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APOSTOLATE In essence the term “apostolate” refers to the mission of the Church to carry on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He sent his Apostles (the word “apostle” comes from the Greek word meaning “to be sent”) into the whole world to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). Consequently, the whole Church, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tm 3:15), “built upon the foundation of the apostles” (Eph 2:20), “is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other Apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is ‘sent out’ into the whole world” (CCC 863). The
source of the apostolate is thus Christ himself, who was sent by the
Father to redeem all men and, indeed, the whole of creation and to send
his Spirit to sanctify all men, to make them “new” creatures (cf.
Vatican Council II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam
Actuositatem, 3-4; CCC 864). The apostolate is rooted in the vocation of
all Christians to holiness and to participation in the redemptive work of
Christ. It flows from their identity, freely given to them and accepted by
them through Baptism (cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church, Lumen Gentium, 31; Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Splendor of
Truth, Veritatis Splendor, 66, and apostolic exhortation The Lay Members
of Christ’s Faithful People, Christifideles Laici, 10) as members of the
divine family, children of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ who
share in his threefold office as prophet, priest, and king (cf. Lumen
Gentium, 31) and who are called to participate “in the salvific mission
of the Church” (Lumen Gentium, 33). It is nourished by the sacraments,
in particular the Eucharist, and the liturgy (Lumen Gentium, 33, 35;
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10;
Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3, 4, 10). “The
apostolate of the Church . . . and of each of her members, aims
primarily at announcing to the world by word and action the message of
Christ and communicating to it the grace of Christ” (Apostolicam
Actuositatem, 6). “The work of Christ’s redemption” – and carrying
on that work is precisely what apostolate means – “concerns
essentially the salvation of men; it takes in also, however, the renewal
of the whole temporal order. The mission of the Church, therefore, is not
only to bring men the message and grace of Christ but also to permeate and
improve the whole range of the temporal”(Apostolicam Actuositatem, 5).
In short, the goal of the apostolate is the evangelization and
sanctification of all men and the renewal of all things in Christ the
Redeemer. The
Church,” the Fathers of Vatican Council II remind us, “was founded to
spread the kingdom of Christ over all the earth for the glory of God the
Father, to make all men partakers in redemption and salvation, and through
them to establish the right relationship of the entire world to Christ.
Every activity of the Mystical Body with this in view goes by the name of
the ‘apostolate’; the Church exercises it through all its members,
though in different ways” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 2; emphasis added).
First, we shall consider the way in which the hierarchy, that is, the
College of Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, exercises apostolate
under the headship and leadership of the Roman Pontiff, the successor of
Peter, the prince of the Apostles. Then we shall consider the apostolate
of priests, of religious, and of the lay faithful. The
Apostolate of the Hierarchy • The Church, which is the People of God, is
by God’s will hierarchically structured: “In order to shepherd the
People of God and to increase its numbers without cease, Christ the Lord
set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the
whole body” (Lumen Gentium, 18). Jesus himself chose his Apostles, whom
he constituted in the form of a college, at the head of which he placed
Peter. Since the divine mission entrusted by Christ to the Apostles was to
last until the end of time (cf. Mt 28:20; Lumen Gentium, 20), the Apostles
in turn handed over to their successors, the bishops, “with priests and
deacons as helpers,” “the charge of the community, presiding in
God’s stead over the flock of which they are the shepherds in that they
are teachers of doctrine, ministers of sacred worship, and holders of
office in government” (Lumen Gentium, 20). The College of Bishops under
the headship of the Roman Pontiff – for this body has no authority at
all unless united with him (cf. Lumen Gentium, 22) – constitutes the
hierarchy of the Church and exercises its apostolate by teaching doctrine,
ministering the sacraments, and governing the faithful. The
hierarchy exercises its apostolate, first of all, through its Magisterium,
or teaching office, a more-than-human authority invested in the College of
Bishops to carry on the mission of the Apostles to proclaim the truths of
salvation in Christ’s name (cf. Lumen Gentium, 20; Dogmatic Constitution
on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 10). Christ chose the Apostles to
receive God’s saving Revelation; but this Revelation was not meant for
them alone but for all men and women of every age, to whom Jesus sent them
to teach his redeeming truth (cf. Mt 23:20). The apostolic preaching,
through which the Revelation given by Jesus was communicated to the
apostolic Church, was “to be preserved in a continuous line of
succession until the end of time. Hence, the Apostles, in handing on what
they themselves had received, warn the faithful to maintain the traditions
