Gulf Pine Catholic • March 27, 2026 7 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Notre Dame Hospice is looking for volunteers. Volunteers can provide caregiver relief, companionship for patients, run errands, play music, prepare a meal & offer whatever talents our volunteers would like to share. Hospice volunteers do not need any medical experience as they do not handle patients. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact: Janine Bonner, Volunteer Coordinator, (504) 418-1049, or email jbonner@ notredamehospice.com. Our Mississippi office is in Diamondhead. We need volunteers in the Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Diamondhead, D’Iberville, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian, Ocean Springs, & Picayune. The amount of time you wish to volunteer is up to you. Thank you. CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF SOUTH MISSISSIPPI JOB OPENING MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST Catholic Charities of South Mississippi is seeking a compassionate and dedicated Mental Health Therapist to join our team. The ideal candidate will provide high-quality mental health services including individual therapy, family therapy, group counseling, and community outreach. This position requires a commitment to serving others with dignity and respect while upholding the mission and values of Catholic Charities of South Mississippi and the teachings of the Catholic Church. To see full job posting and qualifications visit: catholiccharitiesofsouthms.org/counseling-program. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Bethel Free Health Clinic in Biloxi is in immediate need of volunteers to assist with data entry and records management. On-the-job training is available. Clinic days and hours are Tues./Thurs., 8 -11 a.m. For more information or to volunteer, please call (228) 594-3640 or email bethelkatclinic@gmail.com. Communion of faithful, not just clergy, shares role in safeguarding faith, pope says Pope Leo XIV greets a child from the popemobile while riding around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience March 18. CNS photo/Lola Gomez BY JOSEPHINE PETERSON Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- All baptized Christians share in the Church’s mission and, guided by the Holy Spirit, are fit for renewing and building up the Church, Pope Leo XIV said at his weekly general audience. Every person who has been baptized is called to bear witness to Christ, and the whole Church, beyond its leaders, has a role in preserving the truth of the faith, the pope said March 18 in St. Peter’s Square. Continuing his series of reflections on the Second Vatican Council, the pope focused on the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (“Lumen Gentium”), and the participation of the lay faithful in Jesus Christ’s “priestly, prophetic and royal offices,” that is, the offices of teaching, sanctifying and governing. Everyone enters the Church as a layperson, he said. Through Baptism and Confirmation, the faithful are “more perfectly bound to the Church” and are endowed “with special strength” by the Holy Spirit, so that they are “more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ,” he said, quoting the document. “This consecration is at the root of the common mission that unites the ordained ministries and the lay faithful,” Pope Leo said. In fact, everyone is called to bear witness to the truth of the faith. The Doctrinal Commission of the Council specified that the sense of faith “belongs to individual believers not in their own right, but as members of the People of God as a whole,” the pope said. The function of the Holy Spirit is to lead Christians to the truth, and because the entire body of the faithful is anointed by “the holy one,” he said, “the Church, therefore, as the communion of the faithful -- which naturally includes the pastors -- cannot err in matters of faith.” “From this unity, which the Magisterium of the Church safeguards, it follows that every baptized person is an active agent of evangelization, called to bear consistent witness to Christ in accordance with the prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church,” he said. The Holy Spirit, who comes from the Risen Christ, he said, distributes”special graces” among all the faithful, who are then able to contribute to the renewal and building of the Church. “Dear friends, let us rekindle in ourselves the awareness of and gratitude for having received the gift of being part of God’s people; and also the responsibility that this entails,” he said.
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