes and so can be saved, if they do good and avoid evil10. Hence he states as follows: «Dio sunt genera Christianorum. Est autem unum genus, quod mancipatum divino officio, et deditum contempla- tioni et orationi, ab omni strepitu temporalium cessare convenit, ut sunt clerici, et Deo devoti, videlicet conver- si… Aliud vero genus est Christianorum, ut sunt laici… His licet temporalia possidere, sed non nisi ad usum»11.

This text shows a clerical conception of the Church, thus mani- festing a reaffirmation of the Church as an unequal society. At the same time, it reflects a hierarchy of values, showing a restrictive conception of the lay faithful as seen as a concession to human weakness- es and therefore not as the best condition. There are also two other problematic impressions that can be drawn from the Gratian’s decree quoted above. The first impression is seen in the idea that the lay condition is a concession to the laity as a result of their human weakness. The second impression is evident in the notion, which gradually developed into a general tendency, which upheld solidly that since the laypeople were basically concerned in temporal affairs, they had no active part in the sphere of sacred things and in the building up of the Church12. These two mentalities domi- nated and conditioned the subsequent ecclesial and spiritual thoughts and conceptions of the Church of these periods. Consequently, not only that texts written during these periods followed the same pattern of argument, it became inserted into the Corpus Iuris Canonici as part of the canon law sources of the time. A clear example is the Bull of Ur- ban II of 1092, which confirmed the foundation of the canons of Rait-

10 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay People in the Church, p. 11. 11 GRATIANUS, Concordia discordantium canonum, 884-885. 12 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church, p. 12.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 141 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM enbach, which argued that from the beginning, the Church has offered two kinds of life to her children. One is to help the insufficiency of the weak (referring to the laity) and another to perfect the goodness of the strong (referring to the clerical and monastic life)13. Again, this was used as a basis to justify the necessary passive role which the laity must play in the apostolate of the Church. On the apostolate of the laity, Congar argues that the code of the canon law of these era, which extended up to the 1917 CIC, were the code of the sacraments, which presented the laity in a general way, as having only the right to receive spiritual goods from the cleric, especially, the help necessary for their salvation14. In order words, it was indeed deficient to the extent that it contributed a lot in downgrading the identity and the apostolate of the laypeople within and outside the Church. The religious context and the ecclesiological conception described above had a great impact in the juridical understanding of the image and nature of the Church of Pallotti’s time too. This of course, created the basis upon which the juridical identity of the laity was built. From a strictly juridical point of view, in the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which was an explicit expression of the ecclesiology of Pallotti’s time described above, the image of the Church was totally built upon an explicit hierarchical ecclesiology. It had the conception of the Church as a “perfect society”, and “an institution hierarchically organized” with unequal members15. With this, the laity, as already mentioned, became defined as those who are neither priests nor religious. As a result, there was an insignificant juridical identity and apostolic role attributed to them. This idea is substantiated in the view that the only few significant occasions where the laypeople were mentioned in the Decrees of the Council of Trent were totally in negative contexts or terms. For example, one of the Council’s decrees on the reception of the Eucharist on both kinds, states as follows: «the laity and non-consecrating clergy are under no divine command to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist under both kinds and that it can in no way be doubted (with in-

13 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church, p. 12. 14 Cf. Y. CONGAR, Lay people in the Church, p. 17. 15 Cf. Izzi C., La Partecipazione del Fedele Laico al munus Sanctificandi: I ministeri Liturgici laicali, Roma 2001, p. 34.

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tegrity in faith) that communion under either kind is sufficient for their salvation»16.

The second context was on the insistence of the Council of Trent that in the reception of holy Communion, priests celebrating should administer it to themselves, while the laity must receive from the hands of the priests17. The third context was in “the Doctrines and Canons on the Sacrament of Orders”. In it, the Council was condemn- ing the opinion of those who say that those who have once been rightly ordained can again become lay persons if they do not exercise the ministry of the word of God18. The point to highlight with these views is the view that the laity, in line with the general hierarchical image of the Church of this era, seemed to have been considered so insignificant in this Council that no attention whatsoever was given to what might be their distinctive juridical identity and active apostolate.

2. The identity of the lay people according to Pallotti

It was under the above described religious context and conditions that saint Vincent Pallotti received his new inspiration to promote with vigor, the fundamental and constitutive apostolate of the laypeople in the Church. In this inspiration, he sought to affirm rightly, the positive identity of the laity within the Church. He did so by reuniting the clergy, the consecrated and the laypeople together, af- firming that all Christians constitute the one and only Holy Church of Christ. As such, they have the same right and obligation to feel being the Church. With this strong notion, one could argue that he was able to lay the fundamental bases upon which the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 9-13, 31-32), established the new image of

