2023-04-22 18:09:00
April 22, 2023 / 11:09 a.m.
Pope Francis lamented that in the Church there are laymen who seem “failed priests”, in his speech this Saturday to the participants of the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life.
In these days said dicastery holds its assembly on the theme “The laity and the ministeriality of the Synodal Church”.
After recalling that bishops and priests can entrust to the laity some ministries such as the proclamation of the Word or the distribution of the Eucharist, the Pontiff said that “we must remember one thing: these – ministries, services, orders, offices – must never become self-referential.
“It makes me angry when I see lay ministers who – forgive me for the word – are ‘puffed up’ for doing this ministry. This is ministerial but it is not Christian, they are pagan ministers, full of themselves”, the Pope continued in his speech at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.
The Pope specified that the laity must have a real commitment to transform the world with the Gospel and alerted to the fact that “sometimes, you see laymen who seem like failed priests. Please fix this problem.”
The Holy Father also explained that “lay ministeriality is not based on the sacrament of Holy Orders but on Baptism, due to the fact that all the baptized – lay, celibate, married, priests, religious – are Christiansbelievers in Christ, his disciples.”
For this reason, Pope Francis continued, everyone is “called to take part in the mission that He (Christ) entrusts to the Church, also by carrying out certain ministries.”
The Holy Father also stressed that “the ministry of the faithful, and of the laity in particular, is born from the charisms that the Holy Spirit distributes within the People of God for their edification.”
Ministries are forms of service
“All the ministries are expressions of the unique mission of the Church and all are forms of service to others”, stressed the Pontiff.
Pope Francis stressed that the root of the term ministry is the word minuswhich means “lesser”.
“Those who follow Jesus are not afraid of becoming ‘inferior’, ‘lesser’, or of putting themselves at the service of others,” he stressed.
“This is the true motivation that should animate every faithful when assuming any ecclesial task, any effort of Christian witness in the reality in which they live: the will to serve the brothers, and in them, to serve Christ.”
The example of Blessed Armida Barelli
Pope Francis also received in audience this morning the participants of the pilgrimage in thanksgiving for the beatification of Armida Barelli (1882-1952), held a year ago in Milan (Italy).
“Dear brothers and sisters, Blessed Armida has brought us together and has helped us to recognize these essential traits of being a Christian today: generativity, being apostles and consecration to the world,” the Holy Father stressed.
“Each one can welcome his example, according to his own vocation: it is a wealth for all of us, for the whole Church,” he said.
Blessed Armida Barelli was born on December 1, 1882 in Milan and died in Marzio (Italy) on August 15, 1952.
He belonged to the Secular Third Order of San Francisco and helped found the Italian Catholic Action (ACI), the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Royalty of Christ (ISM) and the Catholic University of the Sacro Cuore (UCSC).
She worked tirelessly for the recognition of a new role for women in the world, through human and Christian formation.
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