Like every association within the Catholic Church, the Society of the Catholic Apostolate has a specific aim, given by the Founder. During the 170 years of its existence, Pallotti’s foundation had to face many challenging situations. After Vatican Council II, the Society took upon itself the responsibility to redefine its aims, taking into consideration the original ideas of the Founder, its hisotircal development and the actual needs of the Church. A simple and concise presentation of the aim, easily understandable also to persons who are not used to the daily use of a theological and canonical terminology is not an easy undertaking. To facilitate the presentation we can describe a hierarchy of aims that the Society is trying to realise. The most important “reason for being” of the Society is that it has in common with the mission of Jesus Christ and of the Church, that is, “to revive faith and re-enkindle charity of the entire People of God and to spread the faith and charity in the world, so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd” (John 10,16).

This general aim, common with the whole Church, gets its specific imprint by Pallotti’s idea of the “catholic”, universal apostolate, which for St. Vincent Pallotti became a guiding idea of his activities and his theological writings. Such a concept presupposes that every one is called to follow Jesus Christ and to shoulder his/her responsibility for the mission of the Church, to instil in all a profound conviction of their personal call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to inspire them for a life with and for Christ. Generally we can say that the aim of the Society is to increase the collaboration among the members of the Church, that is, among the diocesan priests, the male and female religious and the laity to fulfil fully and more efficiently the apostolic tasks.