DECREE ON THE
APOSTOLATE OF
LAY PEOPLE

Apostolicam actuositatem

18 Novenzbei 1965

Introduction

1. Because it wants to intensify the apostolic activity of God's people the council now turns with solicitude to the Christian laity. Mention has already been made in other documents of the laity's special and indispensable role in the church's mission.² Indeed, the church car never be without the lay apostolate; it is something that derives from the lay person's very vocation as a Christian. Scripture clearly shows how spontaneous and fruitful was this activity in the church's early days (see Acts 11:19-21; 18:26; Rom 16:4-16; Phil 4:3).

No less fervent a zeal on the part of lay people is called for today; present circumstances, in fact demand from them a more extensive and more vigorous apostolate For continuing population increases, progress in science and technology, and growing interdependence between people worldwide have immensely enlarged the field of the lay apostolate, a field that is in great part open to the laity alone. These developments have in addition given rise to new problems which require the laity's careful attention. All the more urgent has this apostolate become, now that autonomy — as is only right — has been reached in numerous sectors of human life, sometimes accompanied by a certain loss of moral and religious values, seriously jeopardizing the Christian life. Besides, in many regions where priests are very few in number or, as is sometimes the case, are denied freedom to exercise their ministry, the church can only with difficulty make its presence and action felt with out the help of the laity.

A sign of this urgent and many-faceted need is the manifest action of the holy Spirit making lay people nowadays increasingly aware of their responsibility and encouraging them everywhere to serve Christ and the church.³

From: Vatican Council II: The Basic Sixteen Documents,
Austin Flannery,O.P.,Gen.Ed.

Foundations of the Lay Apostolate

3. Lay people's right and duty to be apostles derives from their union with Christ their head. Inserted as they are in the mystical body of Christ by baptism and strengthened by the power of the holy Spirit in confirmation, it is by the Lord himself that they are assigned to the apostolate. If they are consecrated a royal priesthood and a holy nation (see 1 Pet 2:4-10), this is so that in all their actions they may offer spiritual sacrifices and bear witness to Christ all the world over. Charity which is, as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate, is given to them and nourished in them by the sacraments, and especially by the Eucharist)

The apostolate is lived in faith, hope and charity poured out by the holy Spirit into the hearts of all the members of the church. And the precept of charity which is the Lord's greatest commandment, urges all Christians to work for the glory of God through the coming of his kingdom and for the communication of eternal life to all, that they may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (see Jn 17:3).

On all Christians, accordingly, rests the noble obligation of working to bring all people the whole world over to hear and accept the divine message of salvation.

33. The council, then, makes to all the laity an earnest appeal in the Lord to give a willing, noble and enthusiastic response to the voice of Christ, who at this hour is summoning them more urgently, and to the urging of the holy Spirit. The younger generation should feel this call to be addressed in a special way to themselves; they should welcome it eagerly and generously. It is the Lord himself, by this council, who is once more inviting all the laity to unite themselves to him ever more intimately; to consider his interests as their own (see Phil 2:5), and to join in his mission as Saviour. It is the Lord who is again sending them into every town and every place where he himself is to come (see Lk 10:1). He sends them on the church's apostolate. an apostolate that is one yet has different forms and methods, an apostolate that must all the time adapt to the needs of the moment; he sends them on an apostolate where they are to show themselves his cooperators, doing their full share continually in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor cannot be lost (see Cor 15:58).