Lay apostolate

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The term apostolate is understood to mean the office of the apostles and thus also the mission of the church . The term lay apostolate , also known as apostolate , which is common in the Roman Catholic Church , mostly refers to the area of ​​active charity and preaching. Lay people fulfill the first and main mission of the Church when they live wholly from and in the mystery of Christ . There are several spheres: the personal inwardness in faith, love, hope; moreover, the Christian works in his Christian family, which is a small church and takes part in the public life of the church; Finally, the lay person can participate in the proclamation of faith, worship and Caritas in the service of one's neighbor. The apostolate encompasses all three spheres.

historical development

Already in the early church there was charity towards the poor, the sick, the children and the elderly, and also towards the dead, in which the apostles and believers worked to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

In the early modern period, given the many changes in the church and society, new apostolic ways of life emerged. Starting in France in the first half of the 17th century, Vincent von Paul and Luise von Marillac founded the Lazarists and Daughters of Christian Love . With the development and institutional consolidation of charitable institutions such as hospitals and schools, the awareness of the apostolic mission of all Christians took a back seat. Lay people got involved in the charitable and apostolic work of the Church through their membership in brotherhoods and guilds, but voluntary work among them steadily declined.

In the 19th century, apostolic ministry became even more widespread among lay people. Vincent Pallotti distinguished between different forms of apostolate: spreading faith, renewing faith, works of love. His association, the Pallottines , in which he wanted to include all people responsibly in the apostolate, he called "Catholic apostolate" in the sense of a general, all-embracing apostolate. In the second half of the 19th century, the Catholic association system came into being, which brought the church and social mandate of its members into focus.

At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Leo XIII. the Catholic Action , with which a worldwide organization of the lay apostolate was sought. In the 1920s, the Legion of Mary was founded as a movement of the lay apostolate in the Catholic Church.

The decree of the Second Vatican Council on the lay apostolate, Apostolicam actuositatem , recognizes the great importance of the laity in the mission of the Church. The lay apostolate is an expression of the general priesthood of the faithful. The council thus confirmed a development that at that time had already grown rapidly.

literature

  • Adolf Bertram : lay apostolate - a "royal priesthood". 1st Petr. 2.9 . Verlag der Schlesische Volkszeitung, Breslau 1921.
  • Franz Courth (Ed.): Lexicon of the Apostolate. Keywords responsible belief . Lahn-Verlag, Limburg 1995, ISBN 3-7840-2020-8 .
  • Sabine Demel : Called to responsibility. Nail tests of the lay apostolate . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2009.
  • Adolf Exeler : lay apostolate and proclamation of faith . Pastoral care publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 1962.
  • Christoph Michael Haufe : Lay Apostolate after the Second Vatican Council. In: Lutherische Monatshefte , Vol. 6 (1967), pp. 117–121.
  • Hans Heimerl: Church, clergy, lay people. Distinctions and relationships . Herder, Vienna 1961.
  • Markus Lehner: Art. Lay apostolate . In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche , 3rd ed., Vol. 6: Church history to Maximianus , 1997, Sp. 597-598.
  • Pontifical Council for the Laity : On Episcopal Responsibility for the Lay Apostolate. European Congress 1981 in Vienna .
  • Wilhelm Wiesen: The lay apostolate. A guide to questions and answers . Free Association for Pastoral Care, Freiburg Br. 1936.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden .
  2. ↑ a b Yves Congar , layperson. In: Heinrich Fries (Hrsg.), Handbuch theologischer Grundbegriffe (Munich 1962), Volume 2, pp. 7–25, here pp. 20–21.
  3. ^ Heinrich Hamm: Lay Apostolate . In: Lexicon of the Apostolate. Keywords responsible faith , Franz Courth (ed.), Lahn-Verlag, Limburg, 1995, ISBN 3-7840-2020-8

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