Catholic Laity in Congo-Brazzaville Urged to Embrace, Foster Church Social Teaching

Making reference to Pope John XXIII’s Encyclical Letter on Christianity and social progress, Mater et Magistra, CNALC officials say that the Social Teachings of the Church provide “the means and the method to act with assurance in our living environments for the advent on this earth of the living, of a civilization of love and solidarity.”

“With this arsenal of assets,” they say, the Catholic Social Teaching becomes “an important instrument of evangelization that allows it (the Church) to fulfil its prophetic mission of announcing, denouncing and orienting, at the service of the management of the city.”

For these reasons, the leadership of the Catholic Laity in Congo-Brazzaville calls on the faithful to put themselves “in the school of the Social Doctrine of the Church, whenever possible.”

This year’s National Day of the Apostolate of the Laity is guided by the theme, “Why do you stand here all day doing nothing.”

In their May 27 message that is expected to be read out in all Catholic Parishes of the country on the day of the celebration, the CNALC officials acknowledge that the call to be witnesses to the Social Teaching of the Church is “a challenge that seems impossible to overcome.”

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“But there is nothing impossible for those who believe,” they say, and add in reference to the Gospel according to Matthew, “Didn't the Lord Jesus tell us: ‘If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move’; nothing would be impossible for you?”

They encourage the fostering of faith and commitment saying, “All we have to do is put our faith to the test, like the birds of the air that build their nests, bringing straw after straw, twig after twig, without ever losing hope.”

“With hope, let us begin to work for peace and harmony in our homes, neighborhoods and service settings,” CNALC officials say in the May 27 statement.

They urge the Catholic faithful in the Central African nation to review and renew their commitment to the different Church groups “in order to give birth to pockets of well-being which, with time and the action of the Holy Spirit, will spread like oil spots throughout the world.”

“It is then that our Parishes and groups will cease to be places of dispute and discord, and become platforms for religious and human formation, for the purpose of a concrete commitment to the service of the Church and society,” CNALC officials say in their May 27 statement.