16 COUNCIL OF TRENT, Doctrine and Canons on Communion under both Species and the Communion of young children (1726), in P. HUNERMANN (ed), H. DEN- ZINGER, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Compendium, of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, Latin – English, 43 (Ed.), San Francisco 2010, p.414. 17 Cf. COUNCIL OF TRENT, Decrees on the Sacrament of the Eucharist (1648), in P. HUNERMANN (ed.), H. DENZINGER, P. 396. 18 Cf. Ibid., Decree on the Request for the Granting of the Chalice (1767), in P. HUNERMANN (ed.), H. DENZINGER, P. 423.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 143 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM the Church as “the people of God” and the peculiar juridical identity and apostolate of the lay faithful. Pallotti was able to structuralize his new idea in “the Union of the Catholic Apostolate”, comprising of the clergy, religious and laypeople working together for a common apostolic goal in accordance with their various states of life. Consequently, his inspiration became one of the uniquely inspired ways of responding, not only to the problems of the Church of his time, but also, to the problems of our own time manifested clearly in the Second Vatican Council. Pallotti, being fully aware of the above described context of his time, moved away from describing the laypeople, not from the actual sense of it as “those who are neither priests nor religious”, but from the original sense of the terminology as «people»19. In order words, he described them from who they are and not from whom they are not. One could argue that perhaps, he did notice that it was the misguided and an entirely negative definition of them as those who are neither Priest nor religious, that led to the easy and wrong assumption of them as having neither an active juridical identity nor specific and positive vocation to apostolate. Therefore, he implicitly, on the basis of his writings, described them as «a group of “people” belonging to the Church of Christ through baptism and confirmation»20. A critical view of this description, as Angelo Lôndero would point out, will lead one to the understanding that Pallotti’s interest is to link the juridical identity of the laypeople within the perspective of anyone who is baptized and not within the perspective of those who are not occupying hierarchical positions and functions21. One might argue that Pallotti’s positive notion and description of the laity, was a great indication that he seemed to have upheld a totally and new different notion of the image of the Church from that of his time, expressed above all in the Council of Trent. Hence, Pallotti,

19 Cf. A. LONDERO, Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, in Apostolato Univer- sale, Rivista semestrale dell’istituto S. Vincenzo Pallotti, Anno XV-2013, Roma 2013. p.70. 20 The emphasis made is mine. However, as we will see later in the third chapter, this description of the Laity by him collaborated well in the Counciliar document Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 30-31) and (cann. 204 §1, 207 § 1) of the 1983 CIC where both the Council and the legislator highlighted the peculiar juridical identity of the laypeople from within the entire people of God. 21 Cf. A. LONDERO, Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, p. 70.

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as against the image of the Church of his time as “a perfect society”…22, viewed it rather as «the Church of Christ»23, made up «dei fedeli» (faithful)24 whom he recognizes as «il popolo» (the people)25. In other words, for Pallotti, the Church of Christ is “a community made of people known as the faithful”. Then the next question is who are “these people” according to him? Responding to the above question, one can uphold that Pallotti’s notion of the identity of this people of God in the Church of Christ can meaningfully be analyzed and understood from the nature and membership of the UAC which he founded and identified as the auxiliary body of the Church26. According to him, the UAC is an association of the “Christian faithful” that invites all the “baptized” – clergy, religious and laypeople to work together, each according to his or her own status and condition of life and according to his or her own proper apostolate, for the perfect realization of the apostolate of the Church27. One can see that in this description of the nature and membership of the UAC and its notion as the auxiliary body of the Church, was Pallotti’s notion of the juridical identity of “this people”. Hence, implicitly, he understood them as “a people, who share a common Christian identity and vocation as members of the Church of Christ through their common baptism and confirmation”28. Again, extrapo- lating from the reality which he insisted must exist in the UAC and between it and the hierarchical structure of the Church as described in chapter one, he implicitly maintained the identity of this people of God as those, who, on the basis of their common baptism and confirmation, share a common mission and apostolate that is to be exercised in accordance with each one’s own state and condition of life. They are bounded together in constant communion and unity with them-

22 Cf.IZZI C., La Partecipazione del fedele laico al munus sanctificandi, p. 34. 23 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, pia società, p. 49. 24 Cf.Ibid., pp. 211, 224, 360. 25 Cf.Ibid., pp. 194, 237-238. 26 Cf. Ibid., p. 6. 27 Cf. Ibid., pp. 4-5. 28 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, Pia Società, p. 49. These three categories of the people that make up “the people of God” in the Church of Christ as described by Pallotti, was also adopted and developed by the Council in Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 9-16) and later by the legislator in (can. 207 §§ 1-2) of the 1983 CIC.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 145 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM selves, and the ecclesiastical authority because of their common purpose of a perfect realization of the mission and apostolate of the Church29. Pallotti continued to emphasize that the common Christian identity and vocation of this people of God in the Church of Christ, on the basis of their common baptism and confirmation, accords them equality in Christian dignity and apostolic action and merit30. To this he affirms that for example, if in the exercise of their various apostolate, a lay person carries out his or her lay apostolate with much more love for God and his neighbor more than any member of the clergy, the lay person’s apostolate becomes more acceptable and dignified than that of the clergy31. This implies that the distinction among them is only on the basis of functions and roles and not in dignity and action32. This is in direct contrast to the declaration of the Council of Trent that con- demned any opinion that arrogated on whatever ground, common priesthood to all Christians and as such, attach spiritual equality to both the hierarchy and the laity33. According to Pallotti, this people of God in the Church of Christ are of every status, gender, age, and condition of life34. They exist everywhere in the world. This is affirmed when he says that the as- signed and assisting procurators should see that they are always fer- vent, and untiring in propagating, and spreading the most perfect and active devotional exercises in “the people” all over the world, etc35. However, from the point of view of the description of the nature and membership of the UAC, Pallotti identified three categories of the people that make up the Church of Christ and their distinctive states of

29 This was later adopted and developed more clearly in (LG 14) and (can. 209 § 1) of the 1983 CIC. 30 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, manoscritti giuridici, pp. 121-122. 31 Cf. F. AMOROSO (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Profeta dell’Apostolato dei Laici, p. 4. 32 This notion of identifying the distinction between the clerical and lay states on the basis of function and roles was later affirmed and developed in the Second Vatican document, Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 10, 32), and translated later into a juridical language by the legislator of the 1983 CIC in (can. 208). 33 Cf. COUNCIL OF TRENT, Decree on the Request for the Granting of the Chalice (1767), in P. HUNERMANN (ed.), H. DENZINGER, P. 423. 34 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, pia società, p. 49. 35 Cf. Ibid., pp. 359-360.

