Being Rooted in Christ through Divine Mercy and the Universal Apostolate according to St Vincent Pallotti

Abstract

The article first shows the situation of the Church at the beginning of the 19^th century, its weakness after the French Revolution, and at the same time its great need of apostolate, to which St V. Pallotti, guided by the Holy Spirit, attempted to respond. Next it shows the Pallotine charisma whose core is calling all the faithful to active apostolate in the Church. Referring to the Revelation, theology and Christian asceticism, against the background of the ecclesiology of those times the article gives an original justification of the right of the faithful to be apostles and to realize their apostolic tasks. The second part of the article discusses forms and ways of apostolic involvement of the faithful who work in the Union of Catholic Apostolate. Three groups of apostles (organized members, spiritual assistants and donators) – religious, ordained, and lay ones – according to Pallotti’s idea, using the means they have at their disposal (prayer, cooperation in reviving faith, spiritual and material offerings) were to become the Church’s “evangelical sum” in realizing its inner apostolic mission and its mission towards the world. In its final part the article shows how the Pallotine charisma is adjusted to the present ecclesiology and the Church’s spiritual and pastoral needs on the basis of the new General Statute of the Union of Catholic Apostolate.