The layman has his own role in the construction of the Kingdom of God and this involves bringing the social doctrine of the Church to the public life of nations, recently stated the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Rodrigo Guerra López.
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The Catholic expert made this invitation on November 20 during his participation in the sixth edition of the American Missionary Congress that takes place in Puerto Rico until Sunday the 24th.
The event brings together more than 1,300 missionaries, lay people, religious and bishops from the continent under the motto “America on Mission: We Are Missionary Disciples of the Living Christ.”
During his presentation The Kingdom as a horizon of mission. Path for social transformation in a context of inequalitiesGuerra López pointed out that “Latin America continues to be, on a global level, the most inequitable region in the world,” which means “that the difficulty of getting out of poverty, especially extreme poverty, increases.”
However, he clarified that even “in the midst of a profound need for political, economic and social transformation,” what the world and the Church most long for is an encounter with Christ.”
“In other words, if something is important in life, if our fragmented, violated and painful reality of Latin America and the world awaits something, it is Christ, and it is the Kingdom that He comes to preach and that is beyond any political, economic or cultural utopia,” he said.
In that sense, he pointed out that just as priests and religious have their own role in the announcement and construction of the Kingdom of God, the same happens with the lay faithful.
“It is very important to remember that the vocation of the lay faithful is the transformation of the world according to Christ. Of course, from the transformation of one’s own life,” he explained.
To do this, indicated the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the laity must “activate” an agenda that “is called the social doctrine of the Church and which is a constitutive dimension of evangelization.”
“There is good news to give in every human activity,” he stated, “and therefore the social doctrine of the Church is like the proclamation of the Gospel in education, in the economy, in politics, in culture, in society.” , in the popular movement (…) in the government. We, the lay faithful, have to learn to be there.”
However, he called not to fall into the temptation of ideologizing the construction of the Kingdom. “There is no concrete political formula, no matter how healthy, that can take on the name of the Church or the name of faith in Christ. No political project is identified with the Kingdom,” he clarified.
At the end of his presentation, Rodrigo Guerra López invited people to imitate the first missionary, who is the Virgin Mary.
“Mary comes to announce the true God for whom one lives, she announces him through the encounter with the Indian, with Diego (…) that encounter, in an inculturated way, using all possible languages and signs so that Juan Diego would understand that the true God by whom one lives is Jesus Christ,” he stated.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.