Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of the Priest.

The source of the call addressed to all members of the Mystical Body to participate actively in the mission and the building up of the People of God, is to be found in the mystery of the Church. The People of God participate in this call through the dynamism of an organic communion in accord with their diverse ministries and charism. The call has been forcefully repeated in the documents of the Magisterium, particularly since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and thereafter. This is especially true of the last three General Ordinary Assemblies of the Synod of Bishop which reaffirmed the particular identities of the lay faithful and of sacred ministers and religious, in their proper dignity and diversity of functions. These Assemblies encouraged all the faithful to build up the Church by collaborating, in communion, for the salvation of the world. The necessity and importance of apostolic action on the part of the lay faithful in present and future evangelization must be borne in mind. The Church cannot put aside this task because it is part of her very nature, as the “People of God,” and also because she has need of it in order to realize her own mission of evangelization.