"THE CHURCH NEEDS CATHOLIC ACTION"

VATICAN CITY, APR 26, 2002 (VIS) - The Pope received at midday today in the Paul VI Hall 1,500 participants in the 11th National Assembly of Italian Catholic Action whom he thanked for their "love of the Church" and their "commitment to parish communities in ordinary life."

The Holy Father urged them to continue building "ties of communion and dialogue" among the people of God. He underlined the importance of "truly shaping Christian consciences through formation directed toward young people and adults, toward children and the elderly, to families and adolescents."

"The Church needs Catholic Action. The Church needs groups of lay people, faithful to their vocation and closely united to legitimate pastors who are willing to share, alongside them, the daily effort of evangelization in all environments. ... The Church needs lay people whose experience manifests in a concrete and daily way the greatness and joy of Christian life; ... lay people who do not reduce the faith to a private matter and do not hesitate to carry the leaven of the Gospel to the fabric of human relations and institutions."

John Paul II asked the members of Catholic Action to "put out into the deep, 'Duc in altum!'", and to be "a prophetic presence in the world, promoting those dimensions of life often forgotten and as a result so urgent, such as interior life and silence, responsibility and education, volunteerism and service, sobriety and fraternity, hope in tomorrow and love of life. Work effectively so that today's society recovers the true sense of man and his dignity, the value of life and family, of peace and solidarity, of justice and mercy."

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