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life. He identified them as: the clergy, the religious and laypeople. The clergy have «the clerical or hierarchical state» as their state. It has the sacrament of the sacred order as its foundation. The religious have «the consecrated state» as theirs and has the religious profession of the three evangelical councils of “poverty”, “chastity” and “obedience” as its foundation. The laypeople, among whom are consecrated people, have «the lay state» as their own state. It has its foundation in baptism and secularity36. Pallotti’s implicit inclusion of “secularity” as an essential part of the identity of the laity is seen in some of his affirmations when speaking about their peculiar apostolate. It is evident, for example, in his affirmation that the UAC was formed so that the more the needs of the world continues to increase, the more it becomes necessary to invite the laypeople of one and other gender, status, grade, condition and profession, so that animated by the true Christian charity and with temporal means and temporal works and also through their profession, which has to be freely used, with all their prayers, and taking ad- vantage of all their natural gifts, and the grace which they have received from God, they will work in such a way that will be energetic, effective and persevering in realizing the worthy things of God37. One can pin point some of the important concepts that refer to this “secular character”. These are: «the needs of the word»; «true Christian Chari- ty or love», «temporal means», «temporal works», «temporal profession» and «natural gifts»38. Above, all one can conclude that Pallotti’s idea of presenting a positive and active view of the juridical identity of the laity was to help him establish the grounds upon which he could speak about what

36 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, regole dei ss. ritiri, collegi, seminarii e monasteri(1839), vol. II, Curia Generalizia della Società dell’Apostolato Cattolico, Roma 1965, p. 178. This categorization made by Pal- lotti and their foundations were totally adopted, developed and translated into juridical language in (LG 32), (cann. 207 §§ 1-2 and 1008) of the 1983 CIC. 37 CF. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere Complete, Appendice alla regola, pp. 2-3. 38 Not only that this concept of “secularity” was adopted to highlight the peculiarity of the juridical identity of the laity in line with Pallotti in the Counciliar documents, Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 31), Ad Gentes (cf. AG 14), and in Pope John Paul’s II exhortation on the apostolate of the laity, Christifideles laici (n.15), and the legislator of the 1983 CIC in (can. 225 §§ 1-2), they all established its meaning on the principles adopted by Pallotti.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 147 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM he termed their «fundamental and intrinsic right and obligation» to apostolate within and outside the Church. It was also to enable him achieve two other important things: to create the great possibility of enabling the hierarchy overcome the intense and negative distinction between the hierarchy and laity and to develop in the laypeople, the active consciousness through which they can participate actively in the apostolate of the Church39.

3. Pallotti’s notion of apostolate

During Pallotti’s time, the notion of apostolate was on the one hand, narrowly understood by the hierarchy of the Church and on the other hand, never understood by the lay faithful. The hierarchy understood it strictly as «the work of the evangelization», «the sanctification of the world» and «the building up of the Church», reserved exclusively and uniquely for the clerics, especially the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops in communion with him. Thus, laypeople were seen as not having any active role to play in it40. In view of the above limited notion, Pallotti emphasized the necessary need for the Church to develop and elaborate a sound and profound theological and canonical declaration on the apostolate. This, according to him, should be published in form of a Papal decree and be confirmed as such within a canonical institution. It should also be well reasoned to the point that a clear distinction would be made between the supreme apostolate of the Roman Pontiff, which he always exercises under his supreme apostolic jurisdiction from the other non-supreme apostolate41. This could be said to have been fulfilled with the Second Vatican Council with especially, the Conciliar documents: Lumen Gentium, and Apostolicam Actuositatem and with Book II of the 1983 CIC “On the people of God”. Being moved by that need to have a more profound notion of the apostolate, he offered his own definitions of apostolate. Here, he offered three major definitions from three different perspectives. As

39 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Scritti Apostolici Minori. parte pri- ma, V, Roma 1968, p. 236. 40 Cf. A. LONDERO, Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, p.70. 41 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 185.

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such, he defined it as «the redemptive work of Christ», as «mandate to continue the very mission of Christ» and as a «supreme mission inherited from Christ ».

3.1 Apostolate as the very redemptive mission of Christ

For Pallotti, apostolate per se, consists of Christ’s own very work of salvation of the world and of all humanity42. It has its foundation on Christ’s free and generously acceptance of it from his Father and reached its perfect realization in his work of redemption43. As such, it became Christ’s own very apostolate through his own sense of personal responsibility towards it. It is Christ’s personal and free acceptance of the Father’s «mandate» for him to come into the world to save it (cf. I Jn. 4, 14)44. With the acceptance of this mandate, he became the apostle of the Eternal Father. In other words, the very apostolate of Jesus is his obedience to the salvific plans of the celestial Father, which is at the same time, the very work of redemption45. Meanwhile, this apostolate according to Pallotti, forms the primordial foundation of all apostolate46. It was an apostolate contained in God’s infinite desire and merciful cum salvific plan for humanity and the entire world. This divine apostolate embodying God’s salvific plan, became visible and concrete in God’s sending of his only begotten son to restore the dis- turbed order caused by the disobedience of the original sin. The Son accepted this mandate and became the apostle of the eternal father. This is to say that Christ became the “messenger-apostle” with the responsibility of carrying out the work of salvation as a restorer and redeemer. He is sent by the Father to repair the relationship between God and humanity and humanity and amongst themselves destroyed through the sin of Adam and Eve47.

