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CHAPTER III THE VARIOUS FIELDS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 9. The baptized carry out their manifold spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world. In both areas there are various opportunities for spiritual leadership. We wish to list here the more important fields of spiritual leadership, namely, church communities, the family, youth, the social milieu, and national and international levels. Since in our times women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that they participate more widely also in the various fields of the People of God's spiritual leadership. 10. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the baptized have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the People of God. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the activity of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness. The parish offers an obvious example of spiritual lead...

CHAPTER II. OBJECTIVES OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 5. Christ's redemptive work, while essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the People of God is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. In fulfilling this mission of the People of God, the baptized exercise their spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world, in both the religious and the temporal orders. The spiritual leadership of the People of God and of all its members is primarily designed to manifest Christ's message by words and deeds and to communicate His grace to the world It is especially on this level that the leadership of the baptized and the pastoral ministry are mutually complementary. There are innumerable opportunities open to the baptized for the exercise of their spiritual leadership of evangelization and sanc...

THE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP OF THE BAPTIZED Chapter 2 The Vocation of the Laity to the Apostolate THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY A translation, commentary and interpretation for our time in the USA in which "apostolate" is rendered as SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP preceded by (voluntary) when it is most likely unpaid leadership the term "laity" is rendered as THE BAPTIZED the word "men" is replaced by MANKIND or EVERYONE and the LATIN word Ecclesia is replace by PEOPLE OF GOD when it may apply to all Christians, but is retained as ECCLESIA (NETWORK, GATHERING) when it applies mainly to Catholics as opposed to all Christians. "CHURCH" The word “church’ in English has such strong associations with the clergy and worship buildings that I avoid not only in spiritual writing but also as a social scientist that I never talk about the Catholic Church but rather about Catholicism which I define...

WHAT HAPPENED AT VATICAN II by John W. O'Malley The biggest meeting in the history of the world? Ante-Preparatory Commission: A letter asking for their ideas “with complete freedom and honesty went to 2,598 elicited 1,998 responses (77%) from six lines to 27 pages. They filled eight large-format volumes, totally over five thousand pages. The documentation from this phase filled twelve volumes. Ten Preparatory Commissions were headed by cardinals who with one exception were prefects of a department of the Curia. The exception was the Apostolate of the Laity because there was not any department for the laity. The preparatory commission generated another seven volumes; all together the official documentation of the council itself was 32 volumes, many running more than nine hundred pages. A total of 2860 council fathers attended part of all of the four sessions. In contrast only 750 bishops participated in Vatican II. They represented 116 different countries: 36 percent from E...