





“Yes, the laity are a ‘chosen race, a holy priesthood’, also called to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’. It is their specific vocation and mission to express the Gospel in their lives and thereby to insert the Gospel as a leaven into the reality of the world in which they live and work. The great forces which shape the world — politics, the mass media, science, technology, culture, education, industry and work — are precisely the areas where lay people are especially competent to exercise their mission. If these forces are guided by people who are true disciples of Christ, and who are, at the same time, fully competent in the relevant secular knowledge and skill, then indeed will the world be transformed from within by Christ’s redeeming power.” (St.. John Paul II’s address in Limerick, Ireland, October 1979) .