42 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER(cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, relati- vi alla Pia Società dell’Apostolato Cattolico, Roma 1929, p.5. 43 Cf. F. AMOROSO (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti profeta dell’apostolato dei laici, Roma 1988, p 9. 44 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p.5. 45 Cf. Ibidem. 46 Cf. D. PISTELLA, “Spirituality ed Identità” Pallottiana, Roma 1980, pp. 106-107. 47 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p.5.

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3.2 Apostolate as a supreme mission

The idea of apostolate as the supreme mission inherited from Christ focuses on the real sense of the world «apostolate». As such, he defined it “as a supreme mission for the glorification of God and salvation of all”. It is about cooperating in the realization of the saving will of God the Father for all people and about each person doing what he or she can and should do to bring about the infinite glory of God and the salvation of all48. With this point, he, basing on (Mt. 28, 19-20) alluded that all Christians (all the baptized) are invited and sent by Christ to all parts of the world to carry the message of the Gospel to the people as apostles. However, he divided the apostolate here into three classes. The first class is the «very work» of the apostolate. The second class is «prayer» for the success of the work of apostolate. The third class is «offering» of temporal goods for the success and fulfillment of the work of apostolate. The three however, have the same spiritual privilege and exist as a unified apostolate with the same pur- pose49. Consequently, he drew the direct logical conclusion that anyone- clergy, religious or laity, who performs meritorious works for the propagation of faith and the reign of God and works for the spiritual and temporal good of his neighbors, performs a true and proper apostolate. Such a person is worthy to be called an apostle of Christ who is himself the apostle of the Eternal Father50. Pallotti concluded by insisting that those who engage in this apostolate, which is not theirs but that of the Church, do so as apostles of Christ who himself, is the apostle of the Eternal Father51. He also highlighted that the effective fruits of the apostolate are nothing but evangelization52 of the people and the unity of the Church in which all become one sheepfold under the one Lordship of Jesus Christ. But for this to be realized, the apostolate must necessarily be universal and in-

48 Cf. Ibid., p. 143. 49 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Manoscritti Giu- ridici, pp. 265, 395. 50 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 5. 51 Cf. Ibid., p. 6. 52 Here, the original word used by Pallotti was “conversione” meanning the con- version of pagans and protestants who in accordance to the mentality of his time are in error of faith (cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Com- plete. Appendice alla Regole, pp. 182-183) .

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clusive, be it to all Christians or to all means and places53. It does not focus only on those who have not accepted the Christian faith and those who live in error of faith54, but also on the revival and reawakening of the Christian love of the Christian faithful (dei fideli)55.

3.3 Apostolate as «Mandate» to continue the very mission of Christ

Moving further with the exposition of his understanding of the notion of apostolate, Pallotti also defined it from its original sense as a «mandate» (Jn. 20, 21), directly from Christ to his followers to carry to all the people, the light of the truth, and to others sent by the apostles and later the Bishops to various parts of the world to propagate the faith of Jesus Christ56. In this sense, he linked it with the notion of mission and argued that anyone who realizes a mission in the name of Christ is called an apostle. An apostle signifies one who is sent for an apostolate57. He identified the source of the primordial mandate in the person of Christ the redeemer who mandated all Christians (all the baptized) to carry the light of the Good News to all people and to all parts of the world58. He upheld that even though not all Christians can ordinarily, directly and personally engage in the sacred ministry of preaching the Good News for the salvation of souls59, all can sustain it through their own proper talents, works, prayer and contribution of their temporal goods and other means appropriate to their limit60. It is this point that the apostolate of the lay faithful becomes significant. However, Pallotti did establish two stages of this mandate in the Church. He pointed out that the first stage of this first mandate was di-

53 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, pp. 182-184. 54 Pallotti, in his original language describe these people as « degl’infedeli». 55 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Scritti Apostolici Minori, pp. 70-71. 56 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p.7. 57 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p.7. 58 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, pp.144- 145. 59 This can be understood today to be his reference to the office of preaching reserved only for the ordained ministers. 60 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Manoscritti Giu- ridici, pp. 292, 377.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 151 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM rectly from Christ to his twelve apostles61. In it, he sent them into the world to proclaim the Gospel and make new disciples as indicated in (Mk. 16, 15). He continued to point out that this «apostolate», which has its root in the redemptive work of Christ, was from the beginning the first responsibility or commitment of the early apostles who came to associate themselves with Christ at the beginning of his public ministry. In this way, they become the apostles of Christ who is the apostle of the Eternal Father62. Meanwhile, with time, this mandate, given to the apostles, and represented by saint Peter the Vicar of Christ, was handed over to the Church through the Supreme Pontiff as his legiti- mate successor63 and the visible head of the Church and from the Church to all the Christian faithful. Therefore, even after the apostles’ handover, the Church, apostolate continues to be a direct and active participation in and the continuation of the redemptive work of Christ, which the Church inherited from the apostles64. This leads us to the second stage which emerged in the progress of time in which the Church continues to mandate all her members to the entire world to preach the Good News65. It is a stage that involves the incorporation of the clergy, the religious and the laypeople working together for its perfect realization but each according to his or her status and capacity but with equality in dignity and apostolic action66.