which they had learned either by word of mouth or by letter (cf. 2 Thes
2:15); and they warn the faithful to fight hard for the faith that had
been handed on to them once and for all (cf. Jude 3). What was handed on
by the Apostles comprises everything that serves to make the People of God
live their lives in holiness and increase their faith. In this way the
Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and transmits to
every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes” (Dei
Verbum, 8; emphasis added). Consequently,
the College of Bishops under the headship of the Pope, the supreme teacher
in the Church, primarily exercises the apostolate entrusted to it within
the Church by teaching the saving truths of Revelation and the way to
shape one’s whole life in accord with these truths: “The bishops have
by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the
Church, in such wise as whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and
whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ (cf. Lk
10:16)” (Lumen Gentium, 20). The
members of the hierarchy also exercise their apostolate through their
office as ministers of sacred worship. Although all baptized persons share
in the universal priesthood of Christ, “the Lord also appointed certain
men as ministers, in order that they might be united in one body in which
‘all the members have not the same function’ (Rom 12:4). These men
were to hold in the community of the faithful the sacred power of Order,
that of offering sacrifice and forgiving sins, and were to exercise the
priestly office publicly on behalf of men in the name of Christ. Thus
Christ sent the apostles as he himself had been sent by the Father, and
then through the apostles made their successors, the bishops, sharers in
his consecration and mission” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of
Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2). Finally,
the members of the hierarchy fulfill their apostolate by governing or
shepherding the people entrusted to them. The Roman Pontiff, as successor
of Peter, the “rock” on which Christ founded his Church (cf. Mt
16:18), whose duty it was to strengthen his brothers in the faith (cf. Mt
16:16ff.; Jn 21:15ff.; Lk 22:32), has supreme authority in the Church’s
governance: He “has been granted by God supreme, full, immediate and
universal power in the care of souls. As pastor of all the faithful his
mission is to promote the common good of the universal Church and the
particular good of all the churches” (Decree on the Bishops’ Pastoral
Office in the Church, Christus Dominus, 1). But
bishops have also “been designated by the Holy Spirit to take the place
of the apostles as pastors of souls and, together with the Supreme Pontiff
and subject to his authority, they are commissioned to perpetuate the work
of Christ, the eternal Pastor” (Christus Dominus, 1). They thus
“govern the particular churches assigned to them by their counsels,
exhortations and example, but over and above that also by the authority
and sacred power which indeed they exercise exclusively for the spiritual
development of their flock in truth and holiness” (Lumen Gentium, 27).
Although the Pope has primacy of jurisdiction over them, bishops “are
not to be regarded as vicars of the Roman Pontiff; for they exercise the
power which they possess in their own right and are called in the truest
sense of the term prelates of the people whom they govern” (Lumen
Gentium, 27). Zealous in promoting the sanctity of their clergy, their
religious, and their laity “according to the vocation of each
individual” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 15), bishops are charged with
encouraging and coordinating all forms of the apostolate within their
dioceses (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 17). The
apostolate of the hierarchy, therefore, essentially consists in faithfully
handing over to the whole People of God the saving truths of Revelation,
that is, “everything that serves to make the People of God live their
lives in holiness and increase their faith” (Dei Verbum, 8), in
ministering the sacraments that nourish their new life in Christ, and in
governing the Church. The
Apostolate of Priests • The threefold apostolic mission of the hierarchy
– as the teachers, ministers, and shepherds of God’s people – “was
handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be
appointed in the Order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the
episcopal Order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that
had been entrusted to it by Christ” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2). The
goal of the whole Church’s apostolate, as has been seen, is the
evangelization and sanctification of the entire human family,
communicating to it the grace of Christ. “The principal means of
bringing this about is the ministry of the word and of the sacraments,”
and this is “committed in a special way to the clergy” (Apostolicam
Actuositatem, 6). Since all priests share with the bishops the “one
identical priesthood and ministry of Christ,” bishops “will regard
them as their indispensable helpers and advisers in the ministry and in
the task of teaching, sanctifying, and shepherding the People of God” (Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 7). It is in this that the apostolate of the clergy principally
consists. The
Apostolate of Religious • Some of Christ’s faithful, from the very
beginning of the Church, are called to consecrate themselves to the Lord
in a special way by freely dedicating themselves to God through the
profession and practice of the evangelical counsels of celibate chastity,
poverty, and obedience. Such persons are called “religious” (cf.
Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life, Perfectae
Caritatis, 1). “Religious life, as a consecration of the whole person,
manifests in the Church the marvelous marriage established by God as a
sign of the world to come” (Canon 607.1). The
apostolate of those called to the religious life is exercised on behalf of
the entire Church. It is an apostolate that reminds us that we have not
here a lasting city, for the religious way of life involves a separation
of men and women from the world of secular affairs so that they can live,
by anticipation, as it were, in the end time, offering themselves as a
“sacrifice offered to God, so that their whole existence becomes a
continuous worship of God in charity” (Canon 607.1). There
is a marvelous diversity of religious life within the Church. But all
religious, that is, persons professing the evangelical counsels, “are
under an obligation, in accordance with the particular vocation of each,
to work zealously and diligently for the building up and growth of the
whole Mystical Body of Christ and for the good of the particular churches.
It is their duty to promote these objectives primarily by means of prayer,
works of penance, and by the example of their lives” (Christus Dominus,
33; cf. Perfectae Caritatis, 1, 3, 8). The
Apostolate of the Lay Faithful • Pope, bishops, priests, and religious
have, as has been seen, their special apostolate within the Church. But
the lay faithful constitute the great majority of Christ’s people. It is
absolutely essential to recognize that the apostolate of the lay faithful
is in no way “delegated” to them by the hierarchy, the clergy, or the
religious. Their apostolate, which is unique and utterly indispensable in
the Church (cf. especially Lumen Gentium, 31), is given to them personally
by Christ himself, whose living members they become through Baptism, when
they are made new creatures; when they are divinized and made members of
the divine family, brothers and sisters of Jesus who can, with him, call
God their Father. The
lay faithful are called to holiness and to participate fully in Christ’s
redemptive work, which is the essential task of the apostolate. In their
own way they “share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of
Christ, and . . . carry on the mission of the whole Christian
people in the Church and in the world” (Lumen Gentium, 33). The
laity exercise their apostolate both within the Church and in the world.
Within the Church they properly carry out their apostolate in parishes,
dioceses, and on the interdiocesan, national, and international levels
(cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 10; Christus Dominus, 30) by engaging in
catechetical instruction, liturgical worship (e.g., as lectors), and by
involvement in the pastoral structure of the Church (e.g., as canonists),
and so forth. However, the exercise by the lay faithful of their
apostolate in ecclesial tasks must never lead to their clericalization.
Pope John Paul II has forcefully made this point: “The various
ministries, offices and roles that the lay faithful can legitimately
fulfill in the liturgy, in the transmission of the faith, and in the
pastoral structure of the Church, ought to be exercised in conformity to
their specific lay vocation, which is different from that of the sacred
ministry” (Christifideles Laici, 23). But
above all, as he insisted, in continuity with the teaching of Vatican
Council II and Pope Paul VI (cf. apostolic exhortation On Evangelization
in the Modern World, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 70), the proper place for the
lay faithful to exercise their apostolate is in the world (cf.
Christifideles Laici, 7, 10, 14, 17, 23). The key text here is found in
Vatican Council II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium:
“Their secular character is proper and peculiar to the laity. . . .
By reason of their special vocation, it belongs to the laity to seek the
kingdom of God by engaging in temporal, affairs and directing them
according to God’s will. They live in the world, that is, they are
engaged in each and every work and business of the earth and in the
ordinary circumstances of social and family life which, as it were,
constitute their very existence. There they are called by God that, being
led by the spirit to the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification
of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own
particular duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their life,
resplendent in faith, hope, and charity, they must manifest Christ to
others. It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order
all temporal things with which they are so closely associated that these
may be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of
the Creator and Redeemer” (31). Precisely
because laypeople work out their existence in the world, “the
‘world’ thus becomes the place and means for the lay faithful to
fulfill their Christian vocation” (Christifideles Laici, 15; emphasis in
original). The whole vocation of the lay faithful to holiness “implies
that life according to the Spirit expresses itself in a particular way in
their involvement in temporal affairs and in their participation in
earthly activities (Christifideles Laici, 17; emphasis in original). It is
through the lay faithful that Christ and his Church are made present in
the world (cf. Christifideles Laici, 7). Consequently, their vocation to
sanctify themselves and to sanctify the world “ought to be called an
essential and inseparable element of the new life of Baptism. . . .
