tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76256752735971454892024-03-06T05:36:25.580+11:00Cardijn ResearchThe life and work of Joseph Cardijn, founder of the YCW-JOCUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger181125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-89690387906255686962023-08-01T01:32:00.006+10:002023-08-01T01:32:57.586+10:00Centenary of the birth of Blessed Enrique Angelelli<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbs2fHUy1BafVcgHLfQ5T_IwLF3fOsy4DZe9xTKtLTU8QJz7ddCnzBp72NniVsCMMjvRXWzkrqymPrSnEDabt6HfvRp_6VbZGYvG14NMtWlN38SBgz9oylhQytLY3RQspQicRf5cdeduJgc7xpz8VlDxjh8sEhWs_Ypef3ZhX7Z5P5gliydXwR2s2-17SD/s1080/CENTENARY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbs2fHUy1BafVcgHLfQ5T_IwLF3fOsy4DZe9xTKtLTU8QJz7ddCnzBp72NniVsCMMjvRXWzkrqymPrSnEDabt6HfvRp_6VbZGYvG14NMtWlN38SBgz9oylhQytLY3RQspQicRf5cdeduJgc7xpz8VlDxjh8sEhWs_Ypef3ZhX7Z5P5gliydXwR2s2-17SD/w400-h400/CENTENARY.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br />How could I forget? This month - 18 July to be precise - marks the centenary of the birth of martyred Argentinian jocist chaplain, bishop, Vatican II Council father, signatory of the <a href="https://pactofthecatacombs.com/the-pact/">Pact of the Catacombs </a>and the <a href="https://pactofthecatacombs.com/pietralata-message/">Pietralata Message</a>, pioneer of Argentina’s <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2015/07/the-jocist-origins-of-argentinas.html">Theology of the People</a>, and martyr, <a href="https://angelelli.josephcardijn.com/">Enrique Angelelli</a>.<br /><br />Truly, he was one of the greatest jocist chaplains. But in the present context of preparing for the Synod on Synodality, who could be a better model for the development of a synodal Church?<br /><br />Bishop, priests and lay people working together - that was the way Enrique Angelelli worked! A real model for a synodal Church as I wrote in <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/12/pepe-amalia-palacio-and-enrique.html">this article</a> remembering Pepe Palacio. Or as I described him in <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2018/06/enrique-angelelli-first-martyr-of.html">this article</a>, we can justly consider him as the first martyr of Vatican II.<br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2016/08/enrique-angelelli-and-pepe-palacio.html">Enrique Angelelli and Pepe Palacio</a> (Cardijn Research)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-17539059367403837472023-06-26T17:20:00.002+10:002023-06-26T17:21:11.815+10:00Lay movements and a synodal church<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUoPpu4szWwhqHlNZodTOmd1YSF6FptM6VG8mdxopGyFVFdnCIPE1H5tFpYxSDe6zHaavpPEcDvK4PdnKPp_AhefhVUc5WCwnVUdNeUanVfmQSbegdVDlD8_b7o2rAhHpXIPQT8klTUpxJyEGBhY6Dbf6BOnWvnX-Co92y34IsSc6a4IZmiInxfCuLvKZ/s1283/ScreenHunter_437%20Jun.%2026%2009.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="1283" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUoPpu4szWwhqHlNZodTOmd1YSF6FptM6VG8mdxopGyFVFdnCIPE1H5tFpYxSDe6zHaavpPEcDvK4PdnKPp_AhefhVUc5WCwnVUdNeUanVfmQSbegdVDlD8_b7o2rAhHpXIPQT8klTUpxJyEGBhY6Dbf6BOnWvnX-Co92y34IsSc6a4IZmiInxfCuLvKZ/w640-h360/ScreenHunter_437%20Jun.%2026%2009.20.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />This is the presentation that I gave at the Global Catholicism panel at the <a href="https://www.europeanacademyofreligion.org/euare2023" target="_blank">European Academy of Religion</a> conference at St Andrew's University, Scotland from 19-23 June 2023.<p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRZsE3WjxapX-R2lR3oZOfhof0xo6l2awmF4TNWkHcUfcnAuAFNqm2L-UsNWGPBXHtGYsJHd0yKuBdG/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-85624338897629125712023-05-24T19:43:00.028+10:002023-05-27T19:49:48.216+10:00Henry Cardijn & his son’s consecration to the working class<p><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaXKV4ftid08lobkmEHXQyB-qeqFepbgFhYh8KircqVL1SnC-FMcMVQ9Dp0MlH3oHxf99hhq-q6INgtuZc2Af09T6U-xz7I6QbqbBNYi2ucIbEg_pHPhjd-WepjUT6uaQGHcMhZGvj7Wf4ZbUjk9bpSM_7y_Y_BWaI-qCbQY8nxmYiJgwlkrx2nMXc-A/s800/1896-cardijn-halle-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="800" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaXKV4ftid08lobkmEHXQyB-qeqFepbgFhYh8KircqVL1SnC-FMcMVQ9Dp0MlH3oHxf99hhq-q6INgtuZc2Af09T6U-xz7I6QbqbBNYi2ucIbEg_pHPhjd-WepjUT6uaQGHcMhZGvj7Wf4ZbUjk9bpSM_7y_Y_BWaI-qCbQY8nxmYiJgwlkrx2nMXc-A/w640-h352/1896-cardijn-halle-01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333;">Cardijn as a boy at Halle</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">Today is the 120th anniversary of the death of Joseph Cardijn’s father, Henry, which means it’s also the 120th anniversary of Cardijn’s consecration of his life to the working class.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strangely enough, perhaps, we don’t know many details of the life of Henricus Hieronymys (Henry Jerome) Cardijn, who was born in 1850 and died at the age of 53 in 1903.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, however, his son Joseph recorded a few of the essentials of the humble, hard-working life of his father:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to the birth registry, I was born on 18 November 1882 in Chaussée de Haecht, Schaerbeek, where my parents were caretakers and my father a coach driver. Following my baptism in Saint Servais church on the 16 November, they sent me to stay with a nanny at Halle in my father’s region of origin as my mother was seriously ill.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Five or six years after my birth, my parents moved back to Halle where they initially established a small grocery that they were soon obliged to close for lack of customers in order to begin managing a small coal store which at first had only a small cart for supplying customers and then later a horse-drawn cart to load coal from the station or the boat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My father worked hard and from a very early age I helped him to unload the coal and serve customers and as soon as I knew how to read and write to prepare invoices and orders since my father did not know how to read or write.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nevertheless, Henry must have been a social-minded Catholic. Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques tell us that it was from his father that Cardijn first learned of Pope Leo XIII’s famous 1891 encylical on the situation of the working class, <a data-id="https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html" data-type="URL" href="https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rerum Novarum</em></a>:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a small boy, nine at the time, Joseph Cardijn had heard it talked of. His illiterate father had asked him to read it aloud to him.</span></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite this, Henricus (or ‘Rikus as he was known) had little understanding of Joseph’s “thirst for knowledge.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Cardijn later wrote:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">At home, I devoured books and newspaper to the great disgust of my father who feared for my frail health and understood nothing of my passion for reading</span></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Cardijn also often recalled, life was a constant financial struggle for the family. This eventually took a toll on his father’s health:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following my Solemn Communion, the question arose of placing me as an apprentice and going to work. My father was exhausted and his small business was in decline. Then, one evening, no longer able to contain myself, I jumped out of bed, descended to the kitchen and told my astonished parents of my desire to become a priest for which my father and mother both sacrificed themselves.</span></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite the burden that this would cause the family, Henricus immediately gave his consent to his son’s priestly ambition:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fiévez and Meert tell the story this way:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One evening he could keep to himself no longer and while his brothers and sister were asleep, he got out of bed and came down to the kitchen. He stood in the doorway barefoot and in his nightshirt. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Well, what are you up to there?” asked his father in surprise. “Are you sick? No? Then, my boy, off to bed !” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I can’t sleep . . .”. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“A likely story . . .”. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Father, let him speak,” cut in the wife, feeling there was something here that had to be faced. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Joseph was choked up but resolute: “I would like to be able to carry on at school. I want to be a priest and you have to study a lot for that. I want your permission not to go to work.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His mother’s face turned white. Her intuition had not deceived her. His father spoke: “Woman, we have already worked hard. But if we, small folk as we are, could have the joy of giving our son to God, well, we’ll work on a bit more!” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“And you”, to the boy, “off to bed!”</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Henceforth, we hear little of Henri Cardijn until the time of his death on 24 May 1903.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once again Fiévez and Meert tell us the story:</span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-size: 1.125rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; quotes: "" "";"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back in the seminary to finish his studies in philosophy, he was suddenly called home. Henri Cardijn was dying. He had laboured all his life; had worked to the end and was now dying prematurely. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With his emotional and passionate temperament, young Joseph was bowled over by this fresh shock. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he knelt to receive his father’s last blessing, he felt drawn to respond to a new call from God, a call that was clear and decisive. In his innermost being he swore to consecrate his whole life as a priest to save the mass of the workers. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For more than sixty years he would live to the full that commitment in daily fidelity by the total gift of himself.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cardijn never forgot the debt he owed to his father and he did indeed honour his commitment to the workers for the rest of his life.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In tomorrow’s reflection we’ll look at how his vow also inspired 500 bishops at the Second Vatican Council.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Stefan Gigacz</b></span></p><h2 class="wp-block-heading" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #666666; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 1.5em 0px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sources</span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, <a data-id="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2013" data-type="URL" href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2013" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Cardijn, Chapter 1: Birth</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, <a data-id="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2015" data-type="URL" href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2015" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Cardijn, Chapter 2: Seminary </a>(Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Joseph Cardijn, <a data-id="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/99" data-type="URL" href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/99" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Background</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-id="https://gw.geneanet.org/gntstarcardijnjose?n=cardijn&oc=0&p=henri+jerome&type=tree" data-type="URL" href="https://gw.geneanet.org/gntstarcardijnjose?n=cardijn&oc=0&p=henri+jerome&type=tree" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Family Tree</a> (Geneastar)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-id="https://www.myheritage.com/names/joseph_cardyn" data-type="URL" href="https://www.myheritage.com/names/joseph_cardyn" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: rgb(15, 15, 15) 0px -1px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Family Tree</a> (My Heritage)</span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Originally published at</span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #666666; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://reflections.josephcardijn.com/henry-cardijn-cardijns-consecration-to-the-working-class/" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: initial; box-shadow: transparent 0px 0px inset, rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 3px; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; margin-left: -2px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 80ms ease-in 0s, box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 130ms ease-in-out 0s;">Henry Cardijn & his son’s consecration to the working class</a> (Cardijn Reflections)</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-19394995016151661672023-04-19T18:00:00.002+10:002023-04-19T20:54:49.725+10:00Was Cardijn a "worker priest"?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob4fFfQFJIH-ycscBEULBzV8jQe-zpvYfN8f0jFaEylIeu9CJmH62cz9cCGKYbMTNbPgG_Yd8tofa_rylw-BA8sMaWpOVi0IAOtuiHZfz9Cq7ChEbs0rZrnn60uYJqrOGGh8AzJtoBSMcwpOMkPsfcQj6EtYRtxL23b-4kSmUvcXYwYPicK-MER0-MQ/s814/ScreenHunter_276%20Apr.%2019%2015.54.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="814" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob4fFfQFJIH-ycscBEULBzV8jQe-zpvYfN8f0jFaEylIeu9CJmH62cz9cCGKYbMTNbPgG_Yd8tofa_rylw-BA8sMaWpOVi0IAOtuiHZfz9Cq7ChEbs0rZrnn60uYJqrOGGh8AzJtoBSMcwpOMkPsfcQj6EtYRtxL23b-4kSmUvcXYwYPicK-MER0-MQ/w400-h255/ScreenHunter_276%20Apr.%2019%2015.54.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Was Cardijn a "worker priest"? Not a question that's ever occurred to me before. Why would it have?<p></p><p>After all, the "worker priests" were mainly French priests, including many YCW chaplains, from the 1940s onwards, who decided and sought permission to carry on their presybteral ministries while working in factories, in dockyards, etc.</p><p>Hence, the title of Oscar Cole-Arnal's book, "Prêtres en bleu de chauffe," translated as "Priests in working-class blue."</p><p>That generation of priests is now disappearing and in any case are certainly no longer working in those industries to which they committed themselves.</p><p>More recently, however, there are perhaps a few signs of the emergence of a new generation of worker priests.</p><p>In the French city of Lille, which was the seedbed of the first generation, YCW chaplain, Fr Lionel Vandenbriele, works fulltime as a paramedic, an ambulance worker.</p><p>“While studying Church history, I had to do an essay on the worker priests," he explained. "That challenged me. Afterwards, while at the seminary, I was sent to work in a factory at Nordlys à Bailleul for two years.</p><p>“I felt a lack of opportunities to meet people outside the Church as well as a gap with the young people of my own generation who were working. I wanted to share the life of the people.”</p><p>“My thoughts ranged from becoming a baker to becoming a specialised educator. After doing an evaluation of my capacities, I found that I was best suited for the medical or paramedical sector.</p><p>“I asked for authorisation from my bishop, who accepted. So it became a project of the Church. The whole Church is involved with me in this focus on the world of work,” Fr Lionel said.</p><p>Which brings me back to Cardijn, who during the summer of 1907 was sent by his own bishop, Cardinal Désiré Mercier, to teach Latin at a minor seminary.</p><p>There he spent those years working as a school teacher before finally taking up a fulltime priestly ministry in the parish of Our Lady at Laeken in 1912.</p><p>Certainly, a minor seminary has little in common with a coal mine or a steel factory. Nevertheless, are teachers not workers in the same way that paramedics are workers?</p><p>Perhaps we're moving back to the example of St Paul, who proudly continued his own profession as a tentmaker.</p><p>In any event, the demarcation line between the roles of priest and worker is no longer as clearcut as it once may have seemed, even to Cardijn, who arguably did indeed, at least by today's standards, start out as a worker priest.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="http://cardijn.info/a-new-worker-priest-for-the-diocese-of-lille/" target="_blank">A new worker priest for the diocese of Lille</a> (Cardijn.info)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1ky8jUYpL_2LU2bQgn_F-_zR-Ih68MXOBUaC0pfk-KEd4h3mziasrWDBRKAHhs-074d5ceblQojytJs2S2z9IjxA35Yf_vbYmTHYbblesiav0q162s-ruGF3oABhNi9h5wviFblzDFdLi66hpCVcr1zhlWjy0OQFkjQ9HOobTo8diI7AUFu-55zorQ/s1396/pr%C3%AAtres-ouvriers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="1396" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1ky8jUYpL_2LU2bQgn_F-_zR-Ih68MXOBUaC0pfk-KEd4h3mziasrWDBRKAHhs-074d5ceblQojytJs2S2z9IjxA35Yf_vbYmTHYbblesiav0q162s-ruGF3oABhNi9h5wviFblzDFdLi66hpCVcr1zhlWjy0OQFkjQ9HOobTo8diI7AUFu-55zorQ/w640-h466/pr%C3%AAtres-ouvriers.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">News cutting about a film on the French worker priests. Click on image for larger view.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://php88.free.fr/bdff/film/0026/03.jpg">http://php88.free.fr/bdff/film/0026/03.jpg</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-77079706466337548062023-04-17T00:32:00.005+10:002023-04-17T00:32:59.273+10:00Marc Sangnier, the Sillon and the YCW<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpJe53JSSO78SHivG9eg43HqHaZqsrtQQjDbzZqz0eJ5GXSq2uD9v9oXnag9nzC_-bJqnPmenZ47jkfSmMFI4MkbKpbTRXolmRB-Y_ZoS3_eU8AtYpPIFSl03n2uiV395m1lCv3SSqpdekJU9eLRYStZpBbwha1X54H-C3dNTPnrunCAzs2A3hupae8w/s2000/ACI%20Webinar%20Stefan%20Gigacz%203%20April%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2000" height="453" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpJe53JSSO78SHivG9eg43HqHaZqsrtQQjDbzZqz0eJ5GXSq2uD9v9oXnag9nzC_-bJqnPmenZ47jkfSmMFI4MkbKpbTRXolmRB-Y_ZoS3_eU8AtYpPIFSl03n2uiV395m1lCv3SSqpdekJU9eLRYStZpBbwha1X54H-C3dNTPnrunCAzs2A3hupae8w/w640-h453/ACI%20Webinar%20Stefan%20Gigacz%203%20April%202023.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>As I've noted previously, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marc Sangnier.</p><p>Here now is my presentation for an Australian Cardijn Institute webinar on 11 April.