The Laity at the Synod of Bishops....

The Auditors had interventions at the Synod on Wednesday. Some of these auditors are leaders of lay movements in Church around the world. I have excerpted a few below. Comments and excerpts posted in the comment section about these at Amy Welborn's Open Book are also very interesting.

AUDITION OF THE AUDITORS II

After the reading of the Report after the discussion, in this Sixteenth General Congregation, the followingAuditors intervened:

"There is a testament of the martyrs to be opened in the context of Eucharist. The bond between Eucharist and martyrdom is a source of trust and hope..."--Mr. Andrea RICCARDI, Founder of the Sant'Egidio Community (ITALY)

"But in a culture of materialism, secularism and relativism where can one find the reality of true love? In our increasingly post-modern culture of the West, philosophical reasoning has less and less persuasive force. Yet all people still search for love, since the vocation to love is written in the heart of each person.We know that the love for which we search is available every day in Our Lord's living sacrifice of himself present to us in the Eucharist. "--Mr. Carl Albert ANDERSON, Supreme Knight of the Order of the Knights of Columbus (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)

"....10 years ago together with friends of the same generation I prepared a book and a TV series entitled "Children of Vatican II ask questions". The phrase we chose - "children of the Council" - became quite popular in Poland as a name for those Catholics who were born together with II Vatican Council and who do NOT remember any other liturgy but the one in our native language, for whom things discovered anew by the last Council as universal call to holiness, ecumenical openness, dialogue with other religions and with non-believers - are by no means novelties, but a part of the obvious Church's official teaching, part and parcel of Tradition......Especially lay Christians of today do need a new understanding of relations between the Eucharist and their everyday life. The Eucharist - as a sacrifice, as a presence, as a meal, as a memorial - says something very important and very concrete to our daily decisions, to what we do in our marriages, in our families, in our offices, in our kitchens, in our bedrooms, in the social life. It says: the more you give yourself to others, the more you'll find yourself; the more you love, the more you should sacrifice; the more you give, the more you'll receive. This is the Eucharistic attitude, in this way you become a truly Eucharistic person, even if you do not participate in the Holy Mass everyday. In this way Mary was a woman of the Eucharist - yet before it was established!" --Mr. Zbigniew NOSOWSKI, Director of the Catholic monthly "Więź", Warsaw; Member of the National Council for the Laity in Poland (POLAND)