Catholic Action
The Second Ecumenical Vatican Council renewed the Catholic Church and Catholic Action. Some documents in particular are the basis for the Council’s renewal of CA.
No. 20 of the Apostolicama Actuositatem lays down the 4 notes which all together, characterise Catholic Action Associations, by this name or by any other name: ecclesiality, their lay characteristic, their acting as an organic body and their collaboration with the Bishops.
For Catholic Action, mission is not a task among others: it is the task. CA’s charism is to advance the Church’s pastoral activity. Unless mission is its distinctive strength, Catholic Action loses its true nature and its reason for existing…
All Catholic Action members are missionaries in action. Children evangelize children, young people other young people, adults other adults, and so on. No one can show the joy of a life of faith more effectively than a peer…
I desire a Catholic Action present among people: in the parish, in the diocese, in towns and in neighbourhoods, in the family, in offices and workplaces, in the countryside and in all spheres of life. These are the new areopagi where decisions are taken and where culture is fostered…
You have proposed a Catholic Action that goes forth. This is good because it keeps you properly balanced. Going forth means openness, generosity and meeting reality outside the four walls of your organizations and parishes. This means giving up trying to exercise undue control and to programme results. That freedom is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and it helps you to grow.
(Pope Francis to IFCA 27.10.2022)
What is Catholic Action?
It is a lay association, set up by the Church, to evangelize people and realities in which the parishes are rooted. In close union with the Bishop of the respective diocese, It offers an experience of life and faith, lived both individually and as a community. It does this by offering a formation which keeps in mind lay people’s daily realities, is enlightened by the Gospel, is oriented towards mission and which fosters co-responsibility.
What is its mission?
CA is a school of missionary disciples which encourages lay people to “go out” to evangelize individually in their ordinary everyday realities. It helps to outline common lines of action for the mission.
CA brings together lay people who are attentive to the needs and urgencies of our world and are willing to commit themselves to contribute towards the building of a civilization of love.
Where?
Catholic Action lives in the diocese and in the parish and is organised on a national and international level.
In the parish, with an attitude of service, taking the Diocesan Pastoral Plans as its guide, CA works for the growth of the lay people in the Diocese. CA is true to its nature when it puts itself at the service of the parish where it lives.
Catholic Action dwells where the Church is. There, each CA member is called to be a witness of the fact that he belongs to the Diocesan Church.
Who is part of it?
Catholic Action embraces everyone, children, youth, adults, families and all lay people in the parishes and in the dioceses who are willing to collaborate with the clergy.
What does it offer?
Catholic Action is a “particular form of lay ministry” (Paul VI, 25 April 1977). It offers an organic proposal of associated apostolate in all parishes so that the lay people’s evangelising action can be more effective and is carried out in an atmosphere of communion and apostolic passion.
It offers the parishes formative itineraries that bring together the Word of God, the teaching of the Catechism, the Teaching of the Church and life itself, trying to unite faith with the realities of everyday life.
How is it organised?
In CA lay people are organised in parish groups where they share their faith, review life and are urged and helped to be salt in the world. Through its different itineraries, chil- dren, youth and adults are trained to be witnesses of God’s love. All this is based on a methodology that requires lay people’s forma- tion and inner conversion and encourages them to engage themselves in transforming social reality.
With everyone and for everyone
Catholic Action calls all mature lay people. It has a project for parishes and for the different areas of daily life. It is an association which wants “to be a mission” with other people and for other people.
Do you have any other question?
The full flyer with quotes from Pope Francis’ speeches at the 2017 Congress HERE
The Popes have always been very close to Catholic Action both before and after the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. They have always acknowledged lay people’s vocation and encouraged the missionary formation of the laity including women, men, young people, children and families and appealing to them to be witnesses of their faith and to foster dialogue in educational, working and cultural spheres .
Here you can find the speeches addressed directly to IFCA on various occasions from 1987 onwards.
In this section the Popes’ speeches, after EVCII, addressed to the Italian Catholic Action on the occasion of National Assemblies and to other national Catholic Action Associations
This is a frequently asked question which requires different answers depending on the different contexts but keeping in mind the four characteristic notes which mark Catholic Action.
CA starts in the local Church, at diocesan or parish level, with the approval of the local Bishop who appoints a priest assistant. Lay people, grouped by age (adults, young people or children or as a family) under the guidance of the priest start meeting regularly and commit themselves to be missionary disciples. Very often, the first step would be to establish contact with a CA group in another diocese or country.
One of the services offered by the IFCA Secretariat is to facilitate these contacts.
Below you can find the proposals on “how to start” prepared by some national Catholic Action associations.
- Please consult the Resources menu of the site