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yjm3mxXGMU8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And here is the presentation that goes with it:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSoy4-ZCq7jLHzT6P4IAIpNQIVjvCXNje4mdx66cap0cgwMkVpPK1kPUdrjxV7eWD1feUQbGvtaKaaK/embed?start=false&loop=true&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Stefan Gigacz</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-15340423535228518712023-02-05T01:48:00.003+11:002023-02-05T01:48:40.576+11:00The grateful "Minis"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX3-eaOPNlaOSBw_Va82jRyW5HolKjt_iTpTBPl8u3rSIeufPr5SKZXo3zSKnjs820uhaj8RbYWvbbuTbMPDrHq7iCccJb-ti-A6QnMrzTno-5HyMyxEQ-pbVnDBLKhH-TV4rvNXF8JGvcMkP1b_dFbuHGRYHOoIbbKYx1jCHW7P8gZ-2W6LVmDU30A/s598/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="374" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX3-eaOPNlaOSBw_Va82jRyW5HolKjt_iTpTBPl8u3rSIeufPr5SKZXo3zSKnjs820uhaj8RbYWvbbuTbMPDrHq7iCccJb-ti-A6QnMrzTno-5HyMyxEQ-pbVnDBLKhH-TV4rvNXF8JGvcMkP1b_dFbuHGRYHOoIbbKYx1jCHW7P8gZ-2W6LVmDU30A/w400-h640/cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />A nice piece of French JOCF history!<p></p><p>A beautiful leather-bound copy of the classic 1930 2nd edition of the "Manuel de la JOCF" (Girls YCW Manual) with the JOC badge embossed on the cover in colour.</p><p>With a hand-lettered dedication:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>A notre chère bienfaitrice.</p><p>Les Jocistes de St. Pierre.</p><p>Les Minimes reconnaissantes.</p><p>Noël 1936.</p></blockquote><p>In English:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>To our dear benefactor.</p><p>The jocists of S. Pierre's.</p><p>The grateful Minis. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>Christmas 1936.</p></blockquote><p>The vendor of the book is from Orleans. So St Pierre's is probably the church of Saint Pierre du Martroi, now part of the Orleans Cathedral parish.</p><p>A small thing but very evocative of what the YCW meant to those teenage leaders!</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCE</p><p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Pierre_du_Martroi" target="_blank">Eglise Saint Pierre du Martroi</a> (Wikipedia.fr)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7fUuml3GtcyJJmIygcIwaDxxWhSD_t1b0SouZddECcU07c9oCl03vF6W5mti1AZsMJHp9W4aJ896Den48uIgusPzCpDsGvfvtFu4M4HgdafwSO3LvUt1fmbg0AoFG9nAHJ2l23Fzy4dpkH73as5v_TOAGwoGJu53r5EbklMvpzbKDdybdnSxpTd1ycQ/s652/dedication.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="343" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7fUuml3GtcyJJmIygcIwaDxxWhSD_t1b0SouZddECcU07c9oCl03vF6W5mti1AZsMJHp9W4aJ896Den48uIgusPzCpDsGvfvtFu4M4HgdafwSO3LvUt1fmbg0AoFG9nAHJ2l23Fzy4dpkH73as5v_TOAGwoGJu53r5EbklMvpzbKDdybdnSxpTd1ycQ/w336-h640/dedication.jpg" width="336" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNG84IBeWmifBSXNxsbG6YXvER0ozfWrlE2DBeLhHjiM9cBpk9NNU5UmsFLKVgcE7UZ_9Pk3LsrnuIg02_qRLed5sdCnXOjIliwFKIygpwnGbTvmGAcDX6e2VqvIn22WoHLfR3rjh6c2Fiw2K51CmSFzJ5Tck-vyCHm1Ms2TtLpN7TgvGB35OMxc3g1Q/s658/intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="366" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNG84IBeWmifBSXNxsbG6YXvER0ozfWrlE2DBeLhHjiM9cBpk9NNU5UmsFLKVgcE7UZ_9Pk3LsrnuIg02_qRLed5sdCnXOjIliwFKIygpwnGbTvmGAcDX6e2VqvIn22WoHLfR3rjh6c2Fiw2K51CmSFzJ5Tck-vyCHm1Ms2TtLpN7TgvGB35OMxc3g1Q/w356-h640/intro.jpg" width="356" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-6688069713874671392023-01-17T19:15:00.008+11:002023-01-18T10:26:47.433+11:00A letter from Léon Ollé-Laprune<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbk5uSIfoVawc5jQCfcNfcvXoVmlzTht0ATPXt0dqyhz29Wwkp55mCEyqDhmgCPqWHP7bJRRj6djLFBBA1XkypmVoKgZoluTR5nTWUmbxrteMhpVsFmpqxySr6cVvnKuJ3IBq7W_afbmI5Gxvb9g29NyPg0yPSnq90Ws4xp1cYQCh7QDGDSgwJDCynPQ/s4824/1871-olle-laprune-lettre-01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4824" data-original-width="3178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbk5uSIfoVawc5jQCfcNfcvXoVmlzTht0ATPXt0dqyhz29Wwkp55mCEyqDhmgCPqWHP7bJRRj6djLFBBA1XkypmVoKgZoluTR5nTWUmbxrteMhpVsFmpqxySr6cVvnKuJ3IBq7W_afbmI5Gxvb9g29NyPg0yPSnq90Ws4xp1cYQCh7QDGDSgwJDCynPQ/w264-h400/1871-olle-laprune-lettre-01.jpeg" width="264" /></a></div>Another letter today, this time from my own collection of papers and documents, a letter written by the French philosopher, Léon Ollé-Laprune, a great influence both on Marc Sangnier and the Sillon movement as well as on Cardijn himself.<div><br /></div><div>As his name card which appears to have been attached shows (see below), at the time of the letter dated 14 March 1874, Ollé-Laprune, then 35, was teaching philosophy at the prestigious <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyc%C3%A9e_Henri-IV" target="_blank">Lycée Henri IV</a> in Paris's famed Latin Quarter.<br /><p></p><p></p><p>It is addressed to an unnamed former high school history teacher of Ollé-Laprune requesting assistance for a young "protégé," Charles Normand, who was seeking to succeed in gaining his "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agr%C3%A9gation" target="_blank">agrégation</a>," a qualification enabling people to teach in the French system.</p><p>I've posted the full letter here:</p><p><a href="https://www.olle-laprune.net/p/1874-mon-cher-maitre.html">https://www.olle-laprune.net/p/1874-mon-cher-maitre.html</a></p><p>Although I don't know the outcome of this request, Charles Normand did in fact go on to become a well-known historian of French monuments and an archaeologist:</p><p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Normand_(historien)" target="_blank">Charles Normand (historien)</a> (Wikipedia.fr)</p><p>In a general sense at least, Ollé-Laprune's endeavours appear to have borne great fruit.</p><p>So while it's not an important letter, it does illustrate Ollé-Laprune's desire to be of service to others.</p><p>Plus, of course, personally I'm pleased and proud to have an original handwritten letter written by the man, who later became known as "another Ozanam" and who I regard as "the philosopher of the see-judge-act."</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p><b>Read more about Léon Ollé-Laprune here:</b></p><p><a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/search?q=oll%C3%A9-laprune">https://www.cardijnresearch.org/search?q=oll%C3%A9-laprune</a></p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/98" target="_blank">My reading</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><a href="https://www.olle-laprune.net" target="_blank">www.olle-laprune.net</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTOvLO2YLEaJGdOJAmHLLI9--3781kP3W9vVII6i5ZGJXzuPkfuSuoV30uFpAUpX8aPyma_w6DJEH1SpWH_Ntbn2Ak7h51Ivd2u84L9CzyF37yP7gSiPAcxZFVtJUsiT4gLF9pJyysHVa4Z_X9835pihqueSE_bNByYwL1sCF0my-fZ3oGzeQSbnEjw/s2541/1871-olle-laprune-carte.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1468" data-original-width="2541" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTOvLO2YLEaJGdOJAmHLLI9--3781kP3W9vVII6i5ZGJXzuPkfuSuoV30uFpAUpX8aPyma_w6DJEH1SpWH_Ntbn2Ak7h51Ivd2u84L9CzyF37yP7gSiPAcxZFVtJUsiT4gLF9pJyysHVa4Z_X9835pihqueSE_bNByYwL1sCF0my-fZ3oGzeQSbnEjw/w400-h231/1871-olle-laprune-carte.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-76031760714020677952023-01-13T17:16:00.010+11:002023-01-13T17:42:39.426+11:00The growing pains of the JOC and JOCF<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSl0As0fqsdXktRqqTSRdJ7wH2DqyTnKb9bSIMfv1oTtJ4q4VpYmJ6dZTSzNz13ZOArnrCFUG998X8l3MBIAunRmqQTV5R0e8L9tZyyFiO4UIPQcdLCTa-Ppgz8qpE473_LRBYYtcD9Gt7_udMxu3z2Y316Kz1EhVeam3_e65WvnK8lG_E6oh8IYIug/s844/ScreenHunter_105%20Jan.%2013%2011.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="643" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSl0As0fqsdXktRqqTSRdJ7wH2DqyTnKb9bSIMfv1oTtJ4q4VpYmJ6dZTSzNz13ZOArnrCFUG998X8l3MBIAunRmqQTV5R0e8L9tZyyFiO4UIPQcdLCTa-Ppgz8qpE473_LRBYYtcD9Gt7_udMxu3z2Y316Kz1EhVeam3_e65WvnK8lG_E6oh8IYIug/w488-h640/ScreenHunter_105%20Jan.%2013%2011.57.jpg" width="488" /></a></div><br />This is a second letter from Cardijn to the Rome-based Jesuit sociologist and canonist, Arthur Vermeesch, that Jean Tonglet kindly sent to me from the hard drive archives of the late Fr Marc Leclerc SJ. (See the earlier one here: <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2023/01/cardijns-student-movement-la-jeunesse.html">https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2023/01/cardijns-student-movement-la-jeunesse.html</a>)<p></p><p>This letter is dated 24 November 1933, eight years after the official foundation of the JOC in Belgium, at a time when the movement was beginning to blossom internationally, quite probably thanks also the support of Vermeesch and his colleagues.</p><p>As I've written before, there was a very strong Jesuit connection with the early JOC.</p><p>Read more here:</p><p><a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2013/12/the-jesuit-connection.html">https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2013/12/the-jesuit-connection.html</a></p><p>In this letter, which is clearly a response to an earlier letter from Vermeesch, Cardijn endorses his suggestion that the movement should promote devotion to the Sacred Heart, a favourite Vermeesch theme.</p><p>Stating that he is pleased with the development of the JOCF - the Girls' YCW, he highlights the problems the growth of the movement has caused.</p><p>It now has over 2000 local teams and 200 paid workers, although it's not clear if Cardijn is referring solely to the JOCF or to both the JOC and JOCF.</p><p>In any event, he and his collaborators now face massive challenges in providing formation, management and financing for the movement, particularly since, being a youth movement, the leadership turns over so rapidly.</p><p>And here Cardijn highlights a key theme that he will come back to for the rest of his life: the need for and the lack of trained chaplains.</p><p>He writes:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>What concerns me the most is the role of the clergy in Catholic Action. Our priests must become the educators and supernaturalisers of lay apostles and know how to bend to the discipline of the Movement. We meet certain confreres who fill us with admiration, but alas, our young leaders for the most part lack spiritual direction, advice, support and encouragement. This is, in my opinion, the essential question for the future of Catholic Action: the education and sanctification of the clergy. We find marvelous resources among our young workers. There is an inexhaustible supply of spiritual strength there, but we have over 2,000 local chapters, and we don't have many local chaplains who really live out our movement. This is certainly the most delicate point.</p><p>I can’t see the solution myself. The extension of the movement was too rapid but there is going back. The priestly meetings are inadequate, and despite my best efforts, I lack contact with most of our chaplains. At the General Secretariat, we really need about ten priests dedicated exclusively to the Movement. But it is impossible to think about this at the moment. There are three of us here. We do what is possible, but we have eight periodicals in rotogravure, two in letterpress, not to mention our circulars and then there are the incessant meetings of fulltime workers and leaders.</p></blockquote><p>Clearly, this was a huge issue. But if Cardijn couldn't find enough priests, why didn't he look for women religious, who could also assist? Perhaps, women's orders of the time were not oriented to this kind of work? Or was he (and the Church) of that time simply too wedded to the notion that such a role belonged exclusively to priests? </p><p>It's hard to believe it's the latter since we know that when he launched the first young female workers study circles in Laeken from 1912, Cardijn relied extensively on the accompanying role played by well educated young women "counsellors," such as Victoire Cappe, Madeleine De Roo and others.</p><p>What happened to that role of lay women counsellors, in fact? It seems that as the movement developed and became a Catholic Action movement, priests took over this role.</p><p>And in fact priests around the world were almost exclusively responsible for the mushrooming of the movement. But did this leave no room for others?</p><p>Perhaps more answers to all these questions will be found in other letters in Vermeesch's archives (wherever they may be found!)!</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCE</p><p>English translation</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/3031" target="_blank">Joseph Cardijn - Arthur Vermeesch 24 11 1933</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Original French</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/3027" target="_blank">Joseph Cardijn - Arthur Vermeesch 24 11 1933</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-77405820493216243192023-01-11T20:13:00.006+11:002023-01-12T10:49:07.824+11:00Cardijn's student movement: La Jeunesse Sociale Catholique<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3sNeh69e9nth_l_k_8XaJoVIhRDMr9PUAtIm2WGuO-PQa1h0bpShmINX21ucD8D32ZrxDpQwXI1hbzuIwUMbMsZiv203dUGyD3Eum7sihAgBVySG5skwGC2ArzThh60_sxC6UAXu9pzXWW1-9B6zwbvZMO-8chr3bSA5GiObdOTbMBFD6O7l88zWXg/s1916/Cardijn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1916" data-original-width="1662" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3sNeh69e9nth_l_k_8XaJoVIhRDMr9PUAtIm2WGuO-PQa1h0bpShmINX21ucD8D32ZrxDpQwXI1hbzuIwUMbMsZiv203dUGyD3Eum7sihAgBVySG5skwGC2ArzThh60_sxC6UAXu9pzXWW1-9B6zwbvZMO-8chr3bSA5GiObdOTbMBFD6O7l88zWXg/w556-h640/Cardijn.jpg" width="556" /></a></div><br />I've mentioned before that in 1919 Cardjn launched a student movement, <i>La Jeunesse Sociale Catholique</i> or Catholic Social Youth, in parallel with <i>La Jeunesse Syndicaliste</i> or Young Trade Unionists, which became the YCW.<p></p><p>For Cardijn, the very existence of a movement for young workers implied the need for ean essential and indispensable complement, namely the apostolic and missionary mission proper to young intellectuals, young academics" enabling "organised and methodical collaboration... to resolve not only the problem of a Christian social system but the very problem of working youth."</p><p>Indeed, he noted that he had begun to foster this collaboration from 1912 when he first began working in the parish of Our Lady at Laeken.</p><p>Sadly, not much information appears to be available about the JSC (or at least no-one seems to have researched it).</p><p>So I was very grateful to Jean Tonglet of the ATD-Quart Monde movement for sending me a copy of a 1921 letter from Cardijn to his former spiritual director, the Belgian Jesuit canonist and sociologist, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vermeersch-arthur" target="_blank">Arthur Vermeesch</a> that he had discovered in the hard disk archives of another ATD collaborator, the late Belgian Jesuit, Marc Leclerc.</p><p>J.M. Upton has more details of the life and work of Arthur Vermeesch, including his commitment to social justice, in this article:</p><p><a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vermeersch-arthur">https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vermeersch-arthur</a></p><p>Cardijn was writing to Vermeesch to request him to as a keynote speaker for the Social Week to be held at Louvain (now Leuven) in October 1921. The topic? "The Social Conception of Property."</p><p>I don't have a copy of Vermeesch's reply to Cardijn but what appear to be his handwritten notes on the latter's letter indicate the range of his interest in the topic. </p><p>He lists "worker unions, worker cooperatives, worker leagues, labour exchanges, inter-union mutuals, savings banks, the work of immigrants, study circles, social information documentation, low-cost restaurants and art for the people."</p><p>Quite an amazing list really!</p><p>What is also very interesting is the draft program that Cardijn attached to his letter, which clearly foreshadows the see-judge-act with its LePlaysian Facts-Principles-Solutions format:</p><p>See: Future trends in legislation and social theories</p><p>Judge (Catholic Principles): The social conception of property and work</p><p>Act: Worker education, fighting disease, promoting democracy, further enquiries...</p><p>Observe also the extremely impressive speakers list includes:</p><p>- <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/phlou_0776-555x_1932_num_34_33_2650" target="_blank">Georges Legrand</a>, a Louvain jurist;</p><p>- <a href="https://archives.uclouvain.be/atom/index.php/defourny-maurice" target="_blank">Maurice Defourny</a>, a Louvain philosopher;</p><p>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_de_Man" target="_blank">Henri De Man</a>, a Belgian socialist politician;</p><p>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9-Joseph_Mercier" target="_blank">Cardinal Desiré-Joseph Mercier</a>, speaking on "Responsibility and Social Initiative among Young People," no doubt an astute choice to keep the cardinal onside;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrille_Van_Overbergh" target="_blank">Cyril Van Overbergh</a>, a sociologist as well as a future senator and government minister;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Rutten" target="_blank">Ceslas Georges Rutte</a>n, a Dominican disciple of Le Play as well as Cardijn's boss as director of social work for the Archdiocese of Malines (as it was then);</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Brusselmans" target="_blank">Frans Brusselmans</a>, another Louvain jurist and politician connected to the rural movement, the Boerenbond;</p><p>- <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/121" target="_blank">Madeleine De Roo</a>, a close collaborator of Cardijn in the launch of study circles for young female workers at Laeken and thus a pioneer of the JOC;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Delvaux" target="_blank">Louis Delvaux</a>, a future judge of the European Court of Justice;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Desgranges" target="_blank">Jean Desgranges</a>, Sillonist and democratic priest from Limoges, France;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliette_Verhaegen" target="_blank">Juliette Verhaegen Carton de Wiart</a>, social activist close to Marc Sangnier and the Sillon, and spouse of the future prime minister, Henri Carton de Wiart;</p><p>- <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Leclercq" target="_blank">Jacques Leclercq</a> (spelled Leclerc), who became a very well known Louvain sociologist and moral philosopher.</p><p>All in all, an amazing speaker list put together by Cardijn and his student colleagues. Note also the Sillonist connection with Jean Desgranges and Mme Carton de Wiart as well as the Le Playsian link via Fr Rutten and probably also Fr Vermeesch.</p><p>A great illustration of the kind of work organised by the Jeunesse Sociale Catholique.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCE</p><p>English Translation</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/3020" target="_blank">Joseph Cardijn - Arthur Vermeesch 07 05 1921</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Original French</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/3014" target="_blank">Joseph Cardijn - Arthur Vermeesch 07 05 1921</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-37589052847012502292023-01-09T17:00:00.014+11:002023-02-26T20:17:06.048+11:00Updated Jocist anniversaries 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGNq1An8j8QaDZEPOAtE5NV8v060yN-6UMTjfv4X1vIHmh7RB0xXLbj0lG9tFzoRfLhR0Vy7vgcfNTziBGSqGKVMZhx7R8CrGoJTUxN3IwProzwWY1Mf7GO6w6XwxLyrq1fHbQPF7if4m5d15aTtKQ2AY21nDMJwMGxAamuz4mnpsmPMToqc3UAaItA/s2000/Untitled%20design%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2000" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGNq1An8j8QaDZEPOAtE5NV8v060yN-6UMTjfv4X1vIHmh7RB0xXLbj0lG9tFzoRfLhR0Vy7vgcfNTziBGSqGKVMZhx7R8CrGoJTUxN3IwProzwWY1Mf7GO6w6XwxLyrq1fHbQPF7if4m5d15aTtKQ2AY21nDMJwMGxAamuz4mnpsmPMToqc3UAaItA/w400-h283/Untitled%20design%20(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />We're still at the beginning of 2023 but I've already missed one big jocist anniversary - the 150th anniversary of the birth of St Therese of Lisieux, patron saint of the YCW - so time to get to work.