Archbishop vindicates Catholic Action, a channel for Christian militancy

The Archbishop of Valladolid, Mons. Luis Argüello, claimed in his most recent pastoral letter diocesan Catholic Action as a channel for Christian militancy of the laity, especially young people.

In the text, dated October 16, the prelate stated that Catholic Action must be “that community that welcomes those who have been initiated into the faith,” offering it to the parents and godparents of the baptized so that they have access to “a life team, a community experience in which, with other believers, they can relate faith and life.”

Catholic Action is a lay association created for evangelization that offers a community of faith and formation to lay people in the parish environment, as indicated in your website. Its beginnings date back to the end of the 19th century and Pope Pius XI defined it as “the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy.”

Mons. Argüello explained that in Catholic Action “friendship is experienced, we pray, we review the great principles of our faith contained in the catechisms of the Catholic Church,” as well as “the call to be witnesses in the middle of the world” through training in the Social Doctrine of the Church.

For this reason, he encouraged parishes where possible to form a community of Catholic Action in which “to live this experience of integral formation by listening to the Word, the relationship between faith and life, the study of the main foundations of our faith, the believing reading of reality to discover what the Lord is calling us to from concrete events.”

In specific reference to young people, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference also expressed his desire that the General Action be for young people “a channel through which to continue growing in faith, discovering their vocation and training, if that is their vocation, on the path of Christian militancy, of the singular lay vocation, with a singular accent on Christian marriage.”

For the prelate, Catholic Action can also accompany the processes of conversion and “living encounter with the Risen One”, the result of impact retreats such as Bartimaeus, Effetá or Emmaús.

Catholic Action is not a movement

Bishop Argüello explained that the impulse of Catholic Action “does not go against any of the other community realities” that enrich diocesan life, but rather it is about “offering a channel to the vast majority of Catholics who participate in the Eucharist on Sunday and who are not associated, who do not live this concrete experience of a community with which to feel ecclesial belonging in a direct and fraternal way.”

“This proposal can also help us articulate diocesan life and the presence of the laity in public life,” the prelate added.

After encouraging parish priests and lay people “to implement this proposal for diocesan Catholic Action,” Bishop Argüello explained that “it is not a movement that has its roots outside of daily ecclesial experience, nor that it has a singular founder.”

“It is a common, basic, public proposal that the Church, through the diocesan bishop, makes as a guiding banner to promote missionary communion; it is an instrument to build up the holy people of God,” he concluded.