IDENTITY
The Catholic Church is known and identified as an Evangelizing Community with the mission of serving the Lord and humanity and taking care of all creation.
Like the earliest community of Jerusalem, the members are focused on faithfulness to the true Teachings of the Apostles, Breaking of Bread, Ceaseless Prayer, Unity of Faith, and Works of Charity.
MISSION
As a Community of Faith, the priority of the Church is to fulfill the mandate of the Lord to preach the good news of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, baptize those who believe, and to teach them to observe the commandments of God.
The mission concentrates on primary evangelization – seeking out the sheep not yet acquired and secondary evangelization – pasturing and caring for God’s flock.
PASTORAL PLAN
Inspired by the model and identity of the Jerusalem Community (Acts 2:42-47), the Church needs a Pastoral Plan that fo
cuses on Family, Youth, Training of the Laity for service at various levels of Church ministry, for Adult Formation Teams, etc.
SOCIAL INTERVENTION
In order of importance, the priorities are Evangelization and Doctrinal Clarity for the conduct of Christian virtues.
According to her identity and mission, it is wrong that the Church concentrates on (gives priority to) building structures and institutions for her social interventions.
The social interventions are useful points of reference and measure in judging how far the Church has come in carrying out her missionary mandate of evangelization.
By Wilfred Cardinal Fox Napier, OFM, Emeritus Archbishop of Durban, South Africa
