WHAT IS THE LAY APOSTOLATE? an exerpt By CANON FRANCIS J. RIPLEY

THE LAITY AS TRUE WITNESSES OF CHRIST

In an important passage the Constitution says that, being incorporated in the Church through baptism, the faithful are consecrated by the baptismal character to the worship of the Christian religion and "reborn as sons of God they must confess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church." The sacrament of confirmation binds them more perfectly to the Church and "the Holy Spirit endows them with special strength so that they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ."