Citation: Fialkowski, Marek. 2022. Formation of Lay Catholics: Franciscan Inspirations. Religions 13: 686. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel13080686 Academic Editors: Pawel M ˛ akosa and Stephen G. Parker Received: 2 July 2022 Accepted: 22 July 2022 Published: 27 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Formation of Lay Catholics: Franciscan Inspirations Marek Fialkowski Institute of Theology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland; marek.fialkowski@kul.pl Abstract: Currently, the formation of lay Catholics is one of the key tasks of the Church. The Synod of Bishops, Towards a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission, convened by Pope Francis, served as a reminder of this. In its new format, i.e., phased consultations and meetings, the Synod calls for the involvement of lay Catholics in listening to one another and recognising directions for the Church renewal. This emphasises the need for an ongoing effort to form the faithful. There are many suggestions in the Church for the formation of lay Catholics. Franciscan spirituality, which continues to inspire and attract people, is one of these suggestions. In his teaching, the current pope likes to refer to St. Francis of Assisi, drawing from his writings and example of life. This work aimed to present selected elements of Franciscan spirituality that seem useful in the formation of lay Catholics for their service in the Church and the world. Six elements that can be drawn from rich Franciscan spirituality were analysed and they seem relevant for today’s Church: fidelity to the Church, openness to the world and rejection of its evil, apostolate “in via”, promotion of the laity, poverty at the service of the Gospel, and openness to the people rejected by society. The discussion of these elements is preceded by a synthetic presentation of the nature and purpose of the formation of lay Catholics. Keywords: lay Catholics; formation; St. Francis; Franciscan spirituality 1. Introduction The renewal of lay theology should be considered one of the most important achieve- ments of the Second Vatican Council. Lay theology results in, among other things, restoring the dignity and role that derive from their membership in the community of the Church to the lay faithful. By restoring the subjective character of being in the Church to the lay faithful, the value of their salvific activity in the Church and the world was thus recognised. The evangelical allegory of the vine and the branches in John Paul II’s post-synodal exhortation, Christifideles laici, emphasises the call for lay Catholics to continually grow, mature, and bear fruit. God invites a person with free will into His vineyard, and this invitation includes the need for both an integral and continuous formation (ChL 57). Formation is the foundation for the full and proper involvement of lay Catholics in the life and mission of the Church. The lay person, formed according to the teaching of the Church, can avoid both the passivity that is so present today and actions that are appropriate to clergy and consecrated persons but are incompatible with the vocation of the lay person in the Church and the world. The formation of lay Catholics is currently an important and even urgent challenge for the Church, and it should be agreed that there is still much to be done in this area both at the level of awakening the awareness and concrete commitment of lay Catholics, as well as the functioning and cooperation of all the faithful in the Church (see EG 81; Czaja 2006). The issue has taken on a new meaning in the light of the Synod of Bishops initiated by Pope Francis, Towards a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission, which has a new format and is divided into three phases that are spread over three years: local phase, continental phase, and universal phase. In this synodal process, which aims to consult and listen to all who are baptised, lay Catholics have a special role (The Preparatory Document for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops 2021). Religions 2022, 13, 686. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080686 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions