Lake County Ohio Weal

BEYOND PERSONAL PIETY: The Laity's Role in the Church's Mission

CHAPTER VI FORMATION FOR SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 28. Spiritual leadership can attain its maximum effectiveness only through a diversified and thorough formation. This formation for spiritual leadership should rest upon those bases which have been stated and proclaimed by this most holy council in other documents.[1] In addition to the formation which is common for all Christians, many forms of spiritual leadership demand also a specific and particular formation because of the variety of persons and circumstances. 29. Since the baptized share in their own way in the mission of the People of God, their spiritual leadership formation is specially characterized by the distinctively secular and particular quality of the baptized state and by its own form of the spiritual life. The formation for spiritual leadership presupposes a certain human and well-rounded formation adapted to the natural abilities and conditions of each baptized person. Well-informed about the modern world, th...

CHAPTER V SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIPS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS 23. Whether baptized spiritual leadership is exercised by the faithful as individuals or as members of organizations, it should be incorporated into the spiritual leadership of the whole People of God according to a right system of relationships. Indeed, union with those whom the Holy Spirit has assigned to rule His Church (cf. Acts 20:28) is an essential element of the Christian spiritual leadership. No less necessary is cooperation among various projects of spiritual leadership which must be suitably directed by the hierarchy. Indeed, the spirit of unity should be promoted in order that fraternal charity may be resplendent in the whole mission of the People of God, common goals may be attained, and destructive rivalries avoided. For this there is need for mutual esteem among all the forms of spiritual leadership in the Church and, with due respect for the particular character of each organization, proper coordination. T...

CHAPTER IV THE VARIOUS FORMS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 15. The baptized can engage in spiritual leadership either as individuals or together as members of various groups or associations. 16. Individual spiritual leadership, flowing generously from its source in a truly Christian life (cf. John 4:14), is the origin and condition of all baptized spiritual leadership, even of the organized type, and it admits of no substitute. Regardless of status, all baptized persons (including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations) are called to this type of spiritual leadership and obliged to engage in it. This type of spiritual leadership is useful at all times and places, but in certain circumstances it is the only one appropriate and feasible. There are many forms of spiritual leadership whereby the baptized build up the People of God, sanctify the world, and give it life in Christ. A particular form of the individual spiritual leadership as well ...