Lay movements answer problems of today’s world, Vatican official says

Cordoba, Spain, Jan 24, 2012 / 16:07 pm

Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said that lay ecclesial movements are a gift to the Church and an answer to the difficulties modern society presents.

“The ecclesial movements and new communities are a timely response of the Holy Spirit to the challenges the world poses to the Church in our times,” he said.

Cardinal Rylko made his remarks during a Mass on Jan. 22 in Cordoba celebrating the one thousandth retreat lead by the movement Cursillo – a Spanish lay community founded in 1944.

The “Church looks to you with great hope and counts on you,” the cardinal told the 2,000 Cursillo members gathered at the Cathedral of Cordoba.

Cardinal Rylko listed what he called the three tasks for lay associations and ecclesial movements today, and that is to be “schools of holiness, mission and communion.”

“The world needs truly holy Christians, and for this reason the lay movements and associations should be missionary and evangelistic, and true schools of communion,” he said.

Later during the Mass, Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba noted that through the Cursillo movement, “thousands and thousands of people have encountered Jesus in his Holy Church.”

He told the group members the Church embraces them and encourages them to evangelize modern society.