Following his elevation to cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, a position he held until 2002, when he became the first African Cardinal to head a Vatican office, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (2002-08).

His biography, God's Invisible Hand, was published by Ignatius Press, as were his books The Layperson's Distinctive Role, and Meeting Jesus and Following Him.

Cardinal Arinze's most recent book, also published by Ignatius Press, is Radical Discipleship: Consecrated Life and the Call to Holiness (2015), released in conjunction with the Year of Consecrated Life, which began on November 30, 2014 and will conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016.

Cardinal Arinze corresponded this past week with Catholic World Report about the meaning and uniqueness of consecrated life, the roots and development of consecrated life, and some of the challenges facing embracing and living the consecrated life today.

CWR: In the Introduction to Radical Discipleship, you focus on how discipleship consists of accepting Jesus invitation, "Follow me." In what unique ways is the consecrate life an embrace of the call to radical discipleship?

Cardinal Arinze: The consecrated life is an embracing of the call to radical discipleship, the call to follow Christ in a radical way, because the consecrated person takes the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The life of Jesus was a model of the three virtues lived to an extraordinary degree of commitment. All followers of Christ are indeed called to live three three virtues, but not in the same way. Consecrated people live the three virtues as vows binding them for their whole lives. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: St Thomas Province of the Claretians

Cardinal Arinze's newest book is The Layperson's Distinctive Role (Ignatius Press), and he recently, via e-mail, answered questions from Catholic World Report about that book.

CWR: How did the Second Vatican Council, and then Bl. John Paul II, seek to address the role of the laity? What was distinctive about that approach compared to the pre-conciliar era?

Cardinal Arinze: The Second Vatican Council addressed the role of the laity by teaching that this role is based on Baptism by which the laity "are made one body in Christ and are established among the People of God" (Lumen Gentium, 31). The principal passage on this is LG 31. This teaching is discussed in greater detail in LG 32-37 and also in Gaudium et Spes 43 and in Apostolicam Actuositatem 2-7.

Blessed John Paul II, particularly in his postsynodal apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici, bases the lay apostolate on the mystery of the Church. "I am the vine and you are the branches" (Jn 15:5; CL 20). The lay people are sharers in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly mission of Jesus Christ (CL 29). A secular character is peculiar to the laity. So this great Pope states: "Thus for the lay faithful, to be present and active in the world is not only an anthropological and sociological reality, but in a specific way, a theological and ecclesiological reality as well" (CL 15).

Distinctive about both approaches is that both Vatican II and Bl. John Paul II consider the lay faithful primarily as called to evangelize the secular order. Before Vatican II many in the Church defined the lay apostolate as a participation in the apostolate of the hierarchy (i.e. of the clergy). Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: Southern Orders

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an important book...reading it would improve your knowledge," he told the group on July 22.

The cardinal delivered an address at Loyola College in Negombo, Sri Lanka, in celebration of the Negombo Regional Catechists Day.

Source

CNA