2010-03-08 14:34:31

Laity are not priests' collaborators, says Pope


(March 8, 2010) Pope Benedict visited the Roman parish of San Giovanni della Croce early Sunday morning and told the faithful that there is a need to change mentalities, so as to see laypeople as co-responsible for the Church, not merely as collaborators of the clergy. The Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome, celebrated Sunday Mass for the parishioners and delivered a homily. He commended the movements and new ecclesial communities of the parish, and urged them to bring all of these realities together into a unified pastoral project. He expressed satisfaction that the community "wishes to promote, in regard to the vocations and the role of consecrated persons and the laity, the co-responsibility of all the members of the People of God." To do this, he said, "demands a change in mentality, above all with regard to the laity, 'moving from considering them ‘collaborators’ of the clergy to recognizing them as truly ‘co-responsible’ for the being and action of the Church, promoting a mature and dedicated laity in this way.'"







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