The role of the laity in the evangelization of Parombo catholic Parish in light of the apostolic exhortation christifideles laici

Abstract

At baptism, every Christian faithful receives the mandate to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world for the salvation of souls. As a result, the laity in a special way have an important role to perform in the work of evangelisation. However, it can be observed that many laity neglect this duty and leave it to the clergy who are then taken as the major actors in evangelisation. Since Parombo Catholic Parish has celebrated 50 years of existence as a parish, the laity are expected to show some maturity in their understanding and exercise of their roles in evangelisation. On the contrary, only a few do so with mediocrity and majority do not do it at all and so, it is important to find the proper roles of the laity and discover some challenges that affect their involvement then exploit the possible solutions. Guided by these objectives, appropriate methodology and procedures were used to gather the data for instance, the use of qualitative and quantitative approach was adopted, and there was purposive sampling, then the use of questionnaire and interview. All these are intended to open the eyes of the laity to take up their roles. However, the research found out that there are so many challenges like ignorance of their roles, clericalism, disunity, spiritual and doctrinal immaturity and many others, all these hinder the lay active involvement and therefore, these challenges could be overcome by empowering the laity majorly through integral formation, fostering love and unity, fighting poverty and many others. After fighting these challenges, the laity are expected to fully and actively take up their roles in evangelisation of Parombo Catholic Parish.