United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Chapter 11. The Four Marks of the Church • 135

in parishes, church agencies, and organizations, and at diocesan and national levels. They are doing so in a public, stable, rec ognized, and authorized manner. Furthermore, when these lay ministers speak of their responsibilities, they emphasize minis tering in ways that are distinguished from, yet complementary to, the roles of ordained ministers. Many of them also express a deep sense of vocation that is part of their personal identity and that motivates what they are doing. Many have sought aca demic credentials and diocesan certification in order to prepare for their ministry. (USCCB Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, Lay Ecclesial Ministry: The State of the Questions [Washington, DC: USCCB, 1999], 9) CONSECRATED LIFE From the beginning of the Church, there have been men and women who have chosen to live in a radical witness to Christ by imitating him as closely as possible in his poverty, chastity, and obedience. In the course of the centuries, this commitment became more and more visible through the establishment of monasteries, religious orders and congregations, and other types of institutes. Men and women professed publicly evan gelical “counsels” (vows) of poverty, chastity, and obedience and com mitted themselves to stability of life within communities. St. Junipero Serra was a Franciscan, the member of an order that goes back to St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). That is one form of con secrated life among the many that have developed in the course of the Church’s history. They enrich the Church not only by the radicalness of their embrace of the evangelical counsels, but also by the many aposto lates (e.g., education and health care) by which they follow Christ in his compassion and care for others. MAKE DISCIPLES This chapter has uncovered the richness of the Catholic Church, as she comes from her source in God himself. Catholics today are encouraged to share this life of the Church with others, thus enabling them to know