The laity are not mere ‘auxiliaries of the hierarchy,’ Vatican official says (Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life)

Father Alexandre Awi Mello, the Brazilian Schönstatt priest who in 2017 was appointed Secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, paid tribute to the theology of the lay apostolate set forth by St. Vincent Pallotti (1795-1850). “Concerned about the weakening and insipidity of the faith in all levels of the Church,” the saint saw the laity “not as ‘auxiliaries of the hierarchy,’ but rather as those equally responsible for the revival of the faith, the rekindling of charity in the Church and in the world, and for bringing all to unity in Christ.”