|
A Vatican official has urged laypeople to actively participate in evangelization in Asia.
Two thousand years after the Son of God became a human being in the Holy Land, a tiny region in Asia, he is still largely unknown by the people on this continent, said Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko.
The president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity was speaking during a Sept. 1 Mass that opened the Congress of Asian Catholic Laity in Seoul.
“In the important mission of the evangelization … the Catholic laity have a unique role,” said the cardinal.
“They live in the midst of the world, immersed in the ordinary conditions of family, work and social life, and so, in a certain sense, they are in the front line of evangelization.”
The Asian lay congress, which has the theme Proclaiming Jesus Christ in Asia Today will last until Sept. 5. The Pontifical Council for Laity organized the event which is being attended by some 400 participants from 20 Asian countries.
One Indian cardinal admitted that not all Christians can be missioners.
“However, every Christian in Asia can be missionary by witnessing to a change in lifestyle, values and behavior,” Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, India, told participants.
He stressed that Jesus Christ is truly a “gift for Asia” and Christians are called to proclaim this by word and deed.
The first day of the congress saw participants listening to talks on the reality of the evangelization in Asia.
Over the five days, they are scheduled to discuss challenges to evangelization and seek ways to proclaim the Gospel on the continent.