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Lay Ecclesial Ministry
Lay ecclesial ministry is the term adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to identify the relatively new category of pastoral ministers in the Catholic Church who serve the Church but are not ordained. Lay ecclesial ministers are coworkers with the bishop alongside priests and deacons. In other contexts, these may be known as "instituted catechists", "pastoral workers", "pastoral associates", etc. Overview Prior to and since the Second Vatican Council, several ministries that had for a time been retained by the presbyterate (priests) were returned to the laity, and several new forms of ministry emerged. The burgeoning awareness of the vocation of the laity as apostles to the secular world and stewards of the Church's mission as an evangelizer has given rise to the popular term "lay ministry" to refer to the active vocation of all the baptized. This general ministry of the laity has at times also been called the "lay apostolate" and the "lay vocation".F ...
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United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), the USCCB is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the ''recognitio'', or approval, of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope. , the USCCB president is Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese of the Military Services, USA. The vice president is Archbishop William E. Lori of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Structure The USCCB is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. This includes archbishops, bishops, coadjutors, auxiliary bishops and the ordinary of the Perso ...
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Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total population of over 84 million in an area of , making it the most populous member state of the European Union. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The Capital of Germany, nation's capital and List of cities in Germany by population, most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts. Various Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical ...
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Vocational Discernment In The Catholic Church
Vocational discernment is the process by which men and women in the Catholic Church discern, or recognize, their vocation in the church and the world. The vocations are the life of a layperson in the world, either married or single, the ordained life of bishops, priests, and deacons, and consecrated religious life. Process Each diocese, religious institute, or monastery usually has its own guidelines and advice for men or women discerning religious vocations. Many dioceses and religious institutes encourage men and women with potential vocations to spend time, usually anywhere from six months to a year, praying and asking God to enlighten them. Those who feel they might be called to a religious vocation are encouraged to seek a spiritual director to help them along the way. After the set time, many institutes have a formal discernment process which the candidate will engage in, before entering the institute as a novice, or the seminary. Men For men there are a number of vocati ...
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Universal Call To Holiness
The universal call to holiness is a teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that all people are called to be holy, and is based on Matthew 5:48: "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect" (). In the first book of the Bible, the call to holiness is expressed in the Lord's words to Abraham: "Walk before me, and be blameless" (). Description Chapter V of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, '' Lumen gentium'' discusses the Universal Call to Holiness: ...all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; ...They must follow in His footsteps and conform themselves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor. Pope Benedict XVI spoke on the Universal Call to Holiness during his General Audience of Wednesday, 13 April 2011, saying: ...The saints expressed in v ...
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Spiritus Domini (Pope Francis)
''Spiritus Domini'' is an Ecclesiastical letter#Letters_of_the_popes_in_modern_times, apostolic letter in the form of a ''motu proprio'' by Pope Francis signed on 10 January 2021 and released the next day. It changed the 1983 Code of Canon Law, 1983 ''Code of Canon Law'' to allow women to be admitted to the instituted ministries of acolyte and Reader (liturgy), lector (reader), which had until then been exclusively available to men. Background Since the Second Vatican Council, the bishops of the Catholic Church have permitted women to serve in many Catholic laity, lay ministries. While the offices of Reader (liturgy), lector (reader) and acolyte were previously minor orders, with ''Ministeria quaedam'', Pope Paul VI abolished these and the subdiaconate, creating "instituted ministries" in their stead. Paul VI wrote in ''Ministeria quaedam'' that "[i]n accordance with the ancient Sacred tradition#Catholic Church, tradition of the Church, institution to the ministries of reader ...
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Rite Of Christian Initiation Of Adults
The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (), or OCIA, known as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in many English-speaking countries, is a process developed by the Catholic Church for its catechumenate for prospective converts to the Catholic faith above the age of infant baptism. Candidates are gradually introduced to aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices. The basic process applies to adults and children who have reached catechetical age. In the United States, the name was changed from Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) to the OCIA in 2021 to reflect greater fidelity to the original Latin, although this change has yet to be officially approved by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Some Catholic movements, like the Polish Light-Life promote post-baptismal formation based on the OCIA. Similarly, the Knights of Columbus provides a free correspondence course under the Catholic Information Services (CIS) program. ...
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List Of Ecclesial Movements
A Catholic lay association, also referred to as Catholic Congress, is an association of lay Catholics aiming to discuss certain political or social issues from a Catholic perspective. The Pontifical Council for the Laity is the body responsible for approving those Catholic associations that exist at an international level. The structure of some Religious Orders allow for Lay branches to be associated with them. These are often referred to as Third Orders. Some of the best known Catholic Lay Associations are Knights of Columbus, Knights of Columba, Catenians, Knights of Malta, the Piusverein in Germany and Switzerland, Azione Cattolica in Italy and the UK-based Catholic Truth Society. There are also lay Catholic guilds and associations representing a whole range of professions. These include the Catholic Police Guild, Holy Name Society (NYPD), the Association of Catholic Nurses, the Guild of Catholic Doctors, the Catholic Physicians Guild, the Catholic Association of Perf ...
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Catechism Of The Catholic Church
The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' (; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a reference work that summarizes the Catholic Church's doctrine. It was Promulgation (Catholic canon law), promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 as a reference for the development of local catechisms, directed primarily to those (in the church) responsible for catechesis and offered as "useful reading for all other Christians, Christian faithful". It has been translated into and published in more than twenty languages worldwide. John Paul II referred to it as "the Catechism of the Second Vatican Council". Drafting The decision to publish an official catechism was taken at the Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which was convened by Pope John Paul II on 25 January 1985 to evaluate the progress of implementing the Vatican II council's goals on the 20th anniversary of its closure. The assembly participants expressed the desire that "a catechism or compe ...
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Associations Of The Faithful
In the Catholic Church, an association of the Christian faithful or simply association of the faithful (), sometimes called a public association of the faithful, is a group of baptized persons, clerics or laity or both together, who, according to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, jointly foster a more perfect life or promote public worship or Christian teaching, or who devote themselves to other works of the apostolate. A 20th-century resurgence of interest in lay societies culminated in the Second Vatican Council, but lay ecclesial societies have long existed in forms such as sodalities (defined in the 1917 Code of Canon Law as associations of the faithful constituted as an organic body), confraternities (similarly defined as sodalities established for the promotion of public worship), medieval communes, and guilds. Terminology Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, groups of laity that gathered with a common purpose and apostolate were called '' piae uniones'' ("pious unions" or "pi ...
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Sunday School
] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are used to provide catechesis to Christians, especially children and teenagers, and sometimes adults as well. Churches of many Christian denominations have classrooms attached to the church (building), church used for this purpose. Many Sunday school classes operate on a set curriculum, with some teaching attendees a catechism. Members often receive certificates and awards for participation, as well as attendance. Sunday school classes may provide a light breakfast. On days when Eucharist, Holy Communion is being celebrated, however, some Christian denominations encourage fasting#Christianity, fasting before receiving the Eucharistic elements. Early history Sunday schools in Europe began with the Catholic Church's Confraternity of Christian D ...
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United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ...
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Oceania
Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its continental landmass. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, at the centre of the land and water hemispheres, water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about and a population of around 46.3 million as of 2024. Oceania is the smallest continent in land area and the list of continents and continental subregions by population, second-least populated after Antarctica. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the developed country, highly developed and globally competitive market economy, financial markets of Australia, French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and Human Development Index, to the much least developed countries ...
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