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Deposit of Faith Series

Fr. Paul Ward

Catholic Mission to Catholics: Pastoral Theology

Unit 1.7

Introductory Prayer

O God,

Who would have all his children to be saved

and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Send forth we beseech you,

laborers into your harvest

and grant them with all confidence

to preach the Word;

that everywhere your Gospel

may be heard and glorified,

and that all nations may know you,

the one true God,

and Him whom you have sent,

Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.[1]

Suggested Reading for This Unit

Bible: Mt 10:1-42

CCC: 857-870

Vatican II: Apostolicam Actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People), 9-14

General Introduction

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entrusted a great mission to the Catholic Church. Over the centuries, many saints have been a cause of great pride and joy for the Church because of their missionary zeal. St. Damian the Leper gave his life to save the souls of the sick on Molokai. St. Francis Xavier traveled to India and Japan to spread the Gospel to peoples that had not seen it before, and worked great miracles. St. Theresa of Lisieux, a cloistered nun who died when she was very young, is the patroness of the missions, for her zeal and love for souls. They demonstrate to us that living our Catholic faith implies the extra labor of spreading it and defending it. This unit studies the speculative tenets that should guide our apostolic work.

Questions to be addressed

What is my mission in the Catholic Church?
What is the most effective way to spread the message of the Gospel in the world today?
In the apostolate, what exactly is the Church trying to do?
What types of work does the Church have up and running?
What are the sources where I can read to find light for my soul?

Theological and Disciplinary Context

In the Deposit of Faith Series, the first ten units are all introductory topics that establish generalities regarding the various sectors of theological disciplines, such as scripture, sacraments, and so forth.

One sector of theological study regards the mission in the Church in the world. This mission can be considered in general, or can be studied focusing on those who receive the message of the Gospel. Those who receive the message of the Gospel can be categorized according to their relationship to the Church, that is, whether they are baptized, or not; and if baptized, whether they are in full communion with the Church or not.

This unit discusses primarily the general notion of the Church’s mission, and then addresses some details regarding the Church’s mission to Catholics.

Definitions

Apostolate. “We call an apostolate ‘every activity of the Mystical Body” that aims ‘to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth.’”[2]

Full Union with the Church. Union with the Church is discerned in three areas, faith, sacraments and morals.

Mission. “‘Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be “the universal sacrament of salvation,” the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men.’”[3] There is an analogy and continuation between the mission of Christ from the Father, the mission of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, and the mission of the Church in the world.

Works of Mercy. Acts associated with the virtue of mercy by which we alleviate others needs. They are deeds that represent, ultimately, the different forms of almsgiving. There are corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

To feed the hungry;

To give drink to the thirsty;

To clothe the naked;

To harbor the harborless;

To visit the sick;

To ransom the captive;

To bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

To instruct the ignorant;

To counsel the doubtful;

To admonish sinners;

To bear wrongs patiently;

To forgive offences willingly;

To comfort the afflicted;

To pray for the living and the dead.

Lecture

All of the particulars regarding the Church’s mission can be categorized under four headings:

What is the goal and objective of the apostolate of the Church?
What are the sources of the Church’s mission and apostolate?
What are the particular forms of Catholic apostolate?
What are the specific styles and works proper to the Church’s apostolate?

These for headings explain the four parts of today’s lecture.

A fifth heading is included, where all of this is brought to the question of how Catholics are to be missionaries to their own brothers and sisters in the Church. Given the premises of the first four sections, the conclusions of this fifth and last part follow naturally.

The Goals of the Mission of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church has no other goals than the goals of Jesus Christ. We know from the Creed that Jesus Christ was sent “for us men and for our salvation.”[4] This means the whole good of the whole of man and of all men. Since man is both spiritual and material, his good is both in the temporal order and in the heavenly one. And since the Church is the mystical body of Christ, the Church continues in time the mission of the incarnate Son of God, both in the Liturgy and in her apostolate. Therefore the Council says,

The work of Christ’s redemption concerns essentially the salvation of men; it takes in also, however, the renewal of the whole temporal order. The mission of the Church, consequently, Is not only to bring men the message and grace of Christ but also to permeate and improve the whole range of the temporal.[5]

Furthermore, the Word himself teaches us how he expects us to follow him:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”[6]

These verses specify that the Church is to teach, govern and sanctify the world. The Church teaches, by making passing on his doctrine; the Church governs, by calling all to the obedience of faith; the Church sanctifies by the sacraments, to which baptism is the doorway.

In order to teach, one must be a teacher or a prophet. In order to govern, one must be a king. In order to sanctify, one must be a priest. Jesus Christ is priest, prophet and king; this was made manifest from his first moments in the flesh, when the three kings brought him frankincense, myrrh and gold respectively. Jesus is precisely each one of these things because of his humanity. He shares this mystery of being priest, prophet and king with all the faithful, but not to all in the same way. Differences in the participation in these depends on one’s state in life, for example as a priest or laity; on one’s office in the Church, such as ordinary or auxiliary, pastor or associate, parent or child, etc.; and on one’s circumstances, as it is different to be in a mission territory or not, to be employed by the Church or to be in a volunteer project, the specifics of one’s family life, and the men and society that surround one.

These three offices of the apostolate, teaching, governing and sanctifying, serve to form God’s family on earth and to prepare God’s family in the future in heaven. The Council teaches,

Proceeding from the love of the eternal Father, the Church was founded by Chris in time and gathered into one by the Holy Spirit. It has a saving and eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the next life. But it is now present here on earth and is composed of men; they, the members of the earthly city, are called to form the family of the children of God even in this present history of mankind and to increase it continually until the Lord comes.[7]

The Laity strive to attain the goals of this mission in a specific way, which the Church teaches is the following:

The apostolic end of the Church [is]… the evangelization and sanctification of men and the Christian formation of their conscience, so as to enable them to imbue with the Gospel spirit the various social groups and environments.[8]

Here and in many other places in the Vatican documents the Church basically hands over the entire temporal order to the laity, and invites them to get to work to imbue that order with the spirit of the Gospel. There are places and circumstances that the laity can reach that no priest or religious ever could, such as many spheres of the political society, of economic life, of the media, of medicine, et al.

Often in spiritual writings, a distinction is made between contemplative and active life. The first place this distinction is made is when discussing different forms of consecrated life; for example, the Salesians, founded by St. John Bosco, are outstanding for their active life at the service of the education of youth.[9] Another example is the Carthusians, Benedictines and Cistercians who are all contemplative orders, dedicated to prayer, penance and contemplation of spiritual things; a true prelude to heaven while still on earth. The active orders dedicate themselves to the execution of apostolates, yet the contemplative orders do their apostolates by prayer and penance for sinners.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that the moral virtues pertain most of all to those who execute apostolic work, or who live the active life as opposed to the contemplative one, since these virtues, unlike the intellectual virtues (prudence, wisdom, knowledge, reason, etc.), are directed towards action, and lead us to the happiness of enjoying the good.[10] He further stresses the exalted place teaching has among apostolic works.[11] Counted among the “actions” proper to the active life is the ordering of the interior passions.[12]

But as important as apostolic work is, we must not forget that the contemplative life is greater, remembering the words of our Lord, “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken way from her.”[13] These words were said to Mary’s sister Martha, who was frazzled with her busywork when she ran about attending to the details of hospitality, for Jesus was a guest in her house.

Yet the active life of the apostolate and the contemplative life of prayer go together. Gregory the Great says, “The active life is prior in time to the contemplative life, for one moves from good works toward contemplation.”[14]

All of the apostolic life of the Church is for the glory of God as the ultimate goal of all things. “The Church was founded to spread the kingdom of Christ over all the earth for the glory of God the Father, to make all men partakers in redemption and salvation,[15] and through them to establish the right relationship of the entire world to God.”

Therefore, as a re-cap, let us read from Ad gentes, another document of the Second Vatican Council:

The Church fulfills her mission by that activity by which, in obedience to the command of Christ and under the impulse of the grace and love of the Holy Spirit, she becomes fully and actively present among all people or nations so as to lead them, by living example, by preaching, by the sacraments and other channels of grace, to the faith, the liberty and the peace of Christ. Thus a free and safe path is opened for people to fully participate in the mystery of Christ.[16]

The Sources of the Apostolate

Jesus Christ, Center, Source and Goal of the Catholic Church

“Made one in view of heavenly benefits and enriched by them, this family [of God] has been “Constituted and organized as a society in the present world” by Christ and “provided with means adapted to its visible and social union.”[17] The Church finds in Christ the source and center of everything, because he is the Incarnate Son of God who was sent into the world; “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”[18]

Jesus Christ calls all to conversion. “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’”[19]

The example of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

When Christ called the apostles, he said to them, “Come after me; I will make you fishers of men.”[20]

The Church at the beginning shows us the model of apostolic life. Those early saints were not bogged down with bureaucracy, nor so obsessed with social work that they neglected the preaching of the word of God.

