Vatican City, Feb 14, 2020 / 09:47 am (CNA).- Laypeople have a mandate to spread the Gospel in their concrete circumstances through the witness of their lives, Pope Francis said in a message sent Friday to Catholics attending a congress on laity in Spain.

“The living Word of God needs to be preached with passion and joy through Christian witness, to be able to tear down even the highest walls that isolate and exclude,” the pope wrote in the message, delivered Feb. 14.