Apostolate from the Point of View of the II Vatican Council

Abstract

e panorama of the Council’s thinking about the universal apostolate, sketchedout in brief, is increasingly becoming the property of the people of God: it permeatesthe minds and hearts, is reflected in the practice of daily life, in the initiativesand apostolic undertakings taken, in the way of thinking and acting. It wouldbe difficult to say, of course, what the actual state of current apostolic activityin the Church is, if we had separate sociological studies. Nevertheless, it shouldbe stated and strongly emphasised that the pioneering suggestions of VincenzoPalottis, enriched by the experience and reflections of future generations, thecontributions of Newman, Perrone and others, deepened and adapted accordingto the demands of the times by the Second Vatican Council, have already becomea lasting heritage and property of the whole people of God, who are becomingincreasingly more aware that they are by their very nature, and therefore mustbe in practice, a people who are eminently apostolic.