All Are Called to Mission and Evangelisation: Pope Leo XIV

Jul 25, 2025 | 0 comments

Pope Leo XIV

All Christians are called to “the dynamism of mission and to face the challenges of evangelization.”

So said Pope Leo XIV on Friday July 25, 2025 – to a group of seminary formators and to members of the Xaverian Brothers – a Dutch order inspired by St Francis Xavier,16th century Jesuit missionary to India.

“During the first centuries of the Church, it was usual for all the faithful to be like missionary disciples and to commit themselves personally to evangelization. The ordained ministry was at the service of this mission shared by all.”

“Today… we must return to this participation of all the baptized in witnessing to and proclaiming the Gospel.”

This call “requires of us all, ordained ministers and lay faithful alike, a solid and integral formation, which is not limited to specialized knowledge, but must aim to transform our humanity and our spirituality so that they reflect the Gospel, and so that we have ‘the same mind’ as Christ Jesus.”

“We need personally to experience the closeness of the Master – to know that we have been seen, loved and chosen by the Lord by pure grace and without merit on our part, because it is above all our own personal experience that we then exude in our ministry.” 

This emphatic call to mission for all of the people of God restates a consistent theme of Pope Francis throughout his twelve-year reign (2013-25), the core purpose of the programme of Synodality launched in Ireland in 2021, and now picking up pace everywhere.

To read the full report in CRUX, click here.

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ACI’s Campaign for Lumen Gentium 37

The Promise of Synodality

What we have experienced of synodality so far gives ACI real hope that a longstanding structural injustice in the church may at last be acknowledged and overcome.

As all Irish bishops well know, the 'co-responsibility' they urge lay people to share - as numbers and energies of clergy decline - has been sabotaged time and again by canonical rules that deny representational authority and continuity to parish pastoral councils.  ACI's 2019 call for the immediate honouring of Lumen Gentium Article 37 becomes more urgent by the day and is supported by the following documents - also presented to the ICBC in October 2019.

The Common Priesthood of the People of God and the Renewal of the Church
It was Catholic parents and victims of clerical abuse who taught Catholic Bishops to prioritise the safeguarding of children in the church

Jesus as Model for the Common Priesthood of the People of God
It was for challenging religious hypocrisy and injustice that Jesus was accused and crucified. He is therefore a model for the common priesthood of the laity and for the challenging of injustice - in society and within the church.

A Suggested Strategy for the Recovery of the Irish and Western Catholic Church
Recovery of the church depends upon acknowledgment of the indispensable role of the common priesthood of the lay people of God and the explicit abandonment by bishops and clergy of paternalism and clericalism - the expectation of deference from lay people rather than honesty and integrity.

For the full story of ACI's campaign for the honouring of Article 37 of Lumen Gentium, click here.

Prayer

"Come Holy Spirit, Renew Your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost. Grant to Your Church that, being of one mind and steadfast in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and following the lead of blessed Peter, it may advance the reign of our Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen."

Saint Pope John XXIII, 1962 - In preparation for Vatican Council II, 1962-65.

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