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.[21]

The following passage goes more to the specific focus of today’s lecture, however, that even the followers of the Lord need to be evangelized continually. We read:

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. [22]

St. Paul attributes the greatest gifts of salvation to those who helped him preach the Gospel:

Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.[23]

And the same Apostle, Paul himself, tells us from time to time in his letters about his untiring apostolic works. He raised a collection for the Church in Jerusalem, and told the Christians about his other works and travels to the different Churches,[24] even telling him the rational behind the decisions he was making.[25]

The Documents of the Second Vatican Council

The approach for this theme will stem principally from the documents of Vatican II, but not just stop there. Before getting into the details of this one document, let’s put the documents in context. There are sixteen main documents of Vatican II, and many subsidiary and “post-conciliar” documents. There are four constitutions and twelve other documents, which are these:[26]

Latin Name	English Name	Date promulgated	Topic dealt with
Constitutions
Sacrosanctum concilium	The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy	4 Dec. 1963	Reform of the Latin Rite
Lumen gentium	Dogmatic Constitution on the Church	21 Nov. 1964	Ecclesiology
Dei verbum	Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation	18 Nov. 1965	Revelation, scripture, tradition, Magisterium
Gaudium et apes	Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World	7 Dec. 1965
Declarations and decrees
Inter mirifica	Decree on the Means of Social Communication	4 Dec. 1963
Orientalium Ecclesiarum	Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches	21 Nov. 1964	Ecclesiology, specifically, non-Latin Rites
Unitatis redintegratio	Decree on Ecumenism	21 Nov. 1964	Catholics and Protestants: how to re-built unity
Christus Dominus	Decree on the Pastoral Office of the Bishops in the Church	28 Oct. 1965	Bishops
Perfectae caritatis	Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious Life	28 Oct. 1965	Religious orders and congregations
Optatam totius	Decree on the Training of Priests	28 Oct. 1965	Priestly formation, seminaries
Gravissimum educationis	Declaration on Christian Education	28 Oct. 1965
Nostra aetate	Declaration on the relations of the Church to non-Christian Religions	28 Oct. 1965
Apostolicam actuositatem	Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People	18 Nov. 1965
Dignitatis humanae	Declaration on Religious Liberty	7 Dec. 1965	Religious Freedom, conscience, etc.
Ad gentes divinitus	Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity	7 Dec. 1965
Presbyterorum Ordinis	Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests	7 Dec. 1965

Therefore, there were four dates when all of these documents were promulgated (the Constitutions are distinguished by bold):

December 4, 1963

Sacrosanctum concilium

Inter mirifica

November 21, 1964

Lumen gentium

Orientalium Ecclesiarum

Unitatis redintegratio

October 28, 1965

Christus Dominus

Perfectae caritatis

Optatam totius

Gravissimum educationis

Nostra aetate

November 18, 1965

Dei Verbum

Apostolicam actuositatem

December 7, 1965

Gaudium et spes

Dignitatis humanae

Ad gentes divinitus

Simply by looking at this list, one sees that the question of the Church’s mission in the world was of great importance, and seven of the sixteen documents (35%) refer to it. In the Deposit of Faith Series (DOFS), we will dedicate three of our forty-two units to the question of the Church’s mission. The three units are distinguished by the audience to whom we are called, by God and the Church, to spread the Gospel. We can spread the Gospel to Catholics, to those who are baptized and believe in Christ but are not in full union of the Church (the Protestants), and those who are not baptized and have no true faith in Jesus Christ (the pagans). For simplicity, we will name these three units as such, respectively: pastoral theology, ecumenical theology, and missionary theology.

Our sources in each of these three cases will be various, but as regards the Vatican II documents, we will assign the missionary promulgations to the DOFS units as such:

Pastoral Theology

Ecumenical Theology

Missionary Theology

Gaudium et spes

Inter mirifica

Apostolicam actuositatem

Unitatis redintegratio

Nostra aetate

Dignitatis humanae

Ad gentes divinitus

General Outlines of the Documents

The purpose of this section is less for lecture and more for reference. It is important, when studying, to approach a question with the “bird’s eye view,” so that when one discusses the details, one has each part in the proper context and proportion of importance in comparison with the whole.

