27 April 2011 - The official website of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, www.laici.va, will be online from 30 April 2011. In four languages – English, French, Italian and Spanish – and with a visual presentation rich in images, it will provide news and analysis of the activities of the Holy See dicastery that serves the lay faithful all over the world.
As Pope Benedict said in the message he wrote for World Communications Day 2011 which will be be this coming June 5, “the web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness. In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history”. The aim of this new website is to make the Pontifical Council for the Laity available on the web in more languages and to have a more attractive graphic presentation. We want to present activities that proclaim, through the areas of competence of the dicastery, that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the One who accompanies humanity in every area of life.
The website will be an “open window” on the activities of the dicastery. In addition to providing a detailed illustration of its structure (senior staff, section heads, secretariat, members and consultors), it will devote a substantial number of pages to the work of the sections dedicated to lay associations, ecclesial movements and new communities; to youth ministry, and especially to World Youth Day which is under the responsibility of this dicastery; to the vocation and mission of women in the Church and in the world; to the relationship of the Church to the world of sport, a vast area of contemporary culture that is a beneficial instrument for integral personal growth in the service of peace and fellowship among nations.
Pages with information from the sections, as well as those dedicated to senior staff, will contain articles in various languages with analyses on subjects that regard the lay faithful and their engagement with the world. Among these contributions there will be articles from other voices who work closely with the dicastery. There will be items of news regarding the recognition and approval of the statutes of new associations, new programmes in the dicastery, and the latest publications.
There will be ample space on laici.va given to seminars, continental congresses of the Catholic laity, youth forums and plenary assemblies of the members and consultors of the dicastery. They will be presented with photos, videos and text of the lectures so that visitors to the website may “take part” in these events.
The website was set up by the Vatican Internet Service, and it is the first to be created by their office with a new web content management system that allows text and images to be inserted in a direct and innovative way.
The choice of date for the launch of the website is not accidental. We feel that the fact of entering the website in a new way on the eve of the beatification of John Paul II is a tribute to the great pope who gave such immense impetus to the lay apostolate and the new era of associations of the faithful. He is the pope who was inspired to institute World Youth Day, who was aware of the “feminine genius” and was attentive to all areas in which the laity are called to witness to Christ. As Cardinal Wojtyła he was a consultor of the Consilium de Laicis, which later became the Pontifical Council for the Laity. We would like to remember him with this new website and his important presence in the history and development of the dicastery.