61 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, pp.139-140. 62 Cf. Ibid., p. 140. 63 Here, one can begin to have a clear idea of the Magisterium and the apostolic succession of the Church with their juridical implications developed much later in (LG 19-20) and in (cann. 330-367) of the 1983 CIC. 64 Cf. D. PISTELLA, L’apostolato dei laici, p. 28. 65 Cf. F. MOCCIA, San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, pp.144-145. 66 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 8. This same idea was adopted by the legislator of the 1983 CIC in (can. 781) that «since the whole Church is by its nature missionary and the work of evangelization must be held as a fundamental duty of the people of God, all the Christian faithful, conscious of their responsibility, are to assume their part in missionary work».

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3.4 The objectives of apostolate

Pallotti identified the main objectives of this «apostolate» as consisting in three basic things: «the propagation and revival of faith», «rekindling of charity» and «the propagation and defense of the Christian faith»67.

3.4.1 The propagation and revival of faith and promoting the glory of God

The first thing Pallotti affirmed here is that faith has the divine revelation which has already reached its completion two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ as its object. Hence, it is to be propagated to those who have not yet heard of it and be revived among Christians. But then this propagation of faith can only be realized through those good works that have the excellent purpose of propagating the faith which leads to redemption68. They include pious institutions of every kind, sacrifices, sacraments, preaching of the Word of God, Christian instructions, prayer, indulgence, pious institutions of hospitals, charity houses, and all other pious desires which God has placed in the hands of man for the purpose of Christian chari- ty69.

3.4.2 The rekindling of charity

The rekindling of charity here takes two forms: ad intra, within the Church and ad extra outside the Church towards people of good- will. This is substantiated by Pallotti’s affirmation that apostolate, including that of the laity, does not focus only on those who are not yet Christians but also on the Catholic faithful70. It entails therefore the rekindling of Christian love amongst Christians themselves and in other people of good-will. Hence, it is something that begins from within the Church and then moves towards other people of good-will

67 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Manoscritti Giuri- dici, p. 301. 68 Cf. Ibid., pp. 302-303. 69 Cf. Ibid., p. 303. 70 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Scritti Apostolici Minori. Parte pri- ma, p. 46.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 153 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM in the entire world. But in as much as the main focus of the first part of the mission is on the external evangelization, the second part should focus on the internal revival of the faith and charity of all Christian, focusing on the catholic families, widows, youths, etc71. It involves stimulating of religious spirit and of piety and every form of devotional exercises among Catholics72. It is not about starting or experiencing something totally new about the Holy Spirit but about tapping, with renewed vigor, into his presence and actions already existing in the human person and in the Church.

3.4.3 Propagating the Christian faith

In Pallotti’s vision, one of the essential content of apostolate is the propagating of the Christian faith wherever one may find one- self73. That was why in the UAC, he invited the laypeople of every condition of life, to unite together with the clergy and the religious for the revival of faith, reawakening of charity and propagating the Chris- tian faith all over the world. They are all to invite and empower one another to become spiritual crusaders of all Christians, who have the purpose of bringing all humanity into one sheepfold of our Lord Jesus Christ74. More also, he pointed out that this includes providing as best as possible, and in any part of the world, sacred objects of devotion, sacred books appropriate to the people and translated in diverse lan- guages of the people, crucifixes, medals and small crosses, holy imag- es of Christian devotions, etc75. It also involves correcting the vices and errors of faith, provoking and empowering religious spirit, taking to heart the promotion of every kind of devotional exercises and religious practices geared towards the re-animation of the faith and lastly the “inculturation”76 between various cultures of various societies with the gospel values77.

71 Cf. Ibid., pp. 49-50. 72 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Manoscritti Giuri- dici, pp. 146-147. 73 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Scritti Apostolici Minori, p. 46. 74 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 4. 75 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 4. 76 In its original sense, Pallotti, at the influence of the religious mentality of his time, spoke of fighting against the evils in many cultures d 77 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Manoscritti Giuridici, pp. 146-147.

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3.4.4 Lay apostolate according to Pallotti

In order to buttress his points on the true meaning and nature of lay apostolate, From the writings of Pallotti, described by many people such as Pope VI as the «inspired prophet of the lay apostolate» and by Cardinal Luigi Lambruschini as the «promoter of the lay apostolate»78, one can deduce Pallotti’s notion of the lay apostolate as nothing but the active and non restrictive, but proportionate participation of the laypeople, in the universal apostolate of Christ handed over to the Church. It is about the lay faithful imitating Christ in his work of salvation and love for God79. Pallotti in his work Opere Complete, affirmed that laypeople can exercise and participate more seriously in the great works of the eternity and can procure and secure this eternity for others through their works of Christian charity carried out with zeal for the major glory of God and the major sanctification of souls80. The peculiar nature of the lay apostolate is attached to the secular nature of its identity described already above. It entails once again that their primary apostolate is about them being more attentive to the needs of the world through their natural gifts, temporal profession, temporal means, and temporal woks in the spirit of the good news81.This was against the non significant attention, which they had in the mentality of the Church of his time exemplified in the Council of Trent. To buttress his point, Pallotti alluded to the fact that the Church, assisted always by the Holy Spirit and from the light of the Sacred Scripture, greets and honors the most holy Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, with the title of «Queen of the apostles» including Priests, Bishops and the Supreme Pontiff. This happened to be a title superior to that of the apostles even though she had neither ecclesiastical power

78 Cf. D. PISTELLA, L’apostolato dei Laici in San Vincenzo Pallotti, Roma 1983, p. 30. 79 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p.76. 80 Cf. F. MOCCIA (a cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, Regole dei ss. Ritiri, collegi, pp. 525-526 81 This notion was later adopted, re-affirmed and developed in the Conciliar documents Lumen Gentium (cf. LG 31, 33), Apostolicam actuositatem (cf. AA 2) and Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic exhortation on the apostolate of the laity Christi- fideles laici (n. 15) and (can. 225 §§1-2) of the 1983 CIC.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 155 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM nor ecclesiastical jurisdiction82. In her lay condition, she competed for the propagation of her holy faith and for the expansion of the reign of God. With this he therefore concluded that anyone who in any status and in accordance with his capacity, ability, status and with confi- dence in the divine grace, endeavors to propagate his holy faith, merits the title «apostle» and what he or she does remains an «apostolate» 83. If that is the case according to him, it will amount to an apparent error for anyone to think that one, especially the lay people, can only engage in an apostolate through an ecclesiastical mandate or authoriza- tion. Rather, laypeople, in accordance with their lay status, like all other Christian faithful, engage in it as an obligation, a command and a responsibility reasonably linked together with the fundamental exi- gency founded on their very essence and on the purpose of their call as Christians84. This notion can be situated within the ambit of the much later notion of lay apostolate in (LG 33) and (cann. 224-234) of the 1983 CIC. Pallotti arguing further, emphasized that since the obligation and right of the lay faithful to apostolate is not a delegation from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but remains enshrined in their Christian vocation, they should no longer be viewed as passive objects to the apostolate or as mere recipients of the apostolate of the hierarchy85. They should rather be viewed rightly as active subjects with active responsibility to apostolate within the Church. This they should do by engaging actively in the apostolate peculiar to them in their lay status, individual mental, psychological, religious and social capacity and social conditions and in the apostolate available to all Christians called to become apostles by Christ himself86. Pallotti continues to emphasize that lay apostolate does not exist separate from the universal and overall apostolate of the Church. It is an intrinsic part of it and is always exercised for and in the name of the Church. Consequently, it draws its authority and meaning from the life and ultimate apostolate of the Church, which she shares with all her members. To this, he therefore concluded that lay apostolate, just

82 Cf. F. MOCCIA (a cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti. Opere complete, Regole dei ss. Ritiri, p. 6. 83 Cf. Ibid., p. 6. 84 Cf. Ibid., p. 6. 85 Cf. Ibid., p. 77. 86 Cf. Ibid., p. 77.

156 | RIVISTA APOSTOLATO UNIVERSALE - ROMA THE JURIDICAL IDENTITY AND THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY IN SAINT VINCENT PALLOTTI like the clerical apostolate, is the continuation of the redemptive work of Christ in the world87. Pallotti identified the primary source of the lay apostolate firstly, in their creation in the image and likeness of God, the imitation of Christ coming from the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and then secularity.

4. Pallotti’s justification for lay apostolate

Pallotti presented many plausible arguments in justification of lay apostolate. In the first place, he highlighted the need to promote the lay apostolate on the basis that laypeople are the majority in the Church and should therefore be given their appropriate place, which can go a long way in expanding the mission of the Church. He linked this with the reality of the increasing growth of the needs of the world88 and the painful increasing scarcity of the priestly vocation, which demands that each person within the Church and in their various statuses, be accorded his or her proper place and role in the work of apostolate of the Church89. He stressed that the future of the apostolate of the Church depends strongly on this. Accordingly, Pallotti continued to emphasize that the great op- position to the lay apostolate was due to a very limited understanding of the true and inclusive meaning of the notion of apostolate. Hence, he made vigorous efforts to expand this understanding, upholding that it cannot exclusively be applied to the hierarchy of the Church. It ex- tends to anyone, who though not being a priest or member of the clergy, but engages in the work of salvation as instructed by Christ him- self90. The fact according to him, is that the vocation to apostolate pre- cedes all things such as differences in gender, in age, in status of life, in profession, in capacity, in formation, and in power and influence. It emanates first of all, from being created in the image and likeness of

87 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 177. 88 Cf. Ibid., p. 177. This notion was totally adopted by the Council in Apostolicam Actuositatem (cf. AA 1), and Gaudium et Spes (GS 17). 89 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, pp. 11. 90 Cf. A. LONDERO, Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, p. 77.

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God for a mission and from the fact of being a faithful in Christ Jesus and on the fact that Christ has handed over this apostolate to all his followers, clergy and laity alike91. Consequently, as engaging in apostolate forms part of the fundamental obligations and rights of the clergy, so it is for the lay faithful. Furthermore, another fundamental pillar upon which Pallotti built his justification for the promotion of the lay apostolate is on the fact that Christ’s divine command to love one another and to work for the salvation of one another, places a divine obligation not only on few selected people like the clerics but on all Christians. Therefore, it is not a matter of one choosing to do it or not to do it, but a matter of a divine responsibility that must be fulfilled by all, but each in accordance with his or her own capacity and state of life92. Taking into con- sideration of the situation of his time, one can argue that his inspiration to promote the lay apostolate was not provoked by the indiffer- ence of the laypeople towards the apostolate, but was rather provoked by the wrong and exclusive disposition of the hierarchy to reserve all apostolic activities for themselves. Consequently, the hierarchy did not only prevent the laypeople from collaborating in these activities but went as far as preventing them also from exercising them even in minimal sense, just because they were wrongly perceived to be reserved privileges93. Another point of justification for lay apostolate from Pallotti was his argument on the Christian (baptismal) invitation for all to work for the salvation of souls. This comes through three important things: firstly, «the love of God», secondly, «the love of oneself and one’s neighbor» and thirdly, «the sincere will to bring to fulfillment, Christ’s salvific action in the Church and in the world». It is interesting to note that it was through all that Pallotti taught and wrote about the apostolate of the laity, and all that he did and realized during his time, in collaboration with many of the laypeople, that he became addressed as the Apostle of the modern-day laity. For example, in the year 1932, Pope Pius XI gave him the title of «An-

91 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 140. 92 Cf. F. AMOROSO (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Profeta dell’Apostolato dei Laici, p. 4. 93 Cf. Ibid., p. 5.

