Some criteria for a just ordering of pastoral activity

23. The above considerations on ecclesial mission suggest the following directives:

a) First of all, the very nature of apostolic action requires that bishops give precedence to interior recollection and to the life of prayer (cf. LG 26; 27; 41); it requires, moreover, that religious, in conformity with their distinctive nature, renew themselves in depth and be assiduous in prayer.

b) Special care should be taken to foster "the various undertakings aimed at establishing the contemplative life" (AG 18), since it holds a very honored place in the mission of the Church, "no matter how pressing may be the needs of the active ministry" (PC 7). Especially today as the danger of materialism grows more serious, the vocation of all to the perfection of love (cf. LG 40) is made radically evident by institutes entirely dedicated to contemplation, in which it is more clearly apparent that, as St. Bernard says, "the motive for loving God is God; the limit is to love Him without limit" (De diligendo Deo c. 1; PL 182, n. 548).

c) The activity of the People of God in the world is by its nature universal and missionary, both by the very character of the Church (LG 17) and by Christ's mandate, which conferred a universality without boundaries on the apostolate (Evang. nunt. 49). Bishops and superiors must, therefore, give attention to this dimension of apostolic awareness and foster concrete initiatives to promote it.

d) The particular Church is the historic space in which a vocation is exercised in the concrete and realizes its apostolic commitment. Here, in fact, within the confines of a determined culture, the Gospel is preached and received (cf. Evang. nunt. 19; 20; 32; 35; 40; 62; 63). It is necessary, therefore, that this reality of great importance in pastoral renewal be also kept duly present in the work of formation.

e) The mutual influence between the two poles, namely between the active co-participation of a particular culture and the perspective of universality, must be founded on unalterable esteem and constant protection of those values of unity, which under no circumstance may be renounced, whether the unity in question is that of the Catholic Church -- for all the faithful -- or that of each religious institute -- for all its members. The local community which would break away from this unity would be exposed to a two-fold danger: "on the one hand the danger of segregation, which produces sterility...; on the other, the danger of losing one's own liberty when, separated from the head..., isolated it becomes subject in many ways to the forces of those who attempt to subdue and exploit it" (Evang. nunt. 64).

f) Especially in our times that same charismatic genuineness, vivacious and ingenious in its inventiveness, is expected of religious, as stood out so eminently in their Founders, so that they may the better and with zeal engage in the apostolic work of the Church among those, who today constitute, in fact, the majority of humanity and are the specially beloved of the Lord: the little ones and the poor (cf. Mt 18:1-6; Lk 6:20).