<p></p><p>Without further ado, here's a no doubt incomplete list of this year's anniversaries that I will add to over the next few days or weeks. Suggestions welcome!</p><p>Where possible, I will add relevant reading.</p><p><b>2 January 1873</b>: St Therese of Lisieux: 150th anniversary of her birth in 1893. Pope Pius XI made her patron saint of the YCW and Catholic Action in 1929.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/26">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/26</a></p><p><b>27 January 1943</b>: The death of English trade union leader and Labour parliamentarian, Ben Tillett, who impressed Cardijn so greatly during his visit to the UK during the summer of 1911.</p><p>Read Cardijn's report of his trip:</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/7">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/7</a></p><p><b>13 February 1898</b>: 125th anniversary of the death in 1898 of French philosopher, Léon Ollé-Laprune, a major influence on Marc Sangnier's democratic movement, Le Sillon, and named by Cardijn himself as an important influence.</p><p>It was Ollé-Laprune, who developed the virtue ethics philosophical foundation of the see-judge-act. He almost coined the expression himself with phrases such as "see clearly, judge well and decide."</p><p><a href="http://www.olle-laprune.net">www.olle-laprune.net</a></p><p><b>3 April 1873</b>: It's also the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marc Sangnier in 1873, just a few months after Therese. In fact, when the Sillon was closed down in the wake of Pope Pius X's 25 August 1910 letter condemning the Sillon's teaching and calling on its leaders to resign, Sangnier credited Therese ill obtaining for him the grace to accept the pope's decision.</p><p>Despite this, Cardijnn welcomed Marc Sangnier to Brussels in 1921 with an incredibly moving speech in which he explicitly claimed to be follwing in the footsteps of the Sillon.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/15">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/15</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Sangnier">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Sangnier</a></p><p><a href="https://sillon.net/">https://sillon.net/</a></p><a href="https://sillon.net/the-sillon-and-the-ycw/">Le Sillon and the YCW</a><div><br /><a href="https://sillon.net/25-aout-lheritage-du-sillon-et-la-joc/">25 août: L’héritage du Sillon et la JOC</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>8 April 1913</b>: 110th anniversary of the birth of Monsignor José Vicente Salazar Arias, the founder of the JOC in Costa Rica.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/430">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/430</a></div><div><p><b>9 April 1993 and 27 December 1913</b>: It is 110 years since the birth in 1913 and 40 years since the death of English YCW chaplain, Ted Mitchinson, who also worked in South Africa, and translated the Fiévez-Meert biography of Cardijn into English.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/363">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/363</a></p></div><div><br /></div><div><b>24 May 1903</b>: 120th anniversary of the death of Henri Cardiju, the occasion on which his son Joseph vowed his life to young workers and the working class.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2015">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2015</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>26 June 1913</b>: Birth date of Canadian Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, diocesan chaplain to the Montreal JOC from 1961-64 and also a chaplain to the Christian Worker Movement and the Jeuunesse Indépendante Chrétienne (JIC), a specialised movement for young people from a bourgeois background.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/449">https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/449</a></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>18 July 1923</b>: Birth date of Blessed (Bishop) Enrique Angelelli, founding chaplain of the JOC and JUC in the Diocese of Cordoba, Argentina, Council Father at Vatican II. Killed by the Argentine military in 1976 and beatified as a martyr along with his companions in 2019. Collaborator with Pepe Palacio, also martyred the year before.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/206">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/206</a></div><p><b>July 1948</b>: 75th anniversary of Cardijn's iconic 1948 Godinne lectures on "The Hour of the Working Class."</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/index/search?fulltext_search=hour+of+the+working+class">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/index/search?fulltext_search=hour+of+the+working+class</a></p><p><b>July 1963</b>: 60th anniversary of the publication of Cardijn's first and only book, <i>Laïcs en premières lignes</i>, later translated into six more languages, including in English as "Laymen (Laypeople) into Action."</p><p><b>August 2003</b>: 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Young People for Development (YPD) network, a see-judge-act based interreligious movement of young people working for development in South East Asia.</p><p><a href="http://www.ypduniversity.org">www.ypduniversity.org</a></p><p>30 August 1903: 120th anniversary of the birth of Italian priest, economist and theologian, Cardinal Pietro Pavan, friend of Cardijn, chaplain to the Permanent Committee on the Apostolate of the Laity, peritus at Vatican II, main drafter of Pope John XXIII's encyclical, Pacem in Terris, and also one of the drafters of Mater et Magistra.</p><p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Pavan">https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Pavan</a></p><p><b>12 September 1943</b>: Publication of the book, <i>France: Pays de Mission</i>? by the French JOC chaplains, Henri Godin and Yvan Daniel. English edition translated by Maisie Ward published in 1949 under the title, France Pagan? The mission of Abbé Godin.</p><p><b>September 1903</b>: The year Cardijn began his theological studies at the Malines seminary in Belgium.</p><p><b>25 October 1923</b>: Centenary of the birth of Jose Serapio "Pepe" Palacio, the JOC, Christian Worker Movement and trade union from Argentina, who was killed by the milirary in 1975.</p><p><a href="https://pepe-amalia.josephcardijn.com/life/">https://pepe-amalia.josephcardijn.com/life/</a></p><p><b>5 December 1923</b>: Death of Louise Cardijn, his mother. Her death is recorded in the December edition of the magazine La Jeunesse Syndicaliste.</p><p><b>Unknown dates</b></p><p><b>Nguyen Manh Ha</b></p><p>This year also marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Nguyen Manh Ha, the founder of the Young Christian Workers movement in Vietnam in 1937.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/129">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/129</a></p><p><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_M%E1%BA%A1nh_H%C3%A0">https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_M%E1%BA%A1nh_H%C3%A0</a> (Vietnamese, open in Google for an automatic translation into English)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>No doubt there are many more anniversaries to add.</p><p>Please let me know of any more you think of!</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-32001926373344734672023-01-06T14:19:00.006+11:002023-01-06T14:22:29.312+11:00Cardijn's Greatest Battle: Lay apostolate vs Apostolate of the faithful at Vatican II<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z7HfiiiM1DQ" width="560" youtube-src-id="z7HfiiiM1DQ"></iframe></div><br /><div>This is my presentation for the October 2022 Australian Cardijn Institute webinar, with the accompanying slide presentation below.</div><div><br /></div><div>The theme was "Cardijn's greatest battle at Vatican II", namely his struggle to get across the notion of the "specifically lay apostolate of lay people," which he distinguished from the "apostolate of the faithful" common to all baptised.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was a huge battle for Cardijn during the Council.</div><div><br /></div><div>More than sixty years later, it has still not been fully received by the Church - despite the clear teaching of the Second Vatican Council.</div><div><br /></div><div>We, the Australian Cardijn Institute, faced a similar battle to Cardijn in endeavouring to make the concept of "lay apostolate" understood at the Australian Plenary Council in 2021-22.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's hope we can make further progress with the upcoming Synod on Synodality!</div><div><br /></div><div>Stefan Gigacz</div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="569" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTBpzibzLu7k_yNdCWXfxVXBq7rdsvE6MiS-5ISrr1jAgREPiBbEDuXadghiJo-5QjIIGrRNl1oaIro/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="960"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-74920068503076542032022-03-18T19:37:00.004+11:002022-03-21T12:38:52.423+11:00Alphonse Gratry: Precursor and prophet of Vatican II<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjjZm8WAWfY8cii1P70-iESyHFsx8NbCT5g5CPhtp9GAv9rXpX0W1OCf_56IsfQRZiBq78JoUMMwXnxri5MqUpQcY2VsSVdNyGj3vXb0CXtpkOEuzvXQvjPnIlru0tIeAXRlXmP6_mUHHP4kU45qNWzzMbNHlO5G3Qno1dOOFjY6tXIIfa50KBrebWQ/s2000/Signs%20of%20the%20times%20From%20Alphonse%20gratry%20to%20vatican%20II%20au%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1414" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjjZm8WAWfY8cii1P70-iESyHFsx8NbCT5g5CPhtp9GAv9rXpX0W1OCf_56IsfQRZiBq78JoUMMwXnxri5MqUpQcY2VsSVdNyGj3vXb0CXtpkOEuzvXQvjPnIlru0tIeAXRlXmP6_mUHHP4kU45qNWzzMbNHlO5G3Qno1dOOFjY6tXIIfa50KBrebWQ/w283-h400/Signs of the times From Alphonse gratry to vatican II au (1).jpg" width="283" /></a></div><br />This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of French Catholic philosopher and theologian, Alphonse Gratry.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Australian Cardijn Institute has just held a webinar, "Signs of the times: From Alphonse Gratry to Vatican II" to honour his memory and to revive interest in his seminal work with talks by American philosopher, Madonna Clare Adams, and myself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is my own presentation at the webinar in which I show how his influence was transmitted to Vatican over the 90 years from his death until the opening of the Council in 1962.</div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="379" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQFD27imiLqj0BOfGhgVzSPls60tITcSdPfm5X-2rJvJibmOENhtMQNDCk0ErNe7HH8JdtajDAbOjYN/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="600"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And here is the video of the whole event:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c0_RVE2yinY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">READ MORE</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.gratry.net/2022/03/signs-of-times-from-alphonse-gratry-to.html" target="_blank">Signs of the times: From Alphonse Gratry to Vatican II</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.gratry.net/" target="_blank">Alphonse Gratry website</a></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-54632117949096385812022-01-06T17:33:00.236+11:002022-02-19T17:01:10.123+11:00What is the "new evangelisation"?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz32W0cHj7LqAOQYNKtYqA_6WCAvuX8dcW16EuB1jICxrIG4gYj7kiQ5L7X2WCQF99QOH2q6hyalDgoY-qtruOrTbglm3PVP1vsBUJG8jLv-ewau7fkH3sG9hPhgv5EuCzrjRKQueSAmI-r2zgcvS9F0hVkS-9Cuj1Cg6GK98XGblKp2V7IzhEteUKqQ=s520" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="520" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz32W0cHj7LqAOQYNKtYqA_6WCAvuX8dcW16EuB1jICxrIG4gYj7kiQ5L7X2WCQF99QOH2q6hyalDgoY-qtruOrTbglm3PVP1vsBUJG8jLv-ewau7fkH3sG9hPhgv5EuCzrjRKQueSAmI-r2zgcvS9F0hVkS-9Cuj1Cg6GK98XGblKp2V7IzhEteUKqQ=w400-h200" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Latin American bishops conference at Medellin, Colombia, 1968</div><br />The term "new evangelisation" has gained much currency in the Australian Church and indeed throughout the world since Pope Saint John Paul II adopted it on his return from the Latin American Bishops Conference at Puebla, Mexico in 1979.<div><br /></div><div>But what does it mean?<p></p><p>As I've noted <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2012/08/liberation-and-new-evangelisation.html" target="_blank">previously</a>, the term first emerged at the Second General Conference of the Latin American Bishops at Medellin, Colombia in 1968, a conference devoted to the implementation of Vatican II in the region.</p><p>In the Message to the Latin American peoples issued by this conference, the bishops proposed a set of commitments to "the entire People of God," one of which was encouraging "a new evangelisation.":</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><p>Inspire, encourage and urge a new order of justice that incorporates all men in the management of their own communities;</p></div><div><p>Promote the constitution and the virtualities of the family, not only as a sacramental human community but also as an intermediate structure in function of social change;</p></div><div><p>Dynamise education, to accelerate the training of mature men in their responsibilities of the present hour;</p></div><div><p>Promote professional organisations for workers, decisive actors in socio-economic transformation;</p></div><div><p>Encourage a new evangelisation and intensive catechesis that reach the elites and the masses to achieve a lucid and committed faith;</p></div><div><p>Renew and create new structures in the Church that institutionalise dialogue and facilitate collaboration between bishops, priests, religious, and laity;</p></div><div><p>Collaborate with other Christian confessions, and with all people of good will who are committed to an authentic peace, rooted in justice and love.</p></div></blockquote><p>In other words, the "new evangelisation" fits into an overall conception of the role of the Church in the world. And what is this conception? The answer is found in the 16 Medellin documents, each of which is organised as a see-judge-act.</p><p>Part I, which deals with "Human promotion," contains a series of documents on justice, peace, family, education as well as on catechesis and liturgy.</p><p>Part II, which is devoted to "The visible Church and its structures," then sets out of the role of various groups in the Church in working for this human promotion.</p><div><p><b>The mission of the laity</b></p><p>Significantly, Part II begins not with a chapter on the bishops and priests but with a chapter (Chapter X) on the role of lay people, indeed with the role of lay people organised in lay movements.</p><p>And what is the role of these lay people organised in lay movements? Chapter X offers a very clear vision of the mission of lay people in building the world:</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p>8. The laity, like all members of the Church, participate in the triple prophetic, priestly and royal role of Christ, in view of the fulfillment of his ecclesial mission. But they specifically carry out this mission in the realm of the temporal, in order to construct history, "managing temporal affairs and ordering them according to God."</p></div><div><p>9. The typically secular is constituted, in effect, by commitment to the world, understood as a framework of human solidarity, as a web of significant events and events, in a word, as history.</p></div><div><p>Now, to commit oneself is to actively ratify the solidarity in which every man is immersed, assuming tasks of human promotion along the lines of a certain social project.</p></div><div><p>The commitment thus understood, must be marked in Latin America by the peculiar circumstances of its present historical moment, by a sign of liberation, humanization and development.</p></div><div><p>It goes without saying that the laity enjoys their own autonomy and responsibility in the option of their temporary commitment. This is how the Gaudium et spes recognizes it when it says that the laity "aware of the demands of the faith and invigorated with their energies, undertake without hesitation, when necessary, new initiatives and bring them to fruition ... Do not think that your pastors they are always in a position to immediately give them a concrete solution to all the questions, even serious ones, that arise. This is not their mission. Rather, the laity fulfill their own function in the light of Christian wisdom and with the careful observance of doctrine. of the Magisterium ".</p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>And, as the final appeal of <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html" target="_blank">Populorum Progressio</a> says, "It is up to the laity, with their free initiative and without passively waiting for slogans and directives, to penetrate with a Christian spirit the mentality and customs, laws and structures of the community in which they live."</p></blockquote><p>In other words, the "new evangelisation" as understood by the Latin American bishops at Medellin offers a holistic vision beginning with an emphasis on the role of lay people - lay apostles - and their role in human promotion understood as having both a human and Christian dimension.</p><p><b>Old versus new methods</b></p><p>If the document speaks about "new evangelisation," what then was the "old evangelisation"? The Medellin documents do not offer a complete description of these old methods. However, what Document X, Lay Movements" says in this context is quite significant:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>Let us recall, once again, the characteristics of the current moment of our peoples in the social order: from the objective point of view, a situation of underdevelopment, betrayed by massive phenomena of marginality, alienation and poverty, and ultimately conditioned , by structures of economic, political and cultural dependency with respect to the industrialized metropolises that hold the monopoly of technology and science (neocolonialism). From the subjective point of view, the awareness of this same situation, which provokes in broad sectors of the Latin American population attitudes of protest and aspirations for liberation, development and social justice.</p><p>This complex reality historically places Latin American laity in the face of the challenge of a liberating and humanizing commitment.</p><p>3. On the other hand, modernization reflects the most dynamic sectors of Latin American society, accompanied by increasing modernization and urban agglomeration, manifests itself in phenomena of mobility, socialization and division of labor. Such phenomena have the effect of the growing importance of groups and functional environments - based on work, profession or function -, compared to traditional neighborhood or territorial communities.</p><p>Said functional means constitute in our days the most important decision-making centers in the process of social change, and the foci where the conscience of the community is condensed to the maximum.</p><p>These new conditions of life force lay movements in Latin America to accept the challenge of a commitment to presence, permanent adaptation and creativity.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>The insufficient response to these challenges and, especially, the inadequacy of the new ways of life that characterize the dynamic sectors of our society, largely explain the different forms of crisis that affect the lay apostolate movements. .</p><p>Indeed, they did a decisive job in their time. But, due to later circumstances, they either closed in on themselves, or unduly clung to structures that were too rigid, or did not know how to properly place their apostolate in the context of a liberating historical commitment.</p><p>On the other hand, many of them do not reflect a compact sociological milieu, nor have they perhaps adopted the most appropriate organization and pedagogy for an apostolate of presence and commitment in the functional environments where, to a large extent, the process of social change takes place.</p></blockquote><p>So the problem with the older lay apostolate movements then is the fact that they do not respond to the problems experienced by the Latin American peoples or to various sociological changes, e.g. moving away from traditional territorially-bound communities to more "functional" settings, e.g. workplace, etc. In other words, unlike the Specialised Catholic Action movements, they "do not reflect a compact sociological milieu."</p><div><div><b>English Translation</b></div><p>Well, there's obviously a lot more that could be about the Medellin conception of the new evangelisation.</p><p>For the moment, however, here is a working English translation of the Medellin documents - mainly a Google translation with some corrections by myself. For those who are able to read Spanish, nothing of course beats reading the original. For further reading, see the articles by Rafael Luciani (links below).</p><p><b>Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate</b></p><p><b>Final documents of Medellín</b></p><p><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rWFOtokRCzKruV5sbLYe4jE2JSViD_-KvrurUKE6vcI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Message for the peoples of Latin America</a></p><p><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/18amSSytiZXiz3M7Tsk_LZN7dsYt6JuLyaCpVSpDZMNA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Introduction</a></p><p><b>Part I - Human promotion</b></p><p>I. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zagLQ_U-7F2S2FWfegwvRPilIu_79IGxzyBDNa5IFn8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Justice</a></p><p>II. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/13aPQSYM3OFtK7lHKTQ6Q7fI2lM_gX8dErhRZEQE2NLM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Peace</a></p><p>III. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1csK1dfIX519RuwBa7dvAeB_mnGa8y3ZMS1GWZpkzCr0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Family and demography</a></p><p>IV. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_B820WZKBcrxMuEyE-vNYKsxhsLLLSLa3iUDpzQ7KEg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Education</a></p><p>V. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ni9Hq9ow50blyHgCUg4yjWiK114mIBGV1wZwgKxpLKg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Young people</a></p><p>VI. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WBUDwqY-DBg7prPt0Yii6pwIGsOCYaCFI884c-TTJJ8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Pastoral work with the people</a></p><p>VII. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Szsh4dGQrM0yUkbEDLtvp5Gpc-lGgvJHwrKRa5Fzh7w/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Pastoral work with the elites</a></p><p>VIII. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L5BbZK-7mr1tHqbbyXH5dtqBadEC5yYuNi0o4ud4Q0E/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Catechesis</a></p><p>IX. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j8gyZTsIwfjLiJfU1jYkzDc5UmB70g2t-Thct3Zru6w/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Liturgy</a></p><p><b>Part II - The visible Church and its structures</b></p><p>X. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVrm799Tp9V07mezwS3_w1hqTMo-syciF4VbKs76tJc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Lay movements</a></p><p>XI. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mL-5vfbafl4x05K6yCxwCmUsvpUvkHfIuMaC8jT_wdI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Priests</a></p><p>XII. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SwZ8L_CMzSBTl7_1pqdc0hJdR5s74CzpsDEzhPVHI9I/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Religious</a></p><p>XIII. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TtJ_SqWZXjo_pvEW4ZQfS4NLxKfidlcT8E0KUMNurNg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Formation of clergy</a></p><p>XIV. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ulRfiBn1Wa8mptFV8km8rhoDTG5_q1BypC5wER8AX90/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The poverty of the Church</a></p><p>XV. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mL-5vfbafl4x05K6yCxwCmUsvpUvkHfIuMaC8jT_wdI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Collective pastoral work</a></p><p>XVI. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sHGVTUe7lL3ZbzSaGEIRXVBeUoM2nHowm3CFtZWzbb8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Social communications media</a></p><p><b>Jocist influence</b></p><p>In reading the Medellin documents, it's hard to overlook the evident jocist influence: the see-judge-act, the lay apostolate, the roles of the elite and the masses, the transformation of the milieu, the importance of priests as chaplains or counsellors, and of course, lay movements organised on the basis of various milieux.</p><p>This of course is unsurprising, given the roles of Helder Camara, Eduardo Pironio, Leonidas Proaño, Marcos McGrath and many other bishops who had been jocist chaplains and close collaborators of Cardijn, including at Vatican II.</p><p>Indeed, it's clear that at Medellin, the "new evangelisation" was fundamentally based on Cardijn's jocist method.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://www.ensayistas.org/critica/liberacion/medellin/" target="_blank">Documentos finales de Medellín</a> (Ensayistas)</p><p>Rafael Luciani, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/37290425/Medell%C3%ADn_Fifty_Years_Later_From_Development_to_Liberation" target="_blank">Medellín Fifty Years Later:From Development to Liberation</a> (Theological Studies2018, Vol. 79(3) 566 –589) / Academia</p><p>Rafael Luciani, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44465280/From_Social_Unity_to_the_Pastoral_Activity_of_the_People_of_God" target="_blank">From social unity to the pastoral activity of the People of God - The contribution of the conference of Medellin</a> in Thomas Kelly and Bob Pennington, Bridge Building, Pope Francis' Practical Approach,</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2012/08/liberation-and-new-evangelisation.html" target="_blank">Liberation and the New Evangelisation</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/" target="_blank">The Leaven in the Council</a></p><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-23647196320451261882022-01-02T10:42:00.006+11:002022-01-02T21:24:25.804+11:00Jocist anniversaries in 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilE-5AZh3shIpi27bBo-WVTkZQ6C0TFQhVaTtepgj5YFAxJJ0XD9QmQbqnxtRXdsmtdBGaTF9YNR1tV4i0cP5iPcL8Y2awbEWOCY3MvlRQWdHLcUhqmlmvtNdpZfJkO7xbhMzytgEePwmBJ1lNBVdHaJ0Yri9Hbxj6jl1HeuzTRpnbR3kkh04bnuCPMg=s919" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cardijn 80" border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilE-5AZh3shIpi27bBo-WVTkZQ6C0TFQhVaTtepgj5YFAxJJ0XD9QmQbqnxtRXdsmtdBGaTF9YNR1tV4i0cP5iPcL8Y2awbEWOCY3MvlRQWdHLcUhqmlmvtNdpZfJkO7xbhMzytgEePwmBJ1lNBVdHaJ0Yri9Hbxj6jl1HeuzTRpnbR3kkh04bnuCPMg=w488-h640" title="Cardijn 80" width="488" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Magazine cover page celebrating Cardijn's 80th birthday, November 1962</div><p></p><p>Time to begin compiling a list of jocist anniversaries for the new year of 2022! No doubt there are more than this initial short compilation. But let's at least get started!</p><p>1872: 150th anniversary of the death on 7 February 1872 of French priest, Alphonse Gratry, pioneer of the "inductive" method based on "reading the signs of the times" and the "see, judge, act" later adopted by Cardijn and the JOC and by the Second Vatican Council.</p><p><a href="https://www.gratry.net/">https://www.gratry.net/</a></p><p>1882: Cardijn was born 140 years ago on 13 November 1882, making everything else in this list possible.<br /></p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2013">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2013</a></p><p>1912: After serving for five years teaching Latin at a minor seminary, Cardijn finally began his appointment as curate in the parish of Notre Dame in the Brussels suburb of Laeken at Easter 1912 (7 April). Within months he had launched his first study circles for teenage female factory workers. Later that year, he would meet Fernand Tonnet, lay co-founder of the future JOC.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2017">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2017</a></p><p>1922: By this, those early study circles had developed into a movement known as the Jeunesse Syndicaliste or Trade Union Youth leading to tensions with the Confederation of Christian Trade Uions, which sought make the JS their youth branch as Cardijn's movement claimed its own autonomy.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2021">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2021</a></p><p>1932: Fr Robert Kothen, an early member of the JS who was possibly the first JOC leader to become a priest, was appointed as Cardijn's assistant chaplain. A few years later Kothen would enter into correspondence with the young Australian, Kevin T. Kelly, leading eventually to the foundation of the Australian YCW.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2025">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2025</a></p><p>Robert Kothen: <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/335">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/335</a></p><p>1932: Foundation of the Canadian JOC by Fr Henri Roy omi.</p><p><a href="http://www.fondation-joc.org/1932-1945-les-deacutebuts-de-la-joc-et-ses-services.html">http://www.fondation-joc.org/1932-1945-les-deacutebuts-de-la-joc-et-ses-services.html</a></p><p>1942: With Belgium again occupied by Nazi Germany, Cardijn found himself arrested by the Gestapo on 6 June. Just as he had been during World War I, he was interned at the Saint Gilles Prison where he remained until 21 September 1942. During this period, he forged relations with Socialist leaders that would lead to post-war collaboration, replacing the conflict that had previously characterised their relations.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2031">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2031</a></p><p>1962: Cardijn celebrates his 80th birthday in the middle of the First Session of Vatican II. Having served as a member of the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate, he would soon also be appointed to the conciliar commission.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2037">https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2037</a></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-63258520889484913602021-12-11T19:00:00.002+11:002021-12-14T17:32:20.432+11:00Pepe & Amalia Palacio and Enrique Angelelli: Synodality in action<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4Js3WSTimbH6aE5o7C7qZjeCfaUohOLEDDlbBkNd_lWop7HL7PYt1_5hIllrGzc4knlxMcN9NRMQdMXPGJPvGW5GXUZhAUhK9uEI2ELiflJjtMoInR6zAwOHQk-uA5k8XrWg8mugUAm0DUhouF_WOnIvHRS9rpOc_67Ds-tYbeNuAmvy5Wjbh_zDw2w=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4Js3WSTimbH6aE5o7C7qZjeCfaUohOLEDDlbBkNd_lWop7HL7PYt1_5hIllrGzc4knlxMcN9NRMQdMXPGJPvGW5GXUZhAUhK9uEI2ELiflJjtMoInR6zAwOHQk-uA5k8XrWg8mugUAm0DUhouF_WOnIvHRS9rpOc_67Ds-tYbeNuAmvy5Wjbh_zDw2w=w400-h280" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Pepe, Amalia and Enrique</div><br />Today, 11 December 2021, marks the 46th anniversary of the abduction by security forces of José Serapio "Pepe" Palacio, an Argentinian JOC leader, later a trade unionist and leader of the Workers Catholic Action (MOAC) movement and finally the first lay collaborator of the International YCW.<p></p><p>Two days later after being tortured, Pepe was killed on 13 December 1975. It would take another 25 years before his wife, Amalia, also a JOC leader, and their sons, would find out the details of what had happened to him.</p><p>The abduction took place just a few weeks after Pepe's return from Bogota, Colombia, where he had attended a Workers Meeting organised by the IYCW. And it seems likely that his abduction was linked to that event.</p><p>According to research by Pepe's son, José-Luis, he was abducted and killed as part of the US-backed Operation Condor, a campaign of political repression and state terrorism aimed at eliminating worker and community leaders in Latin America.</p><p><b>Pepe and Amalia Palacio</b></p><p>Born in 1923 in San Juan, Argentina, in 1944, he moved to the city of Cordoba, where he began work with his father and brothers.</p><p>It was here that he joined and helped establish the JOC in the Diocese of Cordoba, together with a local priest, Fr Enrique Angelelli.</p><p>No doubt it was here too that he met his future wife, Amalia Castaños, who was also a leader in the JOCF in the diocese. She and Pepe later had three sons together.</p><p>As a JOC leader, Pepe travelled to Europe in 1954 to take part in a meeting of the IYCW International Executive Committee. He also represented the IYCW at a UNESCO conference that year.</p><p>In 1957, he and Amalia both took part in the famous YCW pilgrimage to Rome. And in 1958, Pepe again represented the IYCW at a conference of the World Assembly of Youth in India.</p><p>After leaving the YCW, Pepe became active as a trade unionist and also in the Workers' Catholic Action Movement (MOAC). Later he was also a member of Latin American Secretariat of the World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW) to which the MOAC belonged.</p><p>Amalia also continued to play a significant role as a community leader and within the Church. During the 1980s, she was appointed as a member of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.</p><p>However, following Pepe's death, she had to raise the children alone. One of those who assisted her during this difficult time was Fr Lucio Gera, the JOC chaplain who became a pioneer of the "theology of the people" that has so influenced Pope Francis.</p><p><b>Enrique Angelelli</b></p><p>Meanwhile, on 12 December 1960, Enrique Angelelli, with whom Pepe and Amalia had worked in Cordoba, had been appointed by Pope John XXIII as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Córdoba.</p><p>I can't say for sure but I suspect that Cardijn had been looking at Fr Angelelli as a possible future chaplain for the YCW in Latin America or perhaps even internationally.</p><p>In any event, Cardijn and IYCW president sent him a letter congratulating him on his appointment.</p><p>"The Argentine JOC is losing one of its most ardent chaplains," Cardijn and Maione wrote,." but it is gaining .. a Bishop who has just joined those who have already entered the ranks of the Hierarchy having previously been pioneers of the JOC in Argentina and in Latin America."</p><p>As bishop, Angelelli maintained his contacts with and support for workers in the diocese. As a result, he became involved in a series of trade union conflicts.</p><p>As a Council Father who attended three sessions of Vatican II, he also worked with other priests to renew the Church, leading to further resistance to his efforts.</p><p>In 1968, he was made bishop of La Rioja, a largely rural diocese, where he became known for his work with poor farmers.</p><p>This in turn led to further resistance to his efforts.</p><p>Thus, just eight months after the disappearance (and killing) of Pepe Palacio, Enrique Angelelli was also killed by the military on 5 August 1976. He thus became, I believe, the first Vatican II bishop to be martyred.</p><p><b>Legacy</b></p><p>United in life as pioneers of the JOC in Cordoba, Pepe Palacio and Enrique Angelelli were thus also united in their deaths as martyrs.</p><p>On 27 April 2019, Pope Francis beatified Enrique Angelelli and his murdered companions. Let us hope that one day the Church will also formally recognise the martyrdom of Pepe Palacio.</p><p>Already, however, we can appreciate the partnership of Amalia & Pepe Palacio with Enrique Angelelli as a model of what Pope Francis calls a "synodal" Church in which lay people and clergy "walk together."</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://pepe-amalia.josephcardijn.com/" target="_blank">Pepe and Amalia Palacio</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/146" target="_blank">Pepe Palacio</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor" target="_blank">Operation Condor</a> (Wikipedia)</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/206" target="_blank">Enrique Angelelli</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><a href="http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bangca.html" target="_blank">Enrique Angelelli</a> (Catholic Hierarchy)</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2304" target="_blank">Cardijn and Romeo Maione - Enrique Angelelli 06 04 1961</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2016/08/enrique-angelelli-and-pepe-palacio.html" target="_blank">Enrique Angelelli and Pepe Palacio</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://stefangigacz.com/angelelli-first-martyr-of-vatican-ii/" target="_blank">Enrique Angelelli, first martyr of Vatican II</a></p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/289" target="_blank">Lucio Gera</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-66244346154401175212021-11-02T19:59:00.034+11:002021-11-04T14:46:23.636+11:00Young domestic workers at Vatican II<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHYvJ5VzV3Lzty-rJbEqPr_mJqevOElmIxK86TWQ-G8mB_WO29EbRs_MwQi9nc2nsjjJu4G6REO6loquATt7tSva5P7XVYTtyXtFltLPPOGs3y1zm0mzS16LmBOHvpECjyVcRMM-_nB4a/s500/domestic-worker.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHYvJ5VzV3Lzty-rJbEqPr_mJqevOElmIxK86TWQ-G8mB_WO29EbRs_MwQi9nc2nsjjJu4G6REO6loquATt7tSva5P7XVYTtyXtFltLPPOGs3y1zm0mzS16LmBOHvpECjyVcRMM-_nB4a/w400-h280/domestic-worker.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Young domestic workers at Vatican II? Unless they were serving any of the 2500 Council Fathers and 500-odd periti and other officials, there were certainly no young domestic workers there. <div><br /></div><div>Yet in a powerful indication of how Cardijn viewed the priorities for the Council, he fought hard to get the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate to address their plight.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, Cardijn had a lifelong concern over the exploitation of domestic workers, perhaps inspired by the fact that his own mother, Louise Van Dalen, had been one herself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, one of his earliest research papers, <i>L'ouvrière isolée</i>, published in 1913, analysed their situation in detail. And he was convinced the Church had a responsibility to respond, noting that the 1909 Belgian Catholic Congress of Malines had itself called for action on the issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fifty years later in 1961, the YCW which now existed in 90 countries, was developing action to educate and defend the rights of those young workers, particularly in the Third World as it was then becoming known.