"Lay people undertake a variety of ministries in parishes, schools, and Church institutions and agencies as diverse as Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Catholic Earthcare, Catholic Mission, Marriage Tribunals, Catholic Development Funds, Caritas Australia and Catholic media offices. Lay people serve in mission and pastoral care roles with migrants and refugees, Catholic hospitals, aged care facilities, correctional services, and with the military. Many ministries are occasional and usually unpaid: for example, the various ministries associated with liturgy, including acolytes, ministers of the word, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, cantors and music ministers, altar servers and sacristans, and other parish-based roles such as membership of parish pastoral councils, finance committees, visitation teams, sacramental preparation teams, youth and family groups and social justice groups. Lay people give their time and gifts freely for the good of the Church community and the wider community in the name of Jesus Christ, and are authorised and commissioned in the name of the local Bishop."

(Faithful Stewards of God's Grace, page 14).

The first national resource for lay pastoral ministry, Faithful Stewards of God’s Grace was launched by the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, in July 2018.