"Speeding up the role of lay men in the Church is not a matter of method. More decisive is instead the substance of the recognition that feeds on esteem and gratitude, right and responsibility". This was repeated today by card. Dionigi Tettamanzi, president of the Preparatory committee of the IV National ecclesial meeting, which is in progress in Verona, as he answered the questions of the press. To renew the recognition of the right and at the same time of the responsibilities of the laity, the cardinal re-proposed that "inseparable triad" of "communion-cooperation-joint responsibility" that involves "authorities and roles for everyone" and that demands "a wider, deeper education of the laity". As to the political commitment of lay men, Tettamanzi stated that politics "concerns everyone, and everyone must be able to speak or stay silent. The pluralism of those that profess the Gospel is well know, and this is why one should look for a unity of values to make the evangelical message effective and proactive in society". Lay men, he concluded, are called "to be consistent with Christ, to take the Gospel, an unchangeable bill of rights, in their hands and read it over and over again in their daily life".