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Cardijn's frustration</b></div><div><br /></div><div>But as a member of the conciliar Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate (PCLA) to which he had been appointed by Pope John XXIII in <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2445" target="_blank">August 1960</a>, Cardijn quickly found himself frustrated by its approach.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, the Commission's method of work had been determined even before its first meeting in November 1960, with its members allocated to three subcommission, each with a particular area to address:</div><div><p>a) Evangelisation</p><p>b) Charitable action</p><p>c) Social action.</p><p>Yet, for Cardijn, who found himself allocated to the subcommission on Evangelisation, which focused on spiritual matters, the lives of people could not be split up in this way.</p><p>In effect, it was the same battle that he had faced ten years earlier regarding the organisation and agenda of the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate in 1951, which had begun with a very theoretical framework far removed from the daily lives of ordinary lay people.</p><p>As we have seen previously, Cardijn and his allies were successful in transforming the agenda of that Congress into a see-judge-act based on his famous keynote address "The world today and the lay apostolate."</p><p><b>Starting from the reality of people's lives</b></p><p>Now, in a note entitled simply "The lay apostolate" and dated 30 October 1960, Cardijn took up the same battle again.</p></div><div><p>"<b>All</b> lay people face the same <b>essential and primordial</b> problems, which are inherent in their personhood and in their lay life," Cardijn's note began (his emphasis).</p><p>"From time to time, it is necessary to list them down again," he continued. "Evidently, since we are making an analysis, we are forced in our presentation to distinguish these problems one by one. This is also so when we wish to begin to analyse solutions and institutions.</p><p>"However, in the reality of our existence, these problems – like the solutions and institutions that respond to them – are nearly always united and inseparable," he explained.</p><p>And he spelt out the various levels that these problems encompassed: Personal, physical, family, community, culture, professional life, civic life at national and international levels.</p><p>Unlike the World Congress on Lay Apostolate, however, the PCLA was an exclusively clerical body. Even though there were a significant number of former JOC and Specialised Catholic Action chaplains among its membership, Cardijn's proposal clearly made little headway.</p><p><b>Second attempt: The International YCW</b></p><p>However, he did not give up. In March 1961, with another note entitled "The International YCW," he sought again to highlight and emphasise the importance of beginning with the lives and problems of young workers.</p><p>"In each parish, in each diocese, in the whole Church, in the whole world, hundreds, thousands of young people each year enter into the life and milieu of work," Cardijn wrote this time. "They find themselves faced with the problems, dangers, influences, institutions to which it is impossible to face up to with a Christian and apostolic attitude if they are abandoned to themselves. This de facto abandonment is a disaster for themselves and the Church.</p><p>"They must be strongly united, to seek and find together a personal and collective solution to this grave problem: to be able to help and save the millions of their brothers and sisters at work," he continued. "Thus, they bring a decisive cooperation for the future of the world of work."</p><p>In support of this approach, he cited Pope Pius XII's speech to the Second World Congress on Lay Apostolate in 1957 in which the pontiff observed that "twenty million young people each year around the world start work each year."</p><p>And he quoted Pius XII's speech to the IYCW World Council in Rome in August 1957, which praised the movement's see-judge-act enquiry method:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Your enquiries have already revealed and continue to show you each day the suffering of the workers of various continents: problems of the sending to work of young people leaving school as well as the perils of prolonged idleness; problems of unemployment, housing, transport, leisure; problems above all of the very conditions of their daily labour, dangers that they face in their health and their morality.</p></blockquote><p>Despite these papal citations Cardijn quoted in support of his position, the PCLA remained immobile in its method.</p><p><b>Third try: The plight of young domestic workers</b></p><p>Still undeterred, Cardijn tried a third time at the PCLA meeting of July 1961, where he delivered an intervention on the plight of exploited young domestic workers. Although I don't have the details of his presentation, it's easy to imagine what he said and the passion with which he would have delivered it, simply because it was the message he had repeated on countless occasions in speeches around the world for more than 30 years.</p><p>"Young workers, are not machines, or animals or slaves," he had stated in his 1935 Three Truths speech. "They are the sons, the collaborators, the heirs of God."</p><p>"The life, the actual conditions of existence of the mass of young workers is in terrible contradiction with their eternal and temporal destiny..." he continued in that iconic talk. "We must have the courage to face this reality, just as we must always face the reality of their eternal and temporal destiny. We must remain with our eyes fixed to heaven and our feet on the earth, as inexorable for the brutality of the conditions of earthly life as we are inexorable for the demands of eternal destiny."</p><p>No doubt, he hoped the shock value of the conditions experienced by young female domestic workers around the world would awaken the collective conscience of the PCLA membership.</p><p>And the PCLA was indeed finally moved to action, commissioning a statistical study on the experience of Italian and foreign women carried out by Italian Catholic Action chaplain, Ferdinando Prosperini.</p><p>However, as Agnès Desmazières has written, Prosperini's report apparently focused narrowly on the moral dangers of domestic work for young girls, including the high number of single mothers in their midst and the corresponding risk of falling into the hands of pimps. Worse, according to Desmazières, Prosperini viewed the young girl not only as a victim, but also a potential "seductress" of the honest father of a Catholic family!</p><p>Thus, although Cardijn had at least succeeded in placing the plight of young domestic workers on the PCLA agenda, it was far from the outcome he was seeking.</p><p><b>Disappointment</b></p><p>Three weeks later, Cardijn's hopes were dashed again when the PCLA secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux, wrote to him sending a report of the July meeting together with a short handwritten note.</p><p>"In the last line (of the report)," Glorieux informed Cardijn, "mention is made of your important intervention on domestic workers and the suggestion by Cdl Cento: not to decide anything at the moment regarding the most suitable place to discuss this; however, it will be done."</p><p>Glorieux, who had been a local JOC chaplain in his home diocese of Lille, France, was evidently embarrassed at this outcome, which risked postponing any action indefinitely.</p><p>Cardijn too was deeply disappointed with this response. On 8 August 1961, he wrote personally to Cento, enclosing a copy of the letter he had sent a day earlier to Mgr Glorieux on the young domestic workers issue.</p><p>"I am taking the liberty of communicating to your Eminence the letter that I have just sent to Monsignor Glorieux concerning my intervention at the last session of our Conciliar Commission, as well as with respect to several other points that concern me," Cardijn wrote.</p><p>"I apologise for disturbing Your Eminence in this way, bringing to your attention concerns of which You are very well aware, but which I again humbly submit to your authorised judgment," Cardijn emphasised.</p><p>Beneath the polite words, his displeasure and his insistence were clear.</p><p>I'll have to go back to the Cardijn Archives in Brussels or the Vatican II Archives in Rome (and improve my Latin) to find out exactly whether the PCLA ever did follow up on the issue of young domestic workers.</p><p>Nevertheless, even though Pope John XXIII's encyclical had recently endorsed the see-judge-act in his May 1961 encyclical, Mater et Magistra, the PCLA never did come around to adopting this framework for its own work which ended in 1962.</p><p><b>Success at Vatican II</b></p><p>Still, Cardijn's voice was not lost. Other members of the PCLA supported him and once the First Session of Vatican II began to meet in October 1962 they found many more allies among the Council Fathers, over 200 of whom had been jocist and Specialised Catholic Action chaplains in their youth.</p><p>The outcome can be seen in the structure of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today, Gaudium et Spes, the final Vatican II document adopted in December 1965. Beginning with an outline of the situation of people in the world of today, Gaudium et Spes did in fact adopt Cardijn's see-judge-act approach. Like water wearing down stone, Cardijn had achieved his objective.</p><p>And while Gaudium et Spes makes no specific mention of domestic workers, it does make five references to slavery. Somehow, through the advocacy of Cardijn and his allies, the lives and stories of those young domestic workers had impacted on Vatican II.</p><p>As the global Church begins its two year path towards the so-called "Synod on Synodality" in 2023 and as the Australian Church prepares for the Second Assembly of its Plenary Council in July 2022, perhaps there are still lessons to be learned from Cardijn's efforts.</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/767" target="_blank">L'ouvrière isolée</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/34" target="_blank">The Three Truths</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2147" target="_blank">Note 1 - The apostolate of lay people</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2400" target="_blank">Note 5 - The International YCW</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/55">The world today and the apostolate of the laity</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</div><div><br /></div><div>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/10/cardijn-and-first-world-congress-on-lay.html" target="_blank">Cardijn and the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate 1951</a> (Cardijn Research)<br /><br />Stefan Gigacz, <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/">The leaven in the Council, Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist Network at Vatican II</a> (Australian Cardijn Institute)<p><a href="http://vatican2journey.josephcardijn.com/the-plight-of-young-domestic-workers/" target="_blank">The plight of young domestic workers</a> (Cardijn@Vatican2)</p><p><a href="https://www.isacem.it/it/fondi-archivistici/ferdinando-prosperini-1930-1975" target="_blank">Ferdinando Prosperini, 1930-1975</a> (ISACEM)</p>Agnès Desmazières, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/48542618/G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ealogy_d_un_silence_conciliaire">Généalogie d’un « silence » conciliaire</a>, Archives de sciences sociales des religions<div><br /></div><a href="http://vatican2journey.josephcardijn.com/domestic-workers-issue-to-be-dealt-with/" target="_blank">Domestic workers issue to be addressed</a> (Cardijn@Vatican2)<div><br /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malines_Congresses" target="_blank">Malines Congresses</a> (Wikipedia)<br /><br />PHOTO<br /><br /><a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/girlhood/work/girls-domestic-workers">National Museum of American History</a> (Smithsonian)</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-59195116791001005602021-10-16T20:33:00.245+11:002021-10-17T22:46:02.431+11:00Cardijn and the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate 1951<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8i1cFb6c72iXEzMxyDcV8AdY0R29h1xS5jNQmDobvKlMYeOD8muTtwgcXiEK9pQODHjb6tpP1GbKHa9vpkLRLvFnK6zE4eEi4lSDlPOKy35QHNKLIqaNL-mCBwDSnFwo5Gx28doYpPVo/s565/ScreenHunter_4655+Oct.+16+17.27.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="US delegates to First World Congress on Lay Apostolate" border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="406" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8i1cFb6c72iXEzMxyDcV8AdY0R29h1xS5jNQmDobvKlMYeOD8muTtwgcXiEK9pQODHjb6tpP1GbKHa9vpkLRLvFnK6zE4eEi4lSDlPOKy35QHNKLIqaNL-mCBwDSnFwo5Gx28doYpPVo/w288-h400/ScreenHunter_4655+Oct.+16+17.27.jpg" title="US delegates to First World Congress on Lay Apostolate" width="288" /></a></div><br />This month we celebrate the 70th anniversary of one of Cardijn's greatest triumphs, i.e. his keynote speech to and decisive influence over the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate in Rome from 7-14 October 1951, which helped set the stage for Vatican II. <p></p><p><b>A proposal by Vittorino Veronese</b></p><p>As Bernard Minvielle explains in his book, "L'apostolat des laïcs à la veille du Concile (1949-1959), Histoire des Congrès mondiaux de 1951 et 1957" (The apostolate of the laity on the eve of the Council, The story of World Congresses of 1951 and 1957), the Congress was initially the brainchild of Vittorino Veronese, an Italian lawyer, who was the president of the Italian Catholic Action movement (ACI). He was also a member of the Catholic intellectual movement, Pax Romana ICMICA, as was Cardijn in Belgium.</p><p>Veronese, who later became director-general of UNESCO, first raised the idea of a world congress in a November 1947 note entitled "Circa una organizzazione internazionale de l'AC" ("Concerning an international Catholic Action organisation") that he addressed to the Substitute at the Holy See Secretariat of State, Mgr Giovanni-Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI.</p><p>He initially proposed it as a lay initiative to be supported by the Holy See, an arrangement that he felt would have allowed the Vatican to not become too directly involved and thus preserve the independence of its spiritual mission.</p><p>Fifteen months later, Veronese again mentioned his proposal for what he now called a "World Congress on the Apostolate" in a letter dated 17 February 1949 to his friend, Ramon Sugranyes de Franch, a Catalan exile living in Switzerland, who was also the secretary-general of Pax Romana.</p><p>Over the following months, he wrote several articles outlining his proposal for the magazine, <i>Iniziativa</i>, published by the presidency of ACI and in <i>Ricerca</i>, the magazine of FUCI, the Italian Catholic University Federation, which was affiliated to Pax Romana-IMCS, the student wing of the Catholic intellectual movement as well as part of ACI.</p><p>On 16 May 1949, Veronese finally presented this proposal to the ACI Central Council, which approved and adopted the initiative. The aim was the "formation of a fundamental path for unified action" while respecting the autonomy of each participating organisation.</p><p>The program was to be divided into three parts:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>a) The bases of the lay apostolate</p><p>b) Its various forms and structures</p><p>c) Its fields and immediate objects.</p></blockquote><p><b>Pizzardo versus Cardijn</b></p><p>In January 1950, Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, who had been appointed by Pius XI in 1938 as the president of the Holy See's 'Central Office of Catholic Action,' sent the proposed program to the Italian bishops, presenting it as an ACI initiative responding to the "organisation of the forces of evil, which were intensifying." It was open to "all lay people who were in some sense collaborators with the Hierarchical apostolate."</p><p>This was quite different from Veronese's original proposal. Nevertheless, it was welcomed by the emerging International Catholic Organisations (ICO) Conference, a loose federation of Catholic lay organisations and movements.</p><p>Given longstanding tensions with the Italian Catholic Action movement and with Pizzardo in particular, it is not surprising that criticisms of the Pizzardo project rapidly emerged in Belgium and France, home of the Specialised Catholic Action movements.</p><p>Indeed, Cardijn himself reacted swiftly and strongly. Together with Canon A. Mampaey, the chaplain of the Belgian Catholic Girls Movement, he wrote to Mgr Montini, with whom Cardijn already had very good relations, on 30 January 1950.</p><p>In their letter, which Montini transmitted to Veronese, they called for a restricted (small) and multinational commission in which "various nuances of conceptions that may exist" would be represented should be established to direct the congress. They also contested the conference outline, which sought to deal with "the dogmatic bases of the lay apostolate." (Minvielle, 93) </p><p>Meanwhile, Emilie Arnould, a former leader of the Belgian JOCF, who was also involved with the JOC Internationale, wrote to Cardinal Jozef-Ernest Van Roey of Malines, expressing the fear that "only the theses of Italian Catholic Action would be presented as the authentic doctrine of the Church." (Minvielle, 93) </p><p>Similarly, Archbishop Maurice Feltin of Paris, who was evidently in contact with the French JOC and other Specialised Catholic Action movements, had communicated similar worries to another Pax Romana leader, Mieczyslaw de Habicht. The French were particularly concerned at the possible etablishment of a clerically controlled international structure based on the ACI model. (Minvielle, 93) </p><p>According to Minvielle, Veronese was clearly onside with these concerns but was also in a delicate position with respect to the ACI.</p><p><b>Cardijn's campaign</b></p><p>The upshot was that over the course of the year 1950 Cardijn and the Specialised Catholic Action movements, particularly the JOC, lobbied hard with the object of achieving a complete reworking of the coordination and agenda of the Congress.</p><p>In a letter and document dated 4 December 1950, Cardijn proposed a new outline of the Congress based on the see-judge-act format, which he outlined as follows:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>a) The Church and the problems of the present hour</p><p>b) The various forms of participation of lay people in the apostolate</p><p>c) Formation, action and organisation (one of Cardijn's oldest trinomial expressions).</p></blockquote><p>In addition, he proposed that the Congress should be introduced by "a very complete and concrete presentation of on the world today, dealing with all its aspects."</p><p>"Immediately in response to these problems, (the presentation would explain that) the Church had a response, which was the very essence of the Congress as well as of the action of the Church, namely the lay apostolate." (Minvielle, 131)</p><p>Two weeks later on 18 December, a broad-based preparatory meeting for the Congress took place in Rome. The first point of discussion was the method that it would adopt. Would it begin with Church or with the situation of the world in which the Church was placed? This approach did in fact win the favour of many participants while others also spoke of the need for doctrinal clarification.