(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.'"