Letter and presentation of Catholic Action
Dear brother,
Together with the coordinator of the International Forum of Catholic Action (FIAC), Eva Fernández Mateo, president of the General Catholic Action of Spain, and the national presidents of Italy, Argentina, Mexico, the Philippines, Burundi and Senegal, who make up the 2022-2026 Secretariat, we have prepared some materials that we would like to share with you, pastor and father of the People of God in the diocese entrusted to you; in particular the speech that the Holy Father Francis addressed to us during the celebration of the International Congress of FIAC on 27 April 2017, and other words for 2021 and 2022.
We are at your disposal – if Catholic Action already exists or if you wish to promote it in your diocese – and we enclose a brief introduction.
We thank the Holy Father for emphasising that “Catholic Action’s charism is the charism of the Church itself, deeply incarnated in the here and now of every diocesan church as it attentively contemplates and discerns the life of its people and seeks new ways to evangelize and carry out its mission, starting from the different parish situations”[1], since as the Pope points out “Catholic Action is formed by a diocesan lay apostolate that lives in close co-responsibility with its Pastors. Here the popularity of your Association is a great help, because it is able to combine its intra-ecclesial endeavours with its contribution to the transformation of society in order to direct it towards the good.”[2]
This constitutes a current synthesis that challenges pastors, priests, lay men and women called to respond and make fruitful this charism that history has given us, renewed by the Second Vatican Council and which reminds us of the passion of the missionary disciples, who collaborated with the Apostle Paul and whom the Acts of the Apostles describe in the early Christian community, such as Aquila and Priscilla, and many other lay people (Rom 16:1ff and Acts 18:1-3).
We look forward to meeting you and kindly ask you to send us an email on info@catholicactionforum.org suggesting a possible fraternal meeting and thank you for your attention.
We entrust our “dream” of a missionary option which can transform everything, … to reach everyone” to Mary, Mother of the Church. (EG 27.30).
Cordial greetings.
In Christ
+ Eduardo Horacio García
Bishop of San Justo (Argentina)
IFCA Ecclesiastical Assistant
[1] Pope Francis, Address to participants in the congress of IFCA, 27 April 2017.
[2] Pope Francis, Address to Italian Catholic Action, 3 May 2014.