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tesignano dell’azione cattolica» and in the year 1963, Pope Paul VI at Frascati, qualified his work with the lay as «the vocation of adult stage or age of the laity». The Pope’s intention for using this concept was to stress that at this stage, the laity can no longer be satisfied to simply being fed all the time by the cleric. They too, in their own way and time, must feed others as adults in faith94.

5. Forms of lay apostolate: individual and organized

For Vincent Pallotti, lay apostolate could be carried out in two principal forms. It could be carried out as individuals in the form of a personal apostolic initiative or as organized group apostolic initiative in the form of «associations» exemplified with the UAC95. The second form still remains true even when the apostolic inspiration in question, emanated from a single person. At this level, it becomes a divinely inspired apostolic initiative from one person but shared by a collective of persons in the form of association. But then, he affirms that in as much as there is nothing wrong in engaging in apostolate as individual persons, it should be understood that it will be more effective if carried out in collaboration with others in the form of association and directed to the common mission of living and propagating the Gospel together. In this way it becomes institutionalized in a visible formation, where different people come together to work for a common apostolic goal. Hence, its permanency, continuity, expansiveness and longevity become guaranteed96. It is worth mentioning that it was because of this strong personal conviction of his that personal apostolic initiatives could be more effective if carried out in the form of associations and directed to the common mission of living and propagating the Gospel together that he founded the UAC. Consequently, he suc- ceeded in using it to manifest his great and burning passion to unite the diverse community of the faithful of every status- clergy, religious and laity, who desire to shape their vocation to his apostolic ideals in- to one single ecclesial entity-‘The Union’. As such, he highlighted the

94 Cf. Ibid., pp. 3-5. 95 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 3. 96 Cf. Ibid., p. 3.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 159 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM necessary distinction and complementarities between the different statuses of life in the ecclesial communion. It is interesting to note that many years after his death, his notion on these two forms of lay apostolate became adopted, re-affirmed and developed in Apostolicam Actuositatem (cf. nn.15-18) and (cann. 298- 311) of the 1983 CIC.

5.1 Fields of lay apostolate

Pallotti speaks of fields of apostolate in reference to areas where it can be exercised. He identified the fields to be basically in families where Christian moral should be proclaimed97, professions, in the various worldly (local, national and international) conditions and situa- tions of the lay people and also in the Church. They are also wherever the lay faithful may find themselves. They include also their offices, business areas, relationships, etc. This could be extracted from his affirmation that all people of different social status, priests and laity, living in the society and in solitude, old and young, men and women, healthy and sick, could, from their positions; be it in the status which God has called them or where God in his mercy, has placed them, could exercise in some mode and always by merit the apostolate of Je- sus98.

5.2 How to carry out lay apostolate

Reacting to the question of how to carry out the lay apostolate, Pallotti stressed on the unavoidable central role of an active and effective collaboration, which must exist among all the actors. For him, there is no effective and genuine apostolate, be it clerical or laical without genuine collaboration among the principle actors99. It is a re-

97 Cf. F. AMOROSO (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Profeta dell’Apostolato dei Laici, pp. 4, 14. 98 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 146. These ideas of Pallotti on the fields of apostolate were re-echoed in a more detailed manner in Apostolicam Actuositatem (cf. AA 5, 7, 9) and later by the legislator of the 1983 of CIC in (cann. 226, 227, 774) of the 1983 CIC. 99 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 50.

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ality that must be present from the beginning in the field of apostolate. Consequently, it involves the recognition, affirmation and respecting of the importance of every individual person and the unique contribution which all can render. It must be carried out not as an independent apostolate but as part of the very universal apostolate of the Church100. According to him, lay apostolate, using that of the UAC as an example, must always be carried out in total communion, respect, obedience and religious veneration to the Roman Pontiff who is con- stituted by Christ as the supreme and universal apostle and who alone has received from Christ, the power to send apostles and missionaries to all parts of the world on the basis of the primacy of his apostolic jurisdiction in all the Catholic Church. In the same manner it must be carried out with proportionate and respective religious respect and obedience to the Bishops who are the chief apostles in their various dioceses101. He also stressed that God measures the perfection of the completeness of the work of apostolate according to the disposition of the heart and the capacity of his creatures. It must also be carried out in total imitation of Christ, the Apostle of the Eternal Father, in accordance with the rites and the spirit of the Church and in proportion to the needs of the people and in being fully aware of the needs of the time102.

5.3 Formation for lay apostolate

An important thing to clarify from the on-set is the fact that in the writings of Vincent Pallotti, there is nowhere the key-word «formation» appeared in the indices103. However, an in-depth computer research made on this purpose shows his non frequent use of this word

However, this notion and the importance of formation for lay apostolate as posit- ed by Pallotti, were all adopted and re-affirmed and more systematically described in (cf. LG 30, 31), (cf. AA 2) and (cf. cann. 209, 299 §§1-3 and 301 §§ 1- 3) of the 1983 CIC. 100 Cf. Ibid., p. 50. 101 Cf. Ibid., p. 50. 102 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, p. 158. 103 Cf. S. FREEMAN, Formazione apostolic dei membri dell’Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico, in Sulle orme di San Vincenzo Pallotti, Fondatore dell’Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico, Roma 2004, p.78.

