The American Communion Project Presents:
THE PEOPLES SOCIAL ENCYCLICALS COUNCIL
Affirming our "potestas directa" to discern failing public policy approaches to
Catholic Social Teaching for authentic, integral, & ecological human communion.
God is not concerned with narrowly defined ecclesiastical-cultural disputes in the church. God is not concerned with clericalism. Rather, God's concern is for the future of human communion and humanity's ability to coexist and flourish on Earth. Human communion is the preeminent priority of The Peoples' Social Encyclicals Council. The Lay Apostolate has postestas directa (direct power & authority) to discern policy approaches to church teaching; it is we who bear the full responsibility for policy decision-making. Our potestas directa has always existed in the Catholic Social Teaching tradition and affirmed by Vatican II. Hence, we will prophetically announce God's concern for the authentic, integral, and ecological development of human communion by way of our irreducible God-given worthiness and dignity as reflective persons, our equality in baptism, and as a fundamentally free and self-governing Communion of Peoples of the secular state.
"We can literally say thank God for the risk-takers: without such, the church at crucial junctures of its history would have taken disastrous turns. Dissent from the prevailing perspectives and powerful voices of the day has always been an ecclesial virtue---indeed one finds such in the sayings and action of Jesus, in Paul's letters, and throughout the long story of the church. Ecclesial dissent, then, has literally proved a saving grace at various points of church history. But often it comes at a price, and we know the many ways in which such a price can be exacted from such voices. Seen in this light, Vatican II was the endorsement of ecclesial risk-takers."
--Gerard Mannion
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"Upon all the laity, therefore, rests the noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all [peoples] of each epoch and in every land. Consequently, may every opportunity be given them so that, according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church."
--Lumen Gentium
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