Pope says every Catholic has duty to evangelize in contemporary world

Published: 2004-11-22

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- On the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's pronouncement on the nature and role of the church, Pope John Paul II said every Catholic has a duty to evangelize the contemporary world. The recently published "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church" offers a useful tool to lay men and women who want to implement Vatican II's teachings in modern society, he said. The pope made the remarks at a noon blessing Nov. 21 from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square. He sounded congested and had to pause several times while delivering his short talk. The pope said Vatican II had wanted to emphasize Christ as "the light of peoples," or "Lumen Gentium," the title given to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which was issued Nov. 21, 1964. It presented the church as a mystery, as a communion of baptized believers, as the people of God, and as a pilgrim moving toward fulfillment in heaven but marked on earth with a real, though imperfect, sanctity. "'Lumen Gentium' marked a milestone in the church's progress along the road of contemporary society," the pope said. "It stimulated the people of God to assume with greater decisiveness their responsibilities in the building up of that kingdom of God that will have its fulfillment only beyond history," he said.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .