Pope Leo XIV visits the St. Oscar Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru
Pope Leo XIV made a private visit to the St. Oscar Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru, where he served as bishop from 2015 to 2023. He thanked the community for completing the chapel and for praying for his recovery after surgery. The Pope called on all the baptized to share the Good News and God’s love, each according to their vocation. He described his visit as a sign of closeness and encouraged the community to work together in the Church’s mission.
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Pope Leo XIV made a private visit to the St. Oscar Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, thanking the community for completing the chapel and praying for his recovery. He urged Catholics to share the Christian message and work together in the Church’s mission.
The visit took place on Friday in Chiclayo, where Leo served as bishop from 2015 to 2023. He thanked the community for making “the dream of a new chapel dedicated here to Saint Óscar Romero a reality.”
The Pope also acknowledged prayers for his health, saying he had undergone surgery about a month earlier and that the prayers of the community and others had helped him recover.
Leo said Jesus’ mission of salvation is one the Church is called to continue. He described that responsibility as shared by all the baptized—bishops, priests, consecrated people and lay faithful—according to their vocations.
He encouraged those present to proclaim the Good News, pass on their faith across generations, and share the belief that God’s love accompanies people. He described his presence at the chapel as a sign of closeness and a desire to build community and cooperate in the Church’s work.
The encounter concluded with Leo inviting the group to pray the Our Father. The chapel is dedicated to St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Salvadoran archbishop assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980 and remembered for his fidelity to Christ, the Church and the poor.
Baptized Christians share the Church’s mission through diverse vocations
Baptized Christians share in the Church’s mission because Baptism incorporates them into Christ and makes them members of his people. That shared responsibility does not mean everyone has the same role: the Spirit gives different vocations, gifts, and ministries for the good of the one Church. The mission is common; the ways of serving it are diverse and complementary.
The Church’s mission is not the work of clergy alone. Through Baptism, Christians share in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal mission—each “in accord with the condition proper to each one.” In simple terms, Christians serve Christ by offering their lives to God, witnessing to the Gospel, and contributing to the good of others and the Church.
John Paul II emphasizes that this call is active: Christians are not meant to be merely passive members of the Church. He describes the Christian vocation as a call to apostolate—that is, to participate in the Church’s work of proclaiming the Gospel and serving the world. This participation bears fruit through faith, hope, and charity, and through lives that make the Gospel visible.
The Church’s members share a common dignity, but they do not all serve in the same way. The clergy, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful have distinct ways of living out Christian life and mission. These are not competing missions or ranks of Christian worth: they are different, complementary forms of service within the one Body of Christ.
The ordained ministry serves the Church through its particular responsibility for teaching, sanctifying, and governing in Christ’s name. The lay faithful have a distinctive vocation in ordinary life: family relationships, work, civic responsibilities, and the wider society. Their witness includes both conduct consistent with the faith and, when appropriate, speaking about Christ.
Consecrated life is another particular vocation, marked by a special commitment to following Christ through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It is distinct from both the lay vocation and ordained ministry, yet it serves the same Church and mission. The different vocations are meant to support one another and help build up Christ’s Body.
For lay Christians, sharing the Church’s mission does not depend on holding a formal parish position. It is lived especially in the places where people already have responsibilities and relationships. John Paul II describes the lay apostolate as bringing the spirit of the Gospel into the temporal order—the social, cultural, and civic realities of life—and bearing witness to Christ among family, neighbours, colleagues, and fellow citizens.
The 2024 Synod document likewise describes baptized people responding to missionary needs in the settings where they live and work: in families, professions, civic and social life, and even the digital environment. The point is not that every Christian must take on every task, but that each can discern how to serve the Gospel in the circumstances and capacities proper to that person.
Some lay people also serve directly in Church communities—as catechists, readers, pastoral council members, or in charitable and other ministries. These forms of service can be important expressions of baptismal responsibility, while remaining distinct from ordained ministry.
A useful way to understand this teaching is that shared mission does not mean identical vocation. A person need not become ordained or enter consecrated life to have a genuine share in the Church’s mission. Nor does lay service replace the particular responsibilities of ordained ministers. The Church needs different forms of service, joined in communion and directed toward the same Gospel mission.
This also means that vocation is more than a job or title. A Christian’s state of life, gifts, and concrete responsibilities shape how that person contributes. The Church’s mission is served not only through visible ministry but also through fidelity in daily life, holiness, service, and witness. John Paul II stresses that the effectiveness of Christian apostolate depends on a life shaped by faith, hope, and charity—not merely on activity.
Thus, baptized Christians share responsibility for the Church’s mission, but do so according to their particular vocation and gifts. The common foundation is life in Christ; the diverse expressions—ordained, consecrated, and lay—are meant to work together for the building up of the Church and the proclamation of the Gospel.