[and be recognized as] intimately connected to mission and to the
responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church” (Christifideles
Laici, 17; emphasis in original). The
lay faithful must realize that their apostolate is not a part-time job, as
it were, unrelated to what they do in their daily lives. Carrying out
their responsibilities as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers,
laborers, teachers, professionals of all sorts, etc., is an integral
component of their apostolate. The Fathers of Vatican II insist: “It is
a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek
the city which is to come, we are entitled to shirk our earthly
responsibilities; this is to forget that by our faith we are bound all the
more to fulfill these responsibilities according to the vocation of each
one (emphasis added; cf. 2 Thes 3:6-13; Eph 4:28). But it is no less
mistaken to think that we may immerse ourselves in earthly activities as
if these latter were utterly foreign to religion, and religion were
nothing more than the fulfillment of acts of worship and the observance of
a few moral obligations. One of the gravest errors of our time is the
dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of their
daily lives. . . . Let there, then, be no such pernicious
opposition between professional and social activity on the one hand and
religious life on the other. . . . Let Christians . . .
be proud of the opportunity to carry out their earthly activity in such a
way as to integrate human, domestic, professional, scientific and
technical enterprises with religious values, under whose supreme direction
all things are ordered to the glory of God” (Gaudium et Spes, 43). The
fields of exercising the apostolate proper to the lay faithful are
immense. Of particular importance is the apostolate exercised with the
family, which is in truth a “domestic church” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 11;
Apostolicam Actuositatem, 11; Pope John Paul II, apostolic exhortation on
The Christian Family in the Modern World, Familiaris Consortio, 49-64).
Today, moreover, when we are threatened by a “culture of death” (Pope
John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, 7-24,
[1995]), it is primarily the responsibility of the lay faithful, in
exercising their apostolate, to build a “civilization of love” (cf.
Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families), to make the home a “sanctuary of
life” (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 92-94), and to proclaim to the world the
inviolable dignity of the human person made in God’s image and likeness
and summoned, in Christ, to a life of holiness and communion with the
Divine Persons (cf. Evangelium Vitae, Ch. 4). The
apostolate of the lay faithful, who have the common vocation of all
Christians to holiness and who, like all Christians, have each their own
special vocation and indispensable role to play in carrying out Christ’s
redemptive work, demands of them that they seek to integrate all they do
into their baptismal commitment to make up in their own lives what is
lacking in Christ’s (cf. Col 1:24). Their apostolate requires them to
cleave to Christ and to shape their lives in accordance with the Sermon on
the Mount, the “magna charta” of the Christian life (cf. Veritatis
Splendor, 15), to live in communion with Christ every moment of every day
(cf. Veritatis Splendor, 16), efficaciously mediating his redemptive love
to the world in which they live their daily lives. See:
Baptism; Bishop; Confirmation; Consecrated Life; Evangelization; Holy
Orders; Priesthood of the Faithful; Vocation. Suggested
Readings: CCC 863-865, 900, 905. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 21, 31, 33-36, 41; Decree on the Bishops’
Pastoral Office in the Church, Christus Dominus, especially 6, 17, 23, 25,
27, 30, 33-36, 38, 39; Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious
Life, Perfectae Caritatis, especially 1, 3, 8, 9, 16, 18, 23; Decree on
the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem; Decree on the
Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes, especially 15, 18, 19, 21, 30,
41; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis,
especially 1, 2, 7, 8, 10; Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 43, 76. Paul VI, On Evangelization in the
Modern World, Evangelii Nuntiandi, especially 6, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20-22,
24, 26, 28-37, 59-61, 66-73. John Paul II, The Christian Family in the
Modern World, Familiaris Consortio, especially 49-64; The Lay Members of
Christ’s Faithful People, Christifideles Laici; Letter to Families; The
Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, especially Ch. 4. G. Grisez, The Way of
the Lord Jesus, Vol. 1, Christian Moral Principles, pp. 551-572, 749-764;
Vol. 2, Living a Christian Life, pp. 77-130, 681-721; G. Grisez and R.
Shaw, Fulfillment in Christ, pp. 262-275, 356-365. J. Maestri, On the
Theology of Work. W. May, “Work, Theology of,” in J. Dryer, ed., The
New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought. J. Boyle, Jr., “The Role of
the Christian Family, Articles 17-27,” W. May, “The Role of the
Christian Family, Articles 49-58,” and R. Levis, “The Role of the
Christian Family, Articles 59-64” in M. Wrenn, ed., Pope John Paul II
and the Family. S. Wyszynski, All You Who Labor: Work and the
Sanctification of Daily Life. William
E. May Russell
Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright ©
1997, Our Sunday Visitor.
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