Importance
of formation
75. In
all areas of Church life formation is of primary importance. People who have
never had the chance to learn cannot really know the truths of faith, nor can
they perform actions which they have never been taught. For this reason
"the whole community needs to be trained, motivated and empowered for
evangelization, each according to his or her specific role within the
Church".141 This includes Bishops, priests, members of Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apos- tolic Life, members of Secular
Institutes and all the lay faithful.
Missionary
training has to have a special place. It is "the task of the local Church,
assisted by missionaries and their Institutes, and by the personnel from the
young Churches. This work must be seen not as peripheral but as central to the
Christian life".142
The
formation programme will especially include the training of the lay faithful,
so that they will fully exercise their role of inspiring the temporal order —
political, cultural, economic and social — with Christian principles, which is
the specific task of the laity's vocation in the world. For this purpose
competent and well motivated lay people need to be encouraged to enter
politics.143 By worthily carrying out the duties of public office they will be
able to "advance the common good and prepare the way for the
Gospel".144
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