Asian Laity Congress consider Asia a "sleeping giant"

(Sept.02,2010) Lay Catholics in Asia have been likened to a "sleeping giant", held back by too many commitments within the clerical structures. It is now time to awaken them to their specific mission, which is to live in the world like a leaven, transforming it, showing the diversity of their life of faith, so as to arouse admiration and questions in those who are non-believers. This is a summary of the contents of discussions and conversations held on Thursday, the second day of the Congress of Asian Catholic laity in Seoul, South Korea. An authoritative support for this thrust towards the world was made by Bishop Josef Clemens, Secretary of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Laity in his intervention on Thursday. Thanks to his personal experience as a close collaborator of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger until his election as Pope, Bishop Clemens highlighted many of Ratzinger's interventions in defense of a lay commitment, not in church structures, but as leaders in society, in contact with the world.
Asia News said the contributions that aroused most interest were those of the first two Asians to speak to the Congress. The first, Mgr. Dao Dinh Duc, a professor at the Seminary in Xuan Loc, Vietnam,who emphasized that any commitment of the Church that does not include the mission “Ad Gentes” Latin for “To non-Christians,” is not a true ecclesial commitment. He said this commitment is borne mainly by” lay people, who live in daily contact with the world. What is to be feared, he said, is to have lay people, who are only in the structures of the Church and are insignificant in society". The mission in the world should not rely on abused slogans, but tend to enliven the faith in culture. For this, he added, it is not enough to "serve the poor": we must ensure that the Gospel reaches "even the rich, the powerful, the intellectuals, policy makers, and University students because the fate of the poor also depends on them."
The second person - the first Asian layman to make an address, was Jess Estanislao, who was actively involved in the world of politics, as a member of the Philippine government and a member of Opus Dei. Estanislao presented the scope of lay mission: professionalism and perfection in the workplace, commitment to family and life and cultivating friends in the media, especially to maintain good relations with the authors of the television soap operas in the Philippines, full of sex, ambiguity and ignorance towards Christianity. "Only through these friendships - he said - can we help these authors to change their work and fill it with new values."
Every intervention stressed the importance of formation of the laity, placing of value on study and understanding of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.