What is the Lay Apostolate?

 

A lay apostolate is not a "ministry" of the diocese or any parish, but a lay apostolic initiative.  Being listed on this website does not make them more, or less, than what they already are.  By recognizing these groups as authentic lay apostolates, and thereby promoting them, we hope to support the laity in living their baptismal call to holiness.

• The apostolate of the laity derives from their Christian vocation and the Church can never be without it. Sacred Scripture clearly shows how spontaneous and fruitful such activity was at the very beginning of the Church (cf. Acts 11:19-21; 18:26; Rom. 16:1-16; Phil. 4:3).

• Our own times require of the laity no less zeal: in fact, modern conditions demand that their apostolate be broadened and intensified.

• The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and that through them the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ. All activity of the Mystical Body directed to the attainment of this goal is called the apostolate . . . For the Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate.

• They [the lay faithful] exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity openly bears witness to Christ and promotes the salvation of men. Since the laity, in accordance with their state of life, live in the midst of the world and its concerns, they are called by God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardor of the spirit of Christ."

• The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ's Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself. They are consecrated for the royal priesthood and the holy people (cf. 1 Peter 2:4-10) not only that they may offer spiritual sacrifices in everything they do but also that they may witness to Christ throughout the world.

• On all Christians therefore is laid the preeminent responsibility of working to make the divine message of salvation known and accepted by all men throughout the world.

 Excerpts from  Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965.