Vatican II Priority 3: The Church in the Present World

The joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts…United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father.”
– [cf. Gaudium et Spes, #1]

Jesus tells us that as the Father sent Him, so He sends us, His brothers and sisters. His mission and the mission of the Church in the present is to reveal the Father’s love by gathering, reconciling, healing, redeeming, and transforming all persons as members of the family of God. We are a faith community born of, baptized into, and formed by the Risen Lord’s Mission.

We carry out this mission by following the example of Jesus in discerning the signs of the times, accompanying people of every race, language, and way of life in our journey to the Kingdom. We listen to and receive their life stories, and use the best means of our past, present, and evolving future to communicate the presence of Jesus. As an inclusive community of disciples, we are committed to becoming living witnesses in word and deed to truth and freedom, peace and justice. From the Vatican II document, The Church in the Modern World, we respond to the social concerns of our present world. We do this by noting the document’s five areas of concern with their many manifestations for which we will give two 21st Century examples:

1. Marriage and family nobility
   • Support the consistent ethic of human life from womb to tomb
   • Support for marriage and family, especially among the poor and single parents
2. Proper development of culture
   • Care for all life on planet earth
   • Respect for cultural diversity
3. Socio-economic life and development
   • Equitable distribution of resources and opportunities
   • Global human poverty & hunger
4. Life of political community
   • Addressing the polarization within governance systems including within social media & the internet
   • Ethical government practices (policies & procedures)
5. Peace & Justice and community of nations
   • Actively seeking world peace and ending weapons of mass destruction
   • Global interdependence & solidarity

We address the above and other issues of social justice not because we are followers of a particular political ideology, but because we are a community following Christ. In this mission, aware of our limitations and weaknesses, we find our strength, our identity, our hope, and our goal.