By

H. E. the Most Reverend Cardinal

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

the non-ordained faithful

Men of the world in the heart of the Church: these are the Chrsitifideles laici who, made part in Christ thanks to the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, are called upon to be the living limbs of the His Body which is the Church, and to participate in His mission in the world, united in the mystery of God’s communion with each human being. In this sense they are also men of the Church in the heart of the world, men who – to use the Holy Father’s words, are "called upon to live, to bear witness to and to share the power of Christ’s redemption – the key to the meaning and fulfilment of human existence – within all ecclesial communities and in all sectors of communal life: in families, in the workplace, in nations and within the international order" (John Paul II, Speech to the participants in the celebrations for the XX anniversary of the promulgation of the Council’s Decree Apostolicam Actuositatem, 18.11.1985).

These are the people we shall discuss in today’s twenty seventh international videoconference entitled: "The non-ordained faithful".

Papers by the Theologians will introduce us to the many environments in which the non-ordained are called-upon to be present "to create ferment" for the sanctification of the world, using every possible energy and circumstance of their personal and social lives to create places and moments in which Christ’s redemption can be spread and experienced. As the post-synod Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici states: "This vital synthesis will be achieved when the lay faithful know how to put the gospel and their daily duties of life into a most shining and convincing testimony, where, not fear but the loving pursuit of Christ and adherence to him will be the factors determining how a person is to live and grow, and these will lead to new ways of living more in conformity with human dignity." (no. 34).

The speakers also refer to secularism, which especially in the West is infused with laicism in which, in addition to the loss of the sense of the creation’s transcendence there is also the separation and rift between social life and religion and in particular between faith and scientific research as well as political activities. This reminds us with how much emphasis - moved by Christ’s charity – the Church invites all believers and in particular the non-ordained faithful, according to their own and particular charisma of secularity (see Lumen gentium no. 31/b), to follow in the footsteps of the Redeemer who came to serve and not to be served, to save and not to judge the world, that they may travel to the ends of the earth and make all people His disciples (see Mt 28,19).

I consider emblematic and still relevant today the play by the French director Jean Anouilh entitled "The traveller with no luggage" which during the Fifties, last century, pessimistically represented technological society’s man as destined to lose his roots, his traditions, his cultural identity and the meaning of his own existence (see Jean Anouilh, Le voyogeur sans bagages, in "Pieces noir", Calmann-Levy 1942), and that Levi-Strauss summarised with the bitter statement: "The world began without humankind and will end without humankind" (Trsistes tropique, Plon 1966, p. 374).

"These world crises are the crises of saints – was the answer provided during that same period by a forerunner of the Council’s theology on the universal vocation to sanctity, Saint Josemaría Escrivà, - God wants a handful of his own men in all human activities. Then …pax Christi in regno Christi, the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ" (The Path no. 301). Expanding the Kingdom of Christ throughout the world is also the result of the non-ordained believers’ sanctity: participating in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, kingly office (see Lumen gentium 34-36) and enriched by the gifts of the Holy Spirit fulfil their personal daily sanctification in this devotion of theirs – which demands the total gift of their persons.

Merging culture and sanctity is in particular up to the non-ordained believers; this is the winning combination for the creation of that plenary humanism for which Christ, God’s revealer and He who revealed humankind to humankind (Gaudium et spes, 22) is the supreme model. The non-ordained faithful must be qualified teachers of this humanism, recapitulating and tracing everything created back to God. Consequently "Similarly, by their state in life, religious give splendid and striking testimony that the world cannot be transformed and offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes " (see Lumen gentium, no. 31/b).

From the papers we will listen to, in particular from Taiwan, Moscow, Johannesburg and Bogotá, we will understand the importance and effectiveness of good training for the laity and of promoting a lay spirituality in the particular Churches. Priests in parishes, and in particular catechists, are called upon to help non-ordained Christians to live their vocation to sanctity "engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God" (Lumen gentium, 31; Christifideles Laici, 9). This requires pastoral planning in the mark of sanctity "to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction" (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte no. 31).

A always I wish to thank all those invited, reminding you that papers will be presented though a live link-up from ten countries in the five continents. Meditations will be held from Rome, from the Seat of the Congregation for the Clergy, by Professor Jean Galot, by Professor Antonio Miralles and by Professor Paolo Scarafoni.

There will also be speeches from New York by Professor Michael Hull, from Manila by Professor José Vidamor Yu; from Taiwan by Professor Louis Aldrich; from Johannesburg by Professor Stuart Bate; from Bogotá by Professor Silvio Cajiao; from Regensburg H. E. Professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller; from Sydney H.E. Professor Julian Porteous; from Madrid by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco; and Moscow Professor Igor Kowalewsky.

I hope you all enjoy the conference.