In the general audience held this Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV dedicated his catechesis to the fourth chapter of the dogmatic constitution  Lumen Gentium  of the Second Vatican Council, focusing on the nature and mission of the laity within the People of God.

The Holy Father recalled that the laity constitute “the vast majority of the People of God,” quoting Pope Francis in  Evangelii Gaudium , while ordained ministers are at their service. “Therefore, the People of God, chosen by Him, are one: ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:5). The dignity of the members, which derives from their regeneration in Christ, is common; the grace of sonship is common; the call to perfection is common: one salvation, one hope, and undivided charity,” he affirmed, quoting directly from number 32 of  Lumen Gentium .

Leo XIV explained that the Second Vatican Council sought to define the vocation of the laity positively, after centuries in which they were identified primarily by what they were not (neither clergy nor consecrated persons). “By the name ‘laity,’ the Council designates all the Christian faithful who, insofar as they are incorporated into the People of God through baptism, share in their own way in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ, exercising in the Church and in the world the mission of the whole Christian people in the part that pertains to them,” he noted, referring to point 31 of the conciliar document.

The Pope insisted that, before any distinction of ministry or state of life, the Council affirms the equality of all the baptized. The condition of the messianic people is “the dignity and freedom of the children of God.” The greater the gift received, the greater also the commitment that flows from it.

An organically structured people

Leo XIV emphasized that the holy People of God “are never an amorphous mass, but the Body of Christ, or, as Augustine said, the  Christus totus ”: a community organically structured thanks to the fruitful relationship between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood. Through Baptism, the laity share in the same priesthood of Christ, who “wants to continue his witness and his service through the laity, enlivens them with his Spirit, and impels them constantly to every good and perfect work” (LG 34).

In this regard, he recalled the apostolic exhortation  Christifideles laici  of Saint John Paul II, which highlights the pages of the Council dedicated to the nature, dignity, spirituality, mission and responsibility of the lay faithful, calling them to work actively in the vineyard of the Lord.

The lay apostolate extends to the whole world

One of the central points of the catechesis was that the apostolate of the laity “is not limited to the space of the Church, but extends to the world.” “The Church is present wherever her children bear witness to the Gospel: in the workplace, in civil society, and in all human relationships, wherever they, through their choices, demonstrate the beauty of the Christian life, which anticipates here and now the justice and peace that will be fully realized in the Kingdom of God,” the Pope explained.

He again quoted  Lumen Gentium  to affirm that the world needs “to be permeated by the spirit of Christ and to achieve its end more effectively in justice, charity, and peace.” And this is only possible thanks to the contribution, service, and witness of the laity.

Pope Leo XIV invited us to live a Church “on the move,” an expression beloved by Pope Francis: “a Church incarnate in history, always open to mission, in which we are all called to be missionary disciples, apostles of the Gospel, witnesses of the Kingdom of God, bearers of the joy of the Christ we have encountered.”

In closing, the Pope expressed his hope that the approaching Easter would renew in everyone “the grace to be, like Mary Magdalene, like Peter and John, witnesses of the Risen Lord.” He also offered special greetings, including a prayer for the innocent victims of war.

The general audience this Holy Wednesday brought together thousands of faithful in St. Peter’s Square and is part of the cycle of catechesis that Leo XIV has been dedicating to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which began at the beginning of the year.