II. The whole Church is sent on mission

33. Serving the Gospel of hope by means of a charity which evangelizes is the commitment and the responsibility of everyone. Whatever the charism and ministry of each individual, charity is the royal road prescribed for all and which all can travel: it is the road upon which the whole ecclesial community is called to journey in the footsteps of its Master.

The commitment of ordained ministers

34. In a special way priests are called by virtue of their ministry to celebrate, teach and serve the Gospel of hope. Through the Sacrament of Orders which configures them to Christ the Head and Shepherd, Bishops and priests must conform their whole life and all their activity to Jesus. By the preaching of the word, the celebration of the sacraments and their leadership of the Christian community, they make present the mystery of Christ, and in the exercise of their ministry “they are called to prolong the presence of Christ, the One High Priest, embodying his way of life and making him visible in the midst of the flock entrusted to their care”.⁵⁷

As men who are “in” the world yet not “of” the world (cf. Jn 17:15-16), priests are called in Europe's present cultural and spiritual situation to be a sign of contradiction and of hope for a society suffering from “horizontalism” and in need of openness to the Transcendent.

35. In this context priestly celibacy also stands out as the sign of hope put totally in the Lord. Celibacy is not merely an ecclesiastical discipline imposed by authority; rather it is first and foremost a grace, a priceless gift of God for his Church, a prophetic value for the contemporary world, a source of intense spiritual life and pastoral fruitfulness, a witness to the eschatological Kingdom, a sign of God's love for this world, as well as a sign of the priest's undivided love for God and for his people.⁵⁸ Lived in response to God's gift and as a mastery of the temptations of a hedonistic society, it not only leads to the human fulfilment of those who are called to embrace it, but proves to be a source of growth for others as well.

Celibacy is esteemed in the whole Church as fitting for the priesthood,⁵⁹ obligatory in the Lat- in Church ⁶⁰ and deeply respected by the Eastern Churches.⁶¹ In the present cultural context, it stands out as an eloquent sign which needs to be cherished as a precious good for the Church. A revision of the present discipline in this regard would not help to resolve the crisis of vocations to the priesthood being felt in many parts of Europe.⁶² A commitment to the service of the Gospel of hope also demands that the Church make every effort to propose celibacy in its full biblical, theological and spiritual richness.

36. We cannot fail to see that the exercise of the sacred ministry today is fraught with many difficulties on account of the prevailing culture and the lessened numbers of priests, together with the increase of pastoral responsibilities and the fatigue which this can involve. Consequently, all the more esteem, gratitude and support is due to those priests who carry out with praiseworthy dedication and fidelity the ministry which they have received.⁶³

To these priests, making my own the words of the Synod Fathers, I also wish to offer, with confidence and gratitude, my own encouragement:

“Do not lose heart and do not allow yourselves to be overcome with weariness! In full communion with us Bishops, persevere in your invaluable and indispensable ministry in joyful fraternity with your brother priests, in generous collaboration with those in consecrated life and with all the lay faithful”.⁶⁴

Together with priests I also wish to mention deacons, who share, albeit to a different degree, in the one Sacrament of Holy Orders. Sent forth in service to ecclesial communion, they exercise, under the leadership of the Bishop and his presbyterate, the “diakonia” of liturgy, word and charity.⁶⁵ In their own way, they are at the service of the Gospel of hope.

The witness of consecrated persons

37. Particularly eloquent is the witness of consecrated persons. In this regard, acknowledgment must first be made of the fundamental role played by monasticism and consecrated life in the evangelization of Europe and in the shaping of its Christian identity.⁶⁶ This role must continue to be played today, at a time when a “new evangelization” of the continent is urgently needed and, with the creation of more complex structures and relationships, it stands at a critical turning point. Europe will always need the holiness, prophetic witness, evangelizing activity and service of consecrated persons. Attention also needs to be paid to the specific contribution which Secular Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life can make thanks to their aspiration to transform the world from within through the power of the Beatitudes.

38. The specific contribution which consecrated persons can make to the Gospel of hope takes as its starting-point several characteristics of the present-day cultural and social face of Europe.⁶⁷ The demand for new forms of spirituality, now making itself felt throughout society, needs to find a response in the acknowledgment of God's absolute primacy which consecrated persons experience in their total gift of self and their permanent conversion in a life offered up as true spiritual worship. In an atmosphere poisoned by secularism and dominated by consumerism, consecrated life, as a gift of the Spirit to the Church and for the Church, becomes an ever greater sign of hope to the extent that it testifies to life's transcendent dimension. In today's multicultural and multireligious world, there is also a demand for the witness of that evangelical fraternity which characterizes the consecrated life and makes it a stimulus to purifying and integrating different values through the reconciliation of divisions. The presence of new forms of poverty and marginalization ought to call forth that creativity in the care of those most in need which has marked so many founders of Religious Institutes. Finally, the tendency to a certain self-absorption can find an antidote in the readiness of consecrated persons to continue the work of evangelization on other continents, despite the decrease of numbers in various Institutes.