N. 47/2018 - PP. 135-163 | 161 PETER NDUBUISI UGWUEGULEM in his writings. Meanwhile, he was using it in a quite different and dif- ficult sense that does not bear the same universal signification as we have it even today104. He was using it in a much more limited and re- stricted sense. Two words: «spiritual education» and «ecclesiastical education» are very important in his reference to formation. Other areas where he made references to it were when he speaks of «formation» as a constitutive element of a true Christian and the need for it to be a help and not an obstacle in the work of apostolate105. Pallotti sees formation as a very important element necessary for equipping various people especially, those clerics and lay faithful who are to engage in formal apostolate, to become effective in their apostolate. For example, he argues that in regards to the eternal apostolate towards missionary countries, the proper pre-occupation of the members: to work towards the formation of the hearts, mind and the spirits of those who will be sent out to these countries; to search for the in- crement in number, provoking in them the zeal for the salvation of souls; form them on how to establish and maintain extended corre- spondence with far distant districts, to know the particular spiritual needs of the people there and make them known to the Supreme Pon- tiff106. That these people are to be prepared to assume the apostolic responsibility through a personalized preparation, but not just cultural preparation but also spiritual. This is because they cannot be well adapted for it if they have not acquired through their formation, the evangelical spirit107. Continuing on this point, Pallotti emphasized on the need to give what he referred to auto-formation which should focus on the apostolic consciousness of not only the clergy and religious but also the lay- people108. As Freeman would argue, in the mind of Pallotti, formation for apostolate is a process of education, which means e-ducere, which has the purpose of bringing forward from each person, what is already

104 Cf. Ibid., p. 78. 105 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Scritti Spirituali, pp. 449-450. 106 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Manoscritti Giu- ridici, pp. 146-147. 107 Cf. F. AMOROSO (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Profeta dell’Apostolato dei Laici, Roma 1988, p. 14. 108 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Pia Società dell’Apostolato Cattolico, I, Roma 1964, p. 339.

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in existence in him or her, thereby making it visible and operative109. However, in other to achieve this proper and appropriate education and formation for what can be deduced to be formal apostolate especially, towards all people of good will, there must be the need to promote educational institutions (college)110 to give good and expert formation as may be required. But he stressed that no one should be accepted in such institutions without having the sufficient age to decide his proper vocation and without the readiness to assume the apostolic commitment111. It must be open to whatever appropriate possibility and means, including the study of philosophy for those lay faithful who have the capacity.

Conclusion

A critical look into Pallotti’s definition of concepts, especially, that of the juridical identity of the laypeople, the apostolate in general and the lay apostolate in particular and the explanations he offered thereafter, can help understand that his intention for adopting these definitions and descriptions was to clarify their true meaning, thereby highlighting implicitly, their juridical implications. This does not im- ply that he developed in a strict sense of it and in a systematic manner, a theological doctrine and a juridical exegesis of these concepts. But then, going through his writings, we have seen many elements, which not only form the basis for the doctrine of the apostolate but as well, posit juridical elements necessary for deepening the general notion of the apostolate in general and lay apostolate in particular.

Bibliography

CONGAR Y., Lay people in the Church. A study for a theology of the laity by a master of Twentieth–Century, Westminster–Maryland 1985. CONGAR Y., Ministeri e comunione ecclesiale, Bologna 1973.

109 Cf. S. FREEMAN, Formazione apostolic dei membri, pp. 86-87. 110 Cf. G. HETTENKOFER (cur.), Raccolta di Scritti del Ven. Vincenzo Pallotti, p. 9. 111 Cf. F. MOCCIA (cur.), San Vincenzo Pallotti, Opere Complete. Appendice alla Regole, pp. 158-159.

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COUNCIL OF TRENT, Doctrine and Canons on Communion under both Species and the Communion of young children (1726), in P. HUNERMANN (ed), H. DENZINGER, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Compendium, of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Mor- als, Latin – English, 43 (Ed.), San Francisco 2010. FREEMAN S., Formazione apostolica dei membri dell’Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico, in Sulle orme di San Vincenzo Pallotti, Fondatore dell’Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico, Roma 2004. GRATIANUS, Concordia discordantium canonum, 884-885. GREGORIUS PP. XVI, Encyclicae: Commissum Divinitus, in URL: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/greg16/g16commi.htm, (17/05/1835), n. 4. IZZI C., La Partecipazione del Fedele Laico al munus Sanctificandi: I ministeri Liturgici laicali, Roma 2001. LONDERO, A. Il fedele laico nella visione del Pallotti, in Fate risplendere la santità di Dio. Atti del Convegno, in Apostolato Univer- sale, Rivista semestrale dell’Istituto s. Vincenzo Pallotti, Anno XV – Numero speciale (2013), Roma 2013. PIUS PP. X, Encyclicas: Vehementer Nos, 11 Februarius 1906, in ASS XXXIX (1906), n. 8. PISTELLA D.,“Spiritualità ed Identità” Pallottiana, Roma 1980. PISTELLA D., L’apostolato dei Laici in San Vincenzo Pallotti, Roma 1983. ROSMINI A., Delle cinque piaghe della santa Chiesa, Milano 1997. SAN VINCENZO PALLOTTI, Opere complete, a cura di Francesco Moccia SAC, Curia Generalizia della Società dell’Apostolato Catto- lico, Roma 1964-1997, voll. I-XIII.

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