Gaudium et spes, Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World

Preface

Solidarity of the church with the whole human family

The council addresses all men

An offer of service to mankind

Introduction: The Situation of Man in the World Today

Hope and anguish

Deep-seated changes

Changes in the social order

Changes in attitudes, morals and religion

Imbalances in the world of today

Broader aspirations of mankind

Man’s deeper questionings

Part One: The Church and Man’s Vocation

We must respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 1: The Dignity of the Human Person

Man as the image of God

Sin

The essential nature of man

Dignity of the intellect, of truth and of wisdom

Dignity of moral conscience

The excellence of freedom

The mystery of death

Kinds of atheism and its causes

Systematic atheism

The attitude of the Church towards atheism

Christ the New Man

Chapter 2: The Community of Mankind

Intention of the council

Communitarian nature of man’s vocation: Design of God

Person and society: Interdependence

The common good

Respect for the human person

Respect and love for enemies

Essential equality of all men: social justice

Need to transcend an individualistic morality

Responsibility and participation

The word made flesh and human solidarity

Chapter 3: Man’s activity in the universe

The problem

Value of human activity

Regulation of human activity

Rightful autonomy of earthly affairs

Human activity infected by sin

Human activity: its fulfillment in the paschal mystery

Chapter 4: Role of the Church in the Modern World

Mutual relationship of Church and world

What the Church offers to individuals

What the Church offers to society

What the Church offers to human activity through its members

What the Church receives from the modern world

Christ: Alpha and omega

Part Two: Some More Urgent Problems

Preface

Chapter 1: The Dignity of Marriage and the Family

Marriage and the family in the modern world

Holiness of marriage and the family

Married love

The fruitfulness of marriage

Married love and respect for human life

Fostering marriage and the family: A duty for all

Chapter 2: Proper Development of Culture

Introduction

Section 1: Cultural Situation Today

New forms of living

Man, author of culture

Difficulties and duties

Section 2: Some principles for proper cultural development

Faith and culture

Relations between culture and the good news of Christ

Proper harmony between forms of culture

Section 3: Some More Urgent Duties of Christians in Regard to Culture

Recognition of everyone’s right to culture and its implementation

Cultural education

Proper harmony between culture and Christian formation

Chapter 3: Economic and Social Life

Some characteristics of economic life today

Section 1: Economic Development

Economic development in the service of man

Economic development under man’s direction

An end to excessive economic and social differences

Section 2: Some principles governing economic and social life as a whole

Work, working conditions, leisure

Co-responsibility in enterprise and in the economic system as a whole; Labor disputes

Earthly goods destined for all men

Investment and money

Ownership, private property, large estates

Economic and social activity and the Kingdom of God

Chapter 4: The Political Community

Modern public life

Nature and purpose of the political community

Participation by all in public life

The political community and the Church

Chapter 5: Fostering of Peace and Establishment of a Community of Nations

Introduction

Nature of peace

Section 1: Avoidance of War

Curbing the savagery of war

Total warfare

The arms race

Total outlawing of war: International action to prevent war

Section 2: Establishment of an international community

Causes of discord: remedies

The community of nations and international organizations

International cooperation in economic matters

Some useful norms [for cooperation]

Role of Christians in international aid

Effective presence of the Church in the international community

Role of Christians in international organizations

Conclusion

Role of individual Christians and of local churches

Dialogue between all men

A world to be build up and brought to fulfilment

Inter mirifica, Decree on the Means of Social Communication

Introduction

Chapter 1: Moral norms in the use of the media

Chapter 2: The media in the apostolate

Apostolicam actuositatem, Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Vocation of Lay People to the Apostolate

Participation of laity in the Church’s mission

Foundations of the lay apostolate

The spirituality of lay people

Chapter 2: Objectives

The apostolate of evangelization and sanctification

The renewal of the temporal order

Charitable works and social aid

Chapter 3: The Various Fields of the Apostolate

Church communities

The family

Young people

Apostolate of like towards like

The national and international levels

Chapter 4: The Different Forms of Apostolate

Individual apostolate

Individual apostolate in certain circumstances

Group apostolate

Various types of group apostolate

Catholic Action

Special commendation

Chapter 5: The order to be observed

Relations with the hierarchy

Relations with the clergy and religious

Special councils

Cooperation with other Christians and non-Christians

Chapter 6: Training for the Apostolate

The need for training

Principles of training

Those who train others for the apostolate

Fields calling for specialized training

Aids to training

Exhortation

The Particular Forms of the Apostolate

The Second Vatican Council minces no words in placing very high demands upon the apostolic life of the laity. In comparison with the fervent work of the early Church, the Council ups the ante, saying, “No less fervent a zeal on the part of lay people is called for today; present circumstances, in fact, demand from them an apostolate infinitely broader and more intense.”