Concern for vocations

39. Since the commitment of ordained ministers and consecrated persons is decisive, some mention must be made of the disturbing shortage of seminarians and aspirants to religious life, especially in Western Europe. This situation calls for everyone to be involved in an effective pastoral programme of promoting vocations. “Whenever the person of Jesus Christ is presented clearly to young people, he inspires in them a hope that motivates them to abandon everything in order to follow him in response to his call, and to bear witness to him among their peers”.⁶⁸ The pasto-ral care of vocations is thus a vital issue for the future of the Christian faith in Europe and, in turn, for the spiritual advancement of the very peoples who inhabit the continent. It is a challenge which must be met by a Church which wishes to proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of hope.⁶⁹

40. To create a much-needed pastoral programme of promoting vocations, it is beneficial to explain to the laity the Church's faith regarding the nature and dignity of the ministerial priesthood; to encourage families to live as true “domestic churches”, so that in their midst the variety of vocations can be discerned, accepted and nurtured; and to engage in pastoral work aimed at helping young people in particular to choose a life rooted in Christ and completely dedicated to the Church.⁷⁰

In the certainty that the Holy Spirit is still at work today, and that the signs of his presence are not lacking, it is mainly a question of making the promotion of vocations a part of ordinary pastoral care. There is a need “to rekindle a deep yearning for God, especially in young people, thus creating a suitable context in which generous vocational responses can be made”; it is urgent that a great movement of prayer spread across the ecclesial Communities of the European continent, since “changed historical and cultural situations demand that the pastoral care of vocations be perceived as one of the primary objectives of the entire Christian community”.⁷¹ It is also indispensable for priests themselves to live and work in a way consistent with their true sacramental identity. For if the image they project is unclear or indifferent, how can they attract young people to imitate them?

The mission of the laity

41. The contribution of the lay faithful to the life of the Church is essential: they have an irreplaceable role in the proclamation and the service of the Gospel of hope, since “through them the Church of Christ is made present in the various sectors of the world, as a sign and source of hope and of love”.⁷² As full sharers in the Church's mission in the world, they are called to testify that the Christian faith constitutes the only complete response to the questions which life sets before every individual and every society, and they are able to imbue the world with the values of the Kingdom of God, the promise and guarantee of a hope which does not disappoint.

Europe yesterday and today has experienced the presence of important and illustrious examples of such lay persons. As the Synod Fathers emphasized, grateful mention must be made especially of those men and women who have and who continue to bear witness to Christ and his Gospel by their service to public life and the responsibilities which this entails. It is supremely important “to prompt and sustain specific vocations to serve the common good: persons who after the example and manner of many so-called 'Fathers of Europe' can be builders of tomorrow's European society, establishing it a on a firm spiritual foundation”.⁷³

Equal esteem is due to the work carried out by Christian lay persons, often in the hidden- ness of daily life, through humble acts of service capable of proclaiming God's mercy to the poor; we must be grateful to these men and women for their fearless witness of charity and forgiveness, values which bring the Gospel to the vast frontiers of politics, social life, the economy, culture, ecology, international life, family life, education, professional life, the world of labour and the caring professions.⁷⁴ This calls for programmes of training capable of preparing suitable lay persons to apply their faith in temporal affairs. These programmes, based on a serious introduction to the Church's life and particularly the study of her social doctrine, ought to be able to provide them not only with teaching and encouragement, but also with adequate grounding in spirituality in order to strengthen their commitment, lived as an authentic path to holiness.

The role of women

42. The Church is very much aware of the specific contribution of women in service of the Gospel of hope. The history of the Christian community demonstrates that women have always had an outstanding place in bearing witness to the Gospel. Mention must be made of how much they have done, often in silence and obscurity, to receive and pass on the gift of God through physical and spiritual motherhood, education, catechesis, the accomplishment of great charitable works, through the life of prayer and contemplation, and through mystical experiences and writings rich in the wisdom of the Gospel.⁷⁵

In the light of their splendid and powerful witness in the past, the Church expresses her confidence in all that women are capable of doing today for the growth of hope at every level. There are aspects of contemporary European society which represent a challenge for women's capacity to receive, share and bring to birth in love, with determination and generosity. One thinks, for example, of the prevalent scientific and technical mind-set which eclipses the areas of affectivity and emotional life, the lack of generosity, the widespread fear of giving life to new children, the difficulty of relating with others and of accepting those who are different. It is in this context that the Church looks to women for the life-giving contribution of a new wave of hope.

43. For this to happen, however, the dignity of women must be promoted above all in the Church, inasmuch as woman and man enjoy equal dignity, for both have been created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:27) and each has been given proper and specific gifts.

It is to be hoped, as the Synod emphasized, that the full participation of women in the Church's life and mission will be fostered by making better use of their gifts and by entrusting them with ecclesial roles reserved by law to laypersons. There must also be a due appreciation of women's mission as wives and mothers and their dedication to family life.⁷⁶

The Church has not failed to raise her voice in denunciation of injustice and the violence perpetrated against women wherever and however this occurs. She demands that laws protecting women be enforced, and that effective measures be taken against the demeaning portrayal of women in advertising and against the scourge of prostitution. She also expresses the hope that the domestic work done by mothers will be considered, like that of fathers, as a contribution to the common good, even through forms of financial retribution.