ECCLESIASTICAL ASSISTANT. - He is the priest deputed by the legitimate ecclesiastical Authority to the Associations of Catholic Action, with the task of: a) representing that Authority before them and zealously ensuring faithful observance of its prescriptions and directive norms; b) procuring, through the aids of the sacred ministry, the suitable spiritual, catechetical, liturgical and apostolic formation of the members and of the leaders; c) promoting to this end, with the proper authorizations, courses of spiritual exercises, days and weeks of prayer and study, directing their religious and spiritual part.
The A. e. is assigned not only to the local Associations, but also to the individual diocesan and national governing bodies, and in that case he takes the name of diocesan A. or of central, or general, or national A.
His juridical participation in the deliberations of the governing bodies has undergone emphases and attenuations according to the needs of the moment. In Italy, for example, after 1931, the A. e., together with the president or the presidentess, constituted the presidency, and therefore his function was deliberative on any matter. The Statutes of 1946 restored to the A. e. the exclusive function set out above in the definition, and this in order to give back to the laity a greater autonomy and responsibility in those matters that are not explicitly reserved to the A. e., or regarding which he does not have a kind of right of veto.
The pontifical documents have always stressed the decisive importance of the work of the A. e., carried out within Catholic Action, up to the incisive formula given by Pius XI: «Catholic Action is what the A. e. make it».