In fulfilling this mission of the Church, the Christian laity exercise their apostolate both in the Church and in the world, in both the spiritual and the temporal orders. In both areas, there are various opportunities for apostolic activity. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the laity “have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the Church”.
2.3.1 Ministers in the Church
The laity can also feel themselves called, or be called, to work with their pastors in the service of the ecclesial community for its growth and life, by exercising a great variety of ministries according to the grace and charisms which the Lord is pleased to give them. …show more content…
The “world” thus becomes the place and the means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation. It is in this world, economic, social, political and cultural affairs pose problems and grave difficulties that call for urgent action by the lay faithful. In line of 1985 Synod Fathers’ recommendations and his own passion for the Church’s social teaching, John Paul II treats the laity’s mission to build communion in the political, economic, and cultural spheres of contemporary society. He urges lay men and women not to flee from the world to the confines of the …show more content…
In their participation in public life on behalf of the person and society, the laity are tasked to “pursue the common good”, to “defend and promote justice”, and to “bear witness to those human and Gospel values that are intimately connected with political activity itself.”
In the socio-economic realm, especially in the field of work, the laity also have their own responsibilities, as stated in Christifideles Laici:
“of being in the forefront in working out a solution to the very serious problems of growing unemployment; to fight for the most opportune overcoming of numerous injustices that come from organizations of work which lack a proper goal; to make the workplace become a community of persons respected in their uniqueness and in their right to participation; to develop new solidarity among those that participate in a common work; to raise up new forms of entrepreneurship and to look again at systems of commerce, finance and exchange of technology.”
The Pope recommends that the laity approach their work “with professional competence, with human honesty, with a Christian spirit and especially as a way of their own