Everything done for the conversion of sinners – including oneself! – and for the glory of God is ultimately apostolate. “The Church exercises [the apostolate] through all her members, through in various ways… There is diversity of ministry, but unity of mission.”[27]

The document Apostolicam actuositatem discerns basically two general forms of apostolate, that which we do alone, and that which we do in groups with others.

Individual apostolate. This “is the starting point and condition of all types of lay apostolate, including the organized apostolate.”[28]

It includes

witness
the apostolate of the world
the transformation of one’s professional, cultural and social life, especially by finding and expressing the higher motives of our participation in these things
works of charity in the circumstances of their lives
the acceptance of the toil and hardships of life
participation in publish worship, prayer and penance
the special circumstances of persecution and regions where Catholics are few and scattered require extraordinary exercise of the apostolate on the part of the laity, sometimes even calling the faithful to heroic and courageous deeds[29]

Group apostolate. Yet one can do apostolate not only by himself, but working with others. There are several reasons why this is a good thing to do. First of all, man is social, and so is the Church God was pleased to establish, so group apostolates attend to “a need that is both human and Christian.”[30] Furthermore, it is a sign of union. Yet again, group apostolates can attain certain goals more efficaciously than if one just acted on their own, providing a “richer harvest.”[31]

These works should be marked with a spirit of concord and obedience to Church authority.

The first natural “groups” wherein one can effectively do apostolate are the most obvious ones: the family, the parish and the diocese. But one can also participate in free associations that transcend or participate in these. “The laity have the right to establish and direct associations, and to join existing ones.”[32] Or, as Canon Law asserts, “The Christian faithful are at liberty freely to found and direct associations for purposes of charity or piety or for the promotion of the Christian vocation in the world and to hold meetings for the common pursuit of these purposes.”[33] Yet the faithful must be careful to avoid dissipation of forces. This could happen if new associations were established where there was really no need, or groups in competition with one another to attain the same end in the same way, or groups which were useless and obsolete sustained with great labor, or inefficient methods being followed.[34]

Concrete Styles and Works of Catholic Apostolate

Perhaps the first field of apostolate today is that which is under most fire, that is, the family.[35] Especially in the face of widespread divorce, widespread remarriage of divorcees, the huge proliferation of pornography by the internet and so many forms of prostitution, the strain homosexual activists put on marriage as revealed by Christ, the huge mobility of society and the breaking apart of more distant family bonds, and so forth, attention to the preservation of the family is of greatest urgency.

Some works of apostolate are out there to help young people. This is a very rich field, often lamentably abandoned. Or, where not abandoned, it is not rarely attended to in the most superficial, sensual, materialistic, hedonistic, psychologizing or sociologizing ways, leaving the youth with truly empty minds and hearts as regards the faith. The youth themselves, for their natural idealism, strength, joy and optimism make wonderful apostles, and can be a great asset to most apostolic works.

The Council discussed the “apostolate of like towards like.”[36] What does this mean? By witness of word and deed, each one is called to evangelized those who are of the same profession, in the same study or academic circles, the same residential conditions or places, the same leisure activities and interests, or even the same local groups. Catholics are never called to leave their faith at the doorstep in any issue. Even though this applies to civil, economic and political society with equal force, we will focus on those questions in the DOFS unit entitled Social Doctrine.

Group apostolates take different concrete forms.

Some attend to the general apostolic end of the Church; others aim specifically at evangelization and sanctification Others work for the permeation of the temporal order by the Christian spirit; and others engage in works of mercy and of charity…”[37]

and there are still others that “favor and promote a more intimate unity between the faith of the members and their everyday life.”[38]

Another point needs to be stressed, that one must be apt for his work. The Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith declared, for example, of missionaries, that they must be apt. In an Instruction of he Congregation mandated by Pope Alexander VII, it is said to the first two bishops of I