</p><p>As Minvielle explains, the outcome was that a commission of 14 members was appointed to draw up a proposed agenda for the Congress. Seven themes were adopted:</p><p>a) The problem of the world today</p><p>b) Doctrinal foundations</p><p>c) Formation of lay people for the apostolate</p><p>d) Elements of a new Christian social order</p><p>e) International organisations</p><p>f) The presence of Catholics at international level.</p><p>As a result, Cardijn "who had been one of the first to display his mistrust regarding (Veronese's) initiative, now became its most ardent supporter." (Minvielle, 105). Indeed, a "genuine complicity" now linked the two men, Minvielle notes.</p><p>Cardijn even took it upon himself to propose several "slogans to launch the congress." These included: "The hour of the apostolate of the laity," "No Church with the lay apostolate", "The harvest is great: All Christian lay people will become harvesters" (Sounds better in French!), "World peace through the lay apostolate." (Minvielle, 105)</p><p>He also began to promote the Congress during his travels, particularly in Latin America, where the JOC was making great strides.</p><p>"I spoke of the Congress wherever I went: Lisbon, Dakar, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Montevideo and now in Buenos Aires," he wrote to Veronese in July 1951.</p><p>"It's Bishop Helder Camara of Rio de Janeiro, who has taken charge of organising the Brazilian delegation," Cardijn continued. "He has done so with great devotion." (Minvielle, 105)</p><p>Back in Belgium, he took on the task of organising a national preparatory committee for the Congress. The various initiatives here included several conferences with Louvain professors such as Gerard Philips, the future redactor of Lumen Gentium, and the philosopher, Albert Dondeyne, also later a peritus at Vatican II, who worked particularly on the chapter on culture in Gaudium et Spes.</p><p><b>The world today and the lay apostolate</b></p><p>All this preparatory work bore much fruit. When the Congress finally opened on 7 October 1951, inevitably, it was Cardijn who was chosen to deliver the keynote address he had himself foreshadowed the previous December under the title "The world today and the lay apostolate."</p><p>In his own words, Cardijn's aim was to produce "the salutary shock necessary among all those responsible for the lay apostolate" at this "most missionary hour in the history of the Church." And he did not fail to deliver.</p><p>What was needed, he proposed, was a "new apostolate" for the "new world" that was emerging:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The world of today! Everyone -- men of science, business men, statesmen, churchmen, the Pope himself -- agree to call it a new world, a world which is at a decisive turning point in its history; all declare that we are present at the birth of a new world.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">This new world needs a new apostolate, new, not in its source and in the contents of its message, but an incarnate apostolate, adapted to the needs and the problems of this new world. </p></blockquote><p>His talk could "only give a fragmentary, panoramic view of the problems of the apostolate in the world of today," he warned. Nevertheless, as well as "a cry of alarm" and "an S.O.S.," it was also "a cry of faith and hope."</p><p>But most of all, it was "an appeal to everyone, priests and laity, that the most missionary hour in the history of the Church, the hour in which the missionary field is most extensive and most profound, may also be the hour wherein the missionaries - and most particularly the lay missionaries - gain in numbers, in capabilities, generosity and holiness."</p><p>And he detailed these challenges in a classical see-judge-act format, beginning with a "panoramic view" of the issues involved, including the demographic growth of the world's population and the battles against hunger, disease and illiteracy that flowed from this.</p><p>To his Catholic audience, he pointed out there were only 400 million Catholics compared to 1.6 billion non-Christians, emphasising the missionary import of these figures not in terms of conversions but in terms of the "eternal destiny" of each person "redeemed by the Blood of Christ," "each one the image and likeness of God, inviolable and sacred, called to a Divine Sonship, a Divine collaboration, a divine, personal, unique, irreplaceable and irrevocable heritage."</p><p>Hence, the "problem of the world of work" was "not solely, nor even primarily, a problem of material demands or structural reforms." Rather it was "a problem of total humanisation; a problem of education, formation, of human organisation, permitting and assuring the dignity, the respect, the development of each person, of each family, and of the immense majority of human beings . . . and this, not only during working hours, in the execution and in the place of work, but in the whole of life."</p><p>"Man does not live to work, he works to live," Cardijn insisted. A global approach was therefore required: "Worker problem, world problem, human problem, apostolic and missionary problem!"</p><p>And in the face of these problems, it was necessary to recall God's plan of love for humanity:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Christ is the Divine Apostle, the Divine Messenger, the Divine Missionary, the Divine Teacher, sent by the Father, not only to recall the plan of God's love in creation for all humanity, but by His Incarnation, His life, His death, resurrection, ascension, His survival in the Church, to associate all humanity in its own redemption. Christ is God, really present in and through His Son. He is the way, but also the truth and the life. He is God for us. </p></blockquote><p>Hence the role of the Church as the ferment of a "new humanity."</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The Church is the mystery of the Communication of God, the community and the Communion in God. Founded, mandated, led by Christ, the leaven, and the ferment of a new humanity, She must incarnate His person, His grace, His doctrine, and His Salvation in time and in eternity. </p></blockquote><p><b>The lay apostolate </b></p><p>And thus the "urgent need of a presence, of a Christian action" that must inspire this evolution of the temporal." Specifically this required:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>· Christians who intensively live their Christianity, their belonging to Jesus Christ ; who consciously live His message, His Gospel, in all their personal life, in all its worldly demands . . . </p><p>· Christians who are conscious of an explicit mission, who know that they are called to work for the extension of the reign of God . . . </p><p>· Christians who penetrate all the sectors, all the aspects, all the institutions of the modem world, as witnesses of Christ, carrying the doctrine of the Church with them . . . </p><p>· Christians who understand the whole importance of forming apostolic communities, of having an organised apostolate ... </p></blockquote><p>Hence:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Each Christian, each Catholic, by his Baptism, must be an apostle and a missionary-he has an apostolic and missionary vocation. Each one is called by God to Existence, to life, and to a collaboration in His creative and redemptive work. The earthly vocation is an apostolic and missionary vocation. The problems raised by science, technology, culture in all ages, as in all spheres, are not simply problems of chemistry, physics, biology, or technology. They are human problems, problems of human life, of human destiny. They confront the conscience, intelligence, initiative, courage and clear-sightedness of every human being. It is in the solution of these problems that missionary and apostolic effort is required. It is to prevent men from becoming robots and automatons, from being treated as such, as slaves and victims of exploitation, that the conscience and the human, apostolic and missionary responsibility of Christians must be awakened and formed to the problems of today. </p></blockquote><p>This "apostolic and missionary vocation" in fact constituted the "lay apostolate," Cardijn insisted. But it did not "create a new Church," nor "introduce new structures into the Church," nor even "confide a new mission to the Church in the world."</p><p>Rather, the apostolate of the laity was "the vocation both Christian and human of the laity in the Church and in the world," he concluded.</p><p><b>Impact</b></p><p>Reading the list of "voeux" or "wishes" sent by Congress participants to Pope Pius XII at the end of the Congress, it is easy to doubt the impact of Cardijn's speech.</p><p>In fact, probably the most important practical outcome of the Congress was the creation by Pope Pius XII in January 1952 of a lay-led Permanent (or Standing) Committee for International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate, known by its French initials COPECIAL. Veronese was appointed secretary of the new body after being replaced as president of ACI by the more conservative, Luigi Gedda. (That's another story in itself!)</p><p>Cardijn's real impact, however, was on the participants at the Congress, not least on Veronese himself, who continued to work closely with Cardijn.</p><p>Chilean bishop and future co-founder of the Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM), Manuel Larrain, was also quick to characterise Cardijn's speech as "magistral." Belgian Gerard Philips was similarly impressed by Cardijn’s "magistral and impressive" intervention.</p><p>Camara was another of those to appreciate the import both of Cardijn's speech and the Congress itself. "I remember the very great impact (one of the greatest of my life) when, during the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate here in Rome, (Cardijn) presented us with a complete panorama of the great issues of the present time," he wrote to his Brazilian coworkers during the First Session of Vatican II.</p><p>He was particularly struck, he said, by the "courageous realism" of Cardijn's description of the "present conditions that make the apostolate of the laity particularly urgent."</p><p><b>A Vatican II perspective</b></p><p>In the longer term, however, the most important impact of Cardijn's speech and the work of his allies was the change in perspective introduced by the Congress.</p><p>As I've written elsewhere, the Congress proved to be a defining moment, introducing two major shifts in perspective that would come to fruition at Vatican II.</p><p>First, it introduced the JOC’s reality-based see-judge-act as the method of work at the Congress instead of the traditional doctrinal approach beginning from Church teaching.</p><p>Secondly, and equally if not even more important, it introduced Cardijn’s conception of lay apostolate as the role of the lay person transforming the world "in his personal life, in his family, professional, social, cultural and civic life, on the national and international planes" rather than in terms of personal piety, charitable and even social action.</p><p>In this sense, Cardijn's speech anticipated both the conception of lay apostolate that would be adopted by Vatican II in its Constitution on the Church, <i>Lumen Gentium</i>, and Decree on the Lay Apostolate, <i>Apostolicam Actuositatem</i>, as well as the see-judge-act method adopted in the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the World of Today, <i>Gaudium et Spes</i>.</p><p>Indeed, Cardijn's conception of a "new apostolate" for the emerging "new world" also directly foreshadows the concept of "new evangelisation" that would be adopted by the CELAM bishops at Medellin in 1968.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p>Bernard Minvielle, <i>L'apostolat des laïcs à la veille du Concile (1949-199), Histoire des Congrès mondiaux de 1951 et 1957</i>, Editions Universitaires Fribourg Suisse, 2001.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorino_Veronese" target="_blank">Vittorino Veronese</a> (Wikipedia)</p><p><a href="https://www.icmica-miic.org/2014/10/tribute-to-ramon-sugranyes-de-franch/" target="_blank">Ramon Sugranyes de Franch</a> (Pax Romana)</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Pizzardo" target="_blank">Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo</a> (Wikipedia)</p><p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Philips" target="_blank">Gérard Philips </a>(Wikipedia French)</p><p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Dondeyne" target="_blank">Albert Dondeyne </a>(Wikipedia French)</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/340" target="_blank">Larraín Errázuriz, Manuel</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9lder_C%C3%A2mara" target="_blank">Helder Camara</a> (Wikipedia)</p><p><a href="https://www.celam.org/" target="_blank">Latin American Episcopal Council</a> (CELAM)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/55" target="_blank">The world today and the apostolate of the laity</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/" target="_blank">The leaven in the Council, Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist Network at Vatican II</a> (Australian Cardijn Institute)</p><p>PHOTO</p><p><a href="https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=cwp19511022-01.2.8&srpos=13&e=01-10-1951-31-12-1953--en-20--1--txt-txIN-congress+of+the+lay+apostolate-------" target="_blank">The Catholic World in Pictures</a>, 22 October 1951 (The Catholic News Archive)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-54988898172278886962021-09-27T16:51:00.009+10:002021-09-27T17:28:02.281+10:00See, judge, act... with the Laymen's League of New York<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVvsf6SAM1U7fj0yUlXiM7s1C5wiEZA9eDq3Z4OTHLVRetWcLOicb4NpDtO4JxyYs72B5IrUIESzFf1iTLBp_cQlfmV0y1eUp9KQ5AXhBZ6d6dVLrLJmxk-9o6LSIBHMX26YPtSYq_MrL/s664/ScreenHunter_4420+Sep.+27+14.23.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="664" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVvsf6SAM1U7fj0yUlXiM7s1C5wiEZA9eDq3Z4OTHLVRetWcLOicb4NpDtO4JxyYs72B5IrUIESzFf1iTLBp_cQlfmV0y1eUp9KQ5AXhBZ6d6dVLrLJmxk-9o6LSIBHMX26YPtSYq_MrL/w640-h350/ScreenHunter_4420+Sep.+27+14.23.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />As I have written elsewhere, the see-judge-act has a range of historical precedents reaching back (at least) to Aristotle's analysis of the way in which Athens political leaders made decisions. I've started to compile some of them <a href="https://www.seejudgeact.org" target="_blank">here at www.seejudgeact.org</a>.<p></p><p></p><p>But this weekend I found a new one from (of all places) the Laymen's League of the City of New York, a group founded in 1911 for the purpose of promoting a "militant lay apostolate" through the establishment of "Social Study Groups," as reported by <a href="Social Study Groups" target="_blank">Our Sunday Visitor on 1 May 1921</a>.</p><p>Here's how they described their aims as outlined in a <a href="https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=cns19210328-01.1.14&srpos=28&e=01-01-1901-31-12-1925--en-20--21--txt-txIN-lay+apostolate-------" target="_blank">1921 National Catholic Welfare Commission news report</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>The ideal of the Laymen's League is the establishment of militant lay apostolate through the practice of annual spiritual retreats and the training of a corps of competent writers and lecturers who will spread a sound knowledge of social facts, and of Christian principles in the light of which these facts may be interpreted and their problems find adequate solution.</p></blockquote><p> The League is clearly promoting a three-fold method based on:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>a) Spreading sound knowledge of social facts</p><p>b) Spreading sound knowledge of Christian principles for interpreting those facts; and</p><p>c) Finding adequate solutions (to the problems identified).</p></blockquote><p>Very close to what Cardijn and the JOC would later call the see-judge-act method! </p><p>But note that the foundation dates from 1911 and that the news report is from 1921. This is well before Cardijn's Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC) had yet adopted that name (1924) and the embryonic movement had certainly not spread beyond Belgium.</p><p>Nor did the expression "see, judge, act" come into existence until later (around 1926).</p><p>In other words, Cardijn and the JOC were clearly not the source of the Laymen's League's method. So where did it come from?</p><p>The clue, I think, is in the formulation used: facts-principles-solutions.</p><p>This is very close if not the same as the formulation adopted by Victoire Cappe, who worked closely with Cardijn at the early beginnings of the JOC in the parish of Notre Dame, Laeken from Easter 1912.</p><p>In a speech on "<a href="http://www.victoirecappe.com/p/chapitre-iv-le-salaire-feminin.html" target="_blank">Le salaire féminin</a>" (Women's wages) delivered at the Semaine Sociale féminine (Women's Social Week) in Brussels on 24 April 1911, Cappe divided her presentation into three parts:</p><p>a) Faits (Facts)</p><p>b) Principes (Principles), and</p><p>c) Remèdes (Remedies or Solutions).</p><p>In other words, Victoire Cappe and the Laymen's League are both using the same formulation. What's more the dates of Cappe's speech and the foundation of the League also correspond, i.e. 1911.</p><p>Also significant here is the fact that the League was promoting "Social study groups" that also closely correspond to the "Cercles d'étude" (study circles) that were also proliferating in Europe at that time, particularly in the wake of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum.</p><p>This suggests that they were both drawing on common sources.</p><p>Now, it's already well-documented that Victoire Cappe had been trained in the methods of Marc Sangnier's democratic, Le Sillon movement.</p><p>The Sillon had also practised an early form of the see-judge-act (without using the expression) as its "method of democratic education," the aim of which was to maximise the consciousness and responsibility of each citizen in its own "cercles d'étude."</p><p>The Sillon had in fact closed down only a few months earlier following Pope Pius X's letter to the French bishops of 25 August 1910. So it's possible there is a link between the Laymen's League and the Sillon.</p><p>More generally, though, the facts-principles-solutions formulation is also closely associated with the pioneering French sociologist, Frédéric Le Play's "méthode d'observation sociale" (social observation method), on whose work the Sillon also drew.</p><p>By 1911, there were many groups in France and Belgium (at least) that followed one or another variant of these methods.</p><p>Exactly, how the Laymen's League of New York City came to adopt it would certainly provide abundant interest if not material for another valuable historical investigation.</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=cns19210328-01.1.14&srpos=28&e=01-01-1901-31-12-1925--en-20--21--txt-txIN-lay+apostolate-------" target="_blank">Laymen's League to extend its work</a> (National Catholic Welfare Commission News Sheet, 28/03/2021) (Catholic News Archive)</p><p><a href="https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=OSV19210501-01.2.15&srpos=23&e=01-01-1920-31-12-1925--en-20--21--txt-txIN-lay+apostolate-------" target="_blank">Bureau of Information</a> (Our Sunday Visitor, 1/5/1921) (Catholic News Archive)</p><p><a href="https://www.seejudgeact.org" target="_blank">See judge act</a></p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2013/09/facts-principles-solutions-victoire.html" target="_blank">Facts, principles, solutions: Victoire Cappe 1911</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/2-lamennais-le-sillon-la-joc/" target="_blank">Lamennais, Le Sillon and the JOC</a> (The Leaven in the Council)</p><p>Victoire Cappe, <a href="http://www.victoirecappe.com/p/chapitre-iv-le-salaire-feminin.html" target="_blank">Le salaire féminin</a> (victoirecappe.com)</p><p><a href="https://www.sillon.net" target="_blank">Le Sillon</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-83569812298348567082021-09-19T12:19:00.004+10:002021-09-20T21:06:22.497+10:00Paulo Freire and the Jocist movements<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcF1zPhf5aCudNM_862JSBJpdjtdrzZtOtHa5fOjUt3MO7VlxUiOlYm6bdwwd3m2Sgq0KyKVt4iw-zdbkcfFSYKVKAmGtWWI-SljvToI-5X35Jg29j-dAlsPinhxSemvfUPR7UOWwhSyX/s500/0915-pf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcF1zPhf5aCudNM_862JSBJpdjtdrzZtOtHa5fOjUt3MO7VlxUiOlYm6bdwwd3m2Sgq0KyKVt4iw-zdbkcfFSYKVKAmGtWWI-SljvToI-5X35Jg29j-dAlsPinhxSemvfUPR7UOWwhSyX/w400-h280/0915-pf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Today, 19 September 2021, we celebrate the centenary of the birth of the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, known for his book, <a href="https://envs.ucsc.edu/internships/internship-readings/freire-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed.pdf" target="_blank">Pedagogy of the Oppressed</a>, which described the literacy education programs he had developed for promoting critical consciousness and action among the masses of Brazil's (and Latin America's) poor.<p></p><p>In this context, the American scholar, Rich Gibson, has noted Freire's use of the Cardijn see-judge-act method:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"<span style="background-color: white;">Freire proposed that the use of his 'see-judge-act' student-centered methods could lead to critical consciousness, that is, an awareness of the necessity to constantly unveil appearances designed to protect injustice which, he said, then serves as a foundation for action toward equality and democracy. For Freire, no form of education could be neutral. All pedagogy is a call to action. In a society animated by inequality and authoritarianism, he sided with the many, and exposed the partisanship of those who claimed to stand above it all."</span></p></blockquote><p>Yet the extent to which Freire developed his literacy education program on the basis of Jocist methods and indeed in partnership with Helder Camara and the Specialised Catholic Action movements has largely remained unknown in the English-speaking world.</p><p>Fortunately, Brazilian Marist brother, Antonio Cechin, who was a noted community educator and social activist, has recorded this story of Freire's early collaboration with Camara, the JOC and other Specialised Catholic Action youth movements (JOC - YCW, JAC - YCW for farmers, JEC-YCS, JUC - University YCS and JIC - Young Catholic Professionals).</p><p>Indeed, Cechin even credits Freire's literacy circles with being at the origin of the development of Brazil's famous Basic Ecclesial Communities.</p><p>This is how Cechin tells the story of the collaboration between Freire, Camara and the jocist movements:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"As soon as he was appointed bishop, Dom Hélder Câmara inaugurated an entirely new discourse in the Church of Brazil in the early 1950s. Given the vast majority of the country's population being poor and underdeveloped, he began to appeal to the option for the poor as the option of the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, and that the Church should be engaged on this path of the poor. 'God has a side,' said Dom Hélder, in his early days as a bishop. The Mission of Christians in Brazil is to 'Free the oppressed!'."</p></blockquote><p>And when Camara was appointed as Archbishop of Recife in 1964, he quickly partnered with "another great figure with an original method of education," namely Paulo Freire.</p><p>"Born with the soul of an educator," Freire's "main purpose was to teach reading and writing to the vast number of illiterate people in Brazil," Cechin recalls:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"He became the greatest pedagogue of all times in Latin America as the creator of the psycho-social method, which is also known as Pedagogy of the Oppressed or Education as a Practice of Freedom."</p></blockquote><p>And "the first to take advantage of this excellent liberating method was the Catholic Church in the person of Dom Hélder Câmara," Cechin continues:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"The militants of the Church, the Movements of Specialised Catholic Action, especially the young people of the Church from the JAC, JEC, JIC, JOC and JUC, climbed the hills on the outskirts of the cities and at the same time threaded themselves through the countryside of Brazil wherever there were villages or villages of poor and illiterate people, in search of the 'Generative Words' that would serve as a starting point for meetings with 20 to 30 illiterate people, men and women.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">They became literate within 20 days of meetings. Paulo Freire gave the name of Culture Circles to these groups of literacy students. The name expresses it: there are no totally uneducated people in the world. Anyone and everyone, simply because they have experience in life, is naturally a cultured person. He or she already possesses a culture. He or she knows and does many things. If you know how to plant a manioc plant, you are a farmer. The very compound word agri + cultivator, translated etymologically, means to have an agricultural culture.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I remember when Paulo Freire, who at first had dedicated himself body and soul to the literacy of the poor in Brazil, when exchanging ideas with Dom Hélder, was convinced to expand alphabet learning along with a range of basic knowledge related to fundamental needs of life, such as healthy eating, hygiene and health, human rights, etc. In addition to Generative Words, a starting point for literacy, a search for Generative Themes that were also appropriate as a starting point for the various types of knowledge of a Good Living was also undertaken.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The Culture Centers started to administer Basic Education. Because they were Education Centres organised by the Church, they became the first Ecclesial Base Communities, whose purpose is to serve as the basis for a new society and the basis for a new Church. Shortly before the military carried out the dictatorial coup of 1964, the CNBB had launched, in Brazil, the first primer called Educação de Base.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The Caminhada (Walks) started by Hélder Câmara and Paulo Freire became an authentic Historical Process of Liberation and Salvation. Liberation both from the oppressive structures of our peoples, and for the Evangelisation and Salvation of all in Christ.</p></blockquote><div>It is an amazing story well worth remembering as we pay tribute to Paulo Freire.</div><p>As Rich Gibson has also noted, Freire was a "paradigm shifter," who was "willing to enclose postmodernism, Catholicism, Marxism, and liberalism, a person far more complex than many of those who appropriate his work."</p><p>PS Another nice tribute from Brazilian Dominican Friar Betto, who says, Freire's method "involved knowing how to read the world before learning to read texts.</p><p>"This came from the methodology of the Brazilian Catholic Action, a progressive Christian movement that had the method of seeing, judging and acting," Frei Betto recalls.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://www.freire.org/paulo-freire/" target="_blank">Paulo Freire</a> (Freire Institute)</p><p>Paulo Freire, <a href="https://envs.ucsc.edu/internships/internship-readings/freire-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed.pdf" target="_blank">Pedagogy of the Oppressed</a> (University of California Santa Cruz)</p><p>Rich Gibson, <a href="https://richgibson.com/freirecriticaledu.htm" target="_blank">Paulo Freire and Revolutionary Pedagogy For Social Justice</a></p><p>Antonio Cechin, <a href="http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/noticias/514569-catequese-libertadora-a-prima-pobre-da-teologia-da-libertacao" target="_blank">Catequese Libertadora, a prima-pobre da Teologia da Libertação?</a> (Instituto Humanitas Unisinos)</p><p>Frei Betto: <a href="https://www.lacapital.com.ar/educacion/frei-betto-freire-llevo-los-oprimidos-conquistar-su-autoestima-politica-y-su-protagonismo-n2688527.html" target="_blank">"Freire llevó a los oprimidos a conquistar su autoestima política y su protagonismo"</a> (La Capital)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2012/08/paolo-freire-ycw-and-cardijn.html" target="_blank">Paolo Freire, the YCW and Cardijn</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>IMAGE</p><p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Luiz_Carlos_Cappellano" target="_blank">Luiz Carlos Cappellano</a> - editor <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Eugenio_Hansen,_OFS" target="_blank">Eugenio Hansen, OFS</a> / <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ensinar_exige_compreender_que_a_educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o_%C3%A9_uma_forma_de_interven%C3%A7%C3%A3o_no_mundo._Paulo_Freire,_1921-1997_-pt.svg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en" target="_blank">CCA BY SA 4.0</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-85801490131619549132021-08-24T22:03:00.006+10:002021-08-26T20:27:06.162+10:00Remembering Pierre Haubtmann, redactor of Gaudium et Spes<p>This year marks the 50th anniversary of the tragic death of Pierre Haubtmann, the co-author, compiler and editor of the final, definitive version of the Vatican II Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html" target="_blank">Gaudium et Spes</a>.</p><p>Originally from Saint Etienne in the south of France, Haubtmann studied at the French Seminary and the Gregorian University in Rome before being ordained in 1936 for the Diocese of Grenoble.</p><p>I don't know what drew him to Grenoble but there he must have encountered Fr Emile Guerry, the priest who had founded the JOC as well as the Jeunesse Agricole Chrétienne (JAC) for the diocese and become a great promoter of Specialised Catholic Action. Indeed, it was in 1936 that Guerry published his book Action Catholique, a compilation of pontifical texts relevant to that field.</p><p><b>A JOC and ACO chaplain</b></p><p>Haubtmann had evidently showed great intellectual promise in his time in Rome and was sent to Paris in 1937 to study social sciences at the Institut catholique of Paris. He soon became chaplain to a local JOCF team at his local parish of Meudon.</p><p>When World War II broke out, he was called to serve in the military and he became a prisoner of war for a short time before being released back home in occupied France.</p><p>Upon his return he began to work with adult worker groups from the Ligue Ouvrière Chrétienne and later the Action Catholique Ouvrière (ACO) of which he became national chaplain from 1954-62. During some of this period, he lived at the JOC chaplains' residence in Paris, with French JOC founding chaplain, Georges Guérin.</p><p>Meanwhile, he continued his academic studies, focusing particularly on the 19th century philosopher, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.</p><p><b>Redactor of Gaudium et Spes</b></p><p>When Vatican II opened in October 1962, the French bishops appointed Haubtmann as their media person. Soon after, he was also appointed as a peritus, or expert, to the Council, assisting in the drafting of Schema XIII, the future Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today, Gaudium et Spes.</p><p>In October 1964, he was placed in charge of compiling and editing what would become the final definitive version of Gaudium et Spes.</p><p>"With respect to each question, we begin with facts (previously ‘signs of the times’); we judge them; and we derive various pastoral orientations," Haubtmann wrote. "This method was explicitly desired by the competent bodies; it manifestly corresponds to the will of the overwhelming majority of the Fathers."</p><p>Thus, Part II of Gaudium et Spes comprised five chapters on marriage and family, culture, economic and social life, political community and finally peace and the community of nations, each of which is drafted as a see-judge-act.</p><p><b>The Three Truths</b></p><p>Yet there is also another overlooked aspect of Gaudium et Spes, which is also constructed as a Proudhonian real-ideal dialectic. For Proudhon, the gap that existed between the conditions of the real world and one's ideals could never be resolved by a once off revolution. What was needed was a permanent method in which each generation would seek to reconcile the real and the ideal.</p><p>Similarly, Cardijn's famous Three Truths dialectic is also a Proudhonian dialectic in which the Truth of Method (see-judge-act, educate-serve-represent) overcomes the contradiction between the Truth of Reality (oppression and suffering in the world) and the (Christian) Truth of Faith (the human and divine dignity, mission and destiny of each worker). As a Jocist chaplain and a Proudhon expert, Haubtmann was highly aware of this.</p><p>We can thus read Gaudium et Spes as a Proudhonian Three Truths dialectic structured as follows:</p><p><b>Real/Truth of Reality/Experience</b></p><p>It begins with the Introductory section on "The situation of people in the world today" which contrasts the abundance of wealth in the world with the suffering and even slavery of many people in the world.</p><p><b>Ideal/Truth of Faith</b></p><p>This is followed by Part I on The Church and Man's Calling, beginning with Chapter 1 on The Dignity of the Human Person, Chapter 2 on the Human Community, Chapter 3, Man's Vocation in the World and Chapter 4, The role of the Church.</p><p><b>Method/Truth of Method</b></p><p>Finally, as mentioned above, Part II of Gaudium et Spes consists of five separate see-judge-act chapters, illustrating the "method" of how to reconcile the contradiction between the reality revealed in the Introduction and the Christian ideal revealed in Part I on The Church and Man's Calling.</p><p>But why then is the Introductory section on the situation of people in the world not Part I? The answer is that it was a compromise by the drafters with those bishops who felt that a conciliar document should focus on "doctrine" rather than reality. Nevertheless, once we become aware of the real-ideal-method structure of the Proudhonian dialectic we can readily see how Gaudium et Spes retains this underlying structure.</p><p><b>Remembering Pierre Haubtmann</b></p><p>After the Council, Haubtmann found himself appointed in 1996 as rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris with the role of implementing the conciliar reforms.</p><p>He faced fierce opposition to the changes he sought to introduce. Sadly, he did not live to see the fruits of his work, dying tragically in a bushwalking accident on 6 September 1971.</p><p>The Australian Cardijn Institute honours his memory with a special webinar on 6 September 2021. Speaker will be Haubtmann's successor at the Catholic Institute of Paris, Mgr Philippe Bordeyne. Respondent will be Clara Geoghegan, executive secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.</p><p>See also my video and presentation below.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>WEBINAR</p><p><a href="https://australiancardijninstitute.org/remembering-pierre-haubtmann-redactor-of-gaudium-et-spes/" target="_blank">Remembering Pierre Haubtmann, redactor of Gaudium et Spes, 6 September 2021</a> (Australian Cardijn Institute) (Registration required)</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/9-the-three-truths-in-gaudium-et-spes/" target="_blank">The Three Truths in Gaudium et Spes</a>, in <a href="http://theleaven.com.au/" target="_blank">The Leaven in the Council, Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist Network at Vatican II</a></p>Philippe Bordeyne, <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-transversalites-2010-4-page-127.htm">Mgr Pierre Haubtmann (1912-1971) : un théologien de la communication de la foi</a>, Transversalités, 2010/4 (N° 116), pages 127-149. (French)<br /><br />Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JMDOWuyeOUsQrWs7-yiN4eJdXVY2yKXP6XCvSeXSrNA/edit?usp=sharing">Pierre Haubtmann and the drafting of Gaudium et Spes</a> (Presentation)<br /><br />Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://youtu.be/xa-jXQtfI_Q">Pierre Haubtmann and the drafting of Gaudium et Spes</a> (YouTube)<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2219" target="_blank">Pierre Haubtmann</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)<br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTIxwzMqeT1rfh8dQ0hcHJGjof40JTS4J0PD3wdh4bZ_TpmyiV0U1ZQAevH6kQLGxPEnLG2cAiwPfWa/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1W_Jj6yGG7q6Vc8bp1x8eMv2fzWZ5DVV7hAJEkMtBXn5bes8xyaJ3qwKSm1RPi85JlYdIZYAMDSChU5aAHpx8D7mSzjo6JgNiuo5QG_zwa73SR99hifJGS6NQwMtE2dm0QIUj4IlUabV/s2000/Pierre+Haubtmann.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1W_Jj6yGG7q6Vc8bp1x8eMv2fzWZ5DVV7hAJEkMtBXn5bes8xyaJ3qwKSm1RPi85JlYdIZYAMDSChU5aAHpx8D7mSzjo6JgNiuo5QG_zwa73SR99hifJGS6NQwMtE2dm0QIUj4IlUabV/s320/Pierre+Haubtmann.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-12976863567969049672021-07-21T19:56:00.014+10:002021-07-21T20:04:38.536+10:00Cardijn and Pax Romana: 1921 - 2021<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4OALftvKewRYGq3YiqP3fDA0rK0TaIeAVhq-wzTYPqvTctyvqoZnPaIZIpLwOZnzHQrVB1d13qZsXTqzfB2etnY6Saw7HW2JuHhQDV20mxdeJ_8aL1aMgjAhS9cyVgewVhDAHcEq014IY/s500/pr-01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4OALftvKewRYGq3YiqP3fDA0rK0TaIeAVhq-wzTYPqvTctyvqoZnPaIZIpLwOZnzHQrVB1d13qZsXTqzfB2etnY6Saw7HW2JuHhQDV20mxdeJ_8aL1aMgjAhS9cyVgewVhDAHcEq014IY/s320/pr-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Catholic movements of Pax Romana, which is comprised of the International Movement of Catholic Students and the International Catholic Movement of Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, celebrate their - or should I say our - centenary today 20 July 2021.<p></p><p></p><p>It's been largely forgotten that Cardijn was a member of the national executive of the Belgian ICMICA movement, as documented by Pierre Sauvage in his biography of the French theologian and sociologist, Jacques Leclercq.</p><p>Robert Guelluy who critiqued the book for the Revue Théologique de Louvain even says that Sauvage should have explored Cardijn's relationship with Leclercq further. (There's always room for another paper or even book!)</p><p>It's also largely forgotten that in 1919 Cardijn started a student movement, La Jeunesse Catholique Sociale, in parallel with the Jeunesse Syndicaliste, which became the JOC.</p><p>He explained the project as follows:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>The very conception of the apostolic and missionary mission, proper to young workers, implied an essential and indispensable complement, namely the apostolic and missionary mission proper to young intellectuals, young academics as well as organised and methodical collaboration between the two in order to resolve not only the problem of a Christian social system but the very problem of working youth.</p><p>This need for formation, action and organisation that complemented each other, and for collaboration that was a practical manifestation of this and was not merely theoretical or spiritual but was in fact a lively and effective initiation and implementation from the very beginnings of the early JOC.</p><div>From 1912 and during the whole first war, it manifested itself though a narrow and fruitful collaboration that not only united young workers and academic youth but which enabled realisations that had a decisive impact on the whole social community.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>In fact, what we see here is the birth of the idea of Specialised Catholic Action. As we have seen many times on this website, Cardijn was greatly influenced by Marc Sangnier's Le Sillon movement, which was a movement of both students and young workers.</div><div><br /></div><div>But Cardijn was clearly aware of the tensions that had emerged in the Sillon between university students, who tended to dominate, and young workers. His solution was two separate or "specialised" movements that would collaborate closely.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the history of the Jeunesse Sociale Catholique remains to be written. Did it also send representatives to the first Pax Romana conference in Switzerland in 1921? Hopefully, someone will one day check out the Pax Romana archives in Fribourg. (Another thesis!)</div><div><br /></div><div>In any case, Cardijn clearly maintained links with Pax Romana. Thus, on 6 August, 1938, he was invited to deliver a keynote address at its international congress at Bled, Yugoslavia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once again he took up the theme of promoting collaboration between workers and students. And he did not hesitate to offer jocist methods as a model for the student movement to follow:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>1. The marvelous development of worker organisations not just with a view to material progress, but also with a view to spiritual and cultural progress creates practical difficulties with respect to regular collaboration, e.g. ongoing frameworks, methodical programs, discipline, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. An increasingly large working-class elite is becoming aware of its apostolic mission and devoting itself fully to this mission.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Catholic Action methods (by, with, for them; see, judge, act; action, formation, organisation) have shown great educational value both from a doctrinal and a dynamic point of view. We are witnessing the birth of a working-class culture and a working-class humanism that is developing rapidly.</div><div><br /></div><div>4. By emphasising the personal and collective apostolate in the living environment (family, professional, recreational) these worker Catholic Action organisations are developing a sense of the necessary freedoms and fundamental responsibilities and are, therefore, clearly anti-statist and anti-totalitarian.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. Worker Catholic Action and Catholic Social Action wiithin the working class are certainly a providential means for positively combating the threat of communism.</div><div><br /></div><div>6. Worker Catholic Action and Catholic Social Action organisations promote effective and organised collaboration between students and workers, particularly between the mandated leaders of the two organisations. They are a genuine school of practical learning in social collaboration. They also increase the opportunities for disinterested collaboration in the field of physical culture as well as scientific and artistic popularisation. They are a considerable factor in bringing together classes and different backgrounds.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>(Incidentally, it also appears that the future Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Poland, who wrote a famous book on the theology of work that was no doubt influenced by Cardijn, also participated at that congress.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, perhaps it's time to look again at how to promote the kind of collaboration between workers and students that Cardijn always desired.</div><div><br /></div><div>In this light, the Australian Cardijn Institute applied this year to join Pax Romana ICMICA. We are pleased to say that we have been accepted as a corresponding institute, along with several other institutes in several countries.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today therefore we are pleased to join in the celebration of the Pax Romana centenary and are proud to share its heritage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Stefan Gigacz</div><p>REFERENCES</p><p>Robert Guelluy, <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/thlou_0080-2654_1993_num_24_4_2660_t1_0499_0000_1" target="_blank">Compte-Rendu, Pierre Sauvage, Jacques Leclerq (1891-1971). Un arbre en plein vent.</a> Préface de Lucien Guissard, 1992 (<a href="https://www.persee.fr/collection/thlou">Revue Théologique de Louvain</a> Année 1993 <a href="https://www.persee.fr/issue/thlou_0080-2654_1993_num_24_4?sectionId=thlou_0080-2654_1993_num_24_4_2660_t1_0499_0000_1">24-4</a> pp. 499-500/Persee)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/1588" target="_blank">La Jeunesse Sociale Catholique</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/104" target="_blank">Catholic Social Youth</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/1126" target="_blank">Ouvriers et étudiants</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2360" target="_blank">Workers and students</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Jacques Basyn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/1682" target="_blank">Notre vivante tradition</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/05/cardinal-stefan-wyszynski-joc-chaplain.html" target="_blank">Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski - A founding JOC chaplain</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p><a href="https://www.icmica-miic.org/" target="_blank">Pax Romana ICMICA</a></p><p><a href="https://www.imcs-miec.org/" target="_blank">International Movement of Catholic Students</a> (IMCS)</p><p><a href="https://australiancardijninstitute.org/" target="_blank">Australian Cardijn Institute</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-64587605053515476732021-06-21T12:22:00.001+10:002021-06-21T12:23:03.323+10:00The Australian Plenary Council: A Cardijn perspective<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdxifgvvyzqkGW9kD_ZAQtR4VxBxlEpwHBjXttOhV1VrqUrY5F42dFlSyHLNT10xp3zsc-7YlxJgX-81hCiYyDOIPNH6eZaA9t-fxW6BbC1LIeyyoriaH8dx7PzDWopcgzcHtbxgyiy1-/s500/PC-oval-500.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdxifgvvyzqkGW9kD_ZAQtR4VxBxlEpwHBjXttOhV1VrqUrY5F42dFlSyHLNT10xp3zsc-7YlxJgX-81hCiYyDOIPNH6eZaA9t-fxW6BbC1LIeyyoriaH8dx7PzDWopcgzcHtbxgyiy1-/w400-h280/PC-oval-500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />For the first time in over 80 years, the Australian Catholic Church is holding a <a href="https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/" target="_blank">Plenary Council</a>, which will take place over two sessions in October 2021 and July 2022. It's obviously an important event and has the potential to shape the Church's role for perhaps the rest of this century.<p></p><p>The organisers, i.e. the Australian bishops have clearly made a huge effort to listen to the voices of Australian Catholics, who have responded enthusiastically, making over 200,000 submissions. Equally clearly, this has created a huge challenge to simply sort through all those responses, let alone organise them into some kind of structured synthesis. Necessarily, the compilers and drafters have made choices, which also inevitably reflect their own understandings and preferences.</p><p>The outcome of the process so far is the <a href="https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/instrumentum-laboris/" target="_blank">Instrumentum Laboris</a>, the working document for the Council. As the French would say, it is a "texte martyr" - a martyr text - that will be taken apart and criticised from every angle for every possible shortcoming it contains. Here, it should also be noted that many of these reflect gaps and limits in the submissions made to the Plenary.</p><p>Having said all this, it is essential that the Instrumentum Laboris is rigorously critiqued in order that the final documents of the Plenary will be at the level they need to be. Hence, this critical look at the Instrumentum Laboris from a Cardijn perspective and indeed a Vatican II perspective.</p><p>I've written up my notes on this on a separate blog entitled <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/?view=classic" target="_blank">Plenary Reflections</a>. It's quite a simple examination of the IL, taking a series of words that are important from a Cardijn-inspired perspective: lay apostolate, lay people, work/worker/young worker, vocation, formation, the poor...</p><p>I note also that the Australian Cardijn Institute made a <a href="https://australiancardijninstitute.org/plenary/" target="_blank">submission</a> to the Plenary based on Cardijn's conception of lay apostolate.</p><p>I will probably continue the process in the weeks and months to come but - with no pretension to completeness - here is what this analysis has revealed so far.</p><p><b>Labour and work/worker/employment/unemployment etc.</b></p><p><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says: </b>Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/labour-work-and-workers.html" target="_blank">here</a> for details.</p><p>In summary, the IL has several good references to current problems and issues in this area, e.g. to "a burgeoning, transient workforce," "insecure employment," changing conditions of work and employment, including "disgraceful working conditions," etc.</p><p>However, the problems of unemployment, underemployment or casual work are not specifically mentioned.</p><p>Moreover, the term “worker” only appears twice and only in reference to pastoral/lay church workers. In other words, it's a very "clerical" understanding of what it means to be a worker!</p><p>Moreover, in contrast to 25 references to Catholic schools, there is not a single mention of young workers.</p><p>On the other hand , the document does contain one isolated beautiful reference (§126) to the vocation of the "vast majority of Christians", which "will be lived out primarily in the context of their family life, their workplace and their engagement with their culture and society." (See more below.)</p><p>Overall, however, despite this year being the 130th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's landmark encyclical, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html" target="_blank">Rerum Novarum</a>, there is little overall sense in the document of the importance of the world of work and labour as a field of Christian endeavour and mission.</p><p><b>What Cardijn says on these issues</b></p><p>"<i>The problem of working-class youth is critical. They must be given a doctrine and a pride in their work; they must be taught to organise and group themselves. For this a workers' movement is essential, a movement which will form them, while they are young, to become the future leaders of the trade unions, of the international associations, of the world workers' movement.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/43" target="_blank">The hour of the working class, Lecture 1</a>, 1948.<br /></p><p>"<i>Never has the worker problem experienced the dimension, significance or gravity that it has today. All the more so since its present dimensions do not signify the ultimate end point; on the contrary this is merely the beginning of a vertiginous transformation, both concerning work itself and all the actors who are engaged in it, and concerning the unheard of repercussions of this transformation on all aspects of the life of the whole of humanity.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <i><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/65" target="_blank">The Church and the world of labour, Note for John XXIII</a></i>, 1960.</p><p>"<i>The world in which they enter and begin to work faces new and serious problems. It is up to young people whether this new world will become better or worse. If we abandon these young people, if we leave them alone, they will be unable to resolve the problems of their age and of the modern world as they must.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/96" target="_blank"><i>Young workers and the Third World, Vatican II</i></a>, 1965.</p><p>"<i>Their (i.e. the young workers’) working life and the whole of their daily life must become a prayer, a Mass, a prolonged Communion, so that they become priests and hosts with the one Priest and the One Host, offering 'through Him, with Him and in Him,' the homage of their whole life to the glorification of the Most Holy Trinity. Thus their bench, their shift, their profession, their work bench becomes an altar on which they offer their sacrifice united to that of their Redeemer, thus participating truly in the Royal Priesthood of which they are aware.</i>"</p><p><span> </span><span> - Joseph Cardijn, </span><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/fr/item/1069" target="_blank">La formation eucharistique de jeunes travailleurs</a>, 1933.</p><p><b>The “poor”</b></p><p><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says: </b>Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-poor.html" target="_blank">here</a> for details</p><p>The IL starts promisingly by quoting the famous opening line of <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html" target="_blank">Gaudium et Spes</a> - twice in fact in the document:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.</p></blockquote><p>The IL also contains several other references to the "poor and vulnerable," the "poor and suffering," the "hungry," the "poor and traumatised," the "preferential option for the poor and vulnerable."</p><p>However, none of the references appear to treat the poor as acting subjects or agents. They are rather objects of "concern."</p><p>Compare this with Pope Francis, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2021/6/14/messaggio-poveri.html" target="_blank">Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the Fifth World Day of the Poor</a>, 14 November 2021, who insists that the poor have much to teach us:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>2. The poor, always and everywhere, evangelize us, because they enable us to discover in new ways the true face of the Father. “They have much to teach us. Besides participating in the sensus fidei, they know the suffering Christ through their own sufferings. It is necessary that we all let ourselves be evangelized by them.</p><p>3. Jesus not only sides with the poor; he also shares their lot. This is a powerful lesson for his disciples in every age.</p><p>7. With great humility, we should confess that we are often incompetent when it comes to the poor. We talk about them in the abstract; we stop at statistics and we think we can move people’s hearts by filming a documentary. Poverty, on the contrary, should motivate us to creative planning, aimed at increasing the freedom needed to live a life of fulfilment according to the abilities of each person.</p></blockquote><p><b>What Cardijn says about the poor</b></p><p>"<i>I am the son of a poor working family. My father could not read or write because he had to work instead of going to school. My mother was a servant. I want the poorest man and the poorest woman to be respected.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/78" target="_blank"><i>Revolution by revelation</i></a>, 1942.<br /></p><p>"<i>Today, the economy and the organisation of work and the techniques of today are more and more international. That is the great problem of the poor people, the two thirds of humanity who have no work, who are unemployed, who have no techniques, who have no possibility to give help to their people... We call them underdeveloped people. But they must be respected, they must be honoured, they must he helped. Otherwise humanity will be destroyed. God needs the work of human beings. God will not replace one worker.</i>"</p><div> - Joseph Cardijn, <i><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/938" target="_blank">The workman and his family</a></i>, 1966.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>"<i>The faithful of the old Christian nations must, by all means, help relieve the suffering, the present misery and anguish of the Third World. Their help must not be limited merely to finance or to technology and equipment. What these young nations require more than anything is fraternal education that will enable them to take in hand themselves the cause of their human and divine development. It will certainly cause a historic scandal if the present state of affairs were to continue whereby 'Christian' countries maintain the possession and use of the greater part of the riches of the world.</i>"</div></div><div><br /></div><div> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/96" target="_blank"><i>Young workers and the Third World, Vatican II</i></a>, 1965.</div><p><b>Vocation</b></p><p><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says: </b>Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/vocation.html?view=classic" target="_blank">here</a> for details.</p><p>As mentioned above, the Instrumentum Laboris contains one beautiful reference to the vocation of the "majority of Christians," which "will be lived out primarily in the context of their family life, their workplace and their engagement with their culture and society. In this way Christians respond to the Lord’s call to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and the ‘light of the world’."</p><p>This may be the most significant statement in the whole document. So, why is it buried in §126 in a section entitled "The Call to Co-Responsibility in the Church"? This is surely a paradigm example of what journalists would call "burying the lede." What's more such a significant statement does not belong in a section on "co-responsibility for the Church."</p><p>Another question we could ask is why is this “majority of Christians” not addressed by their name, which is “lay people”? Whereas <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html" target="_blank">Apostolicam Actuositatem</a> devotes Chapter I to "The Vocation of the Laity to the Apostolate," there is little sense in the IL of lay people having a specific vocation of their own.</p><p>Beyond this, other references in the IL are mostly limited to a very traditional conception of vocation in relation to the various states of life: marriage and parenting, priesthood and religious life. In an age when many more people do not marry, there is no reference to the single life.</p><p>Finally and more positively there are several good references to the vocation of the Church as a whole, namely:</p><p></p><ul><li>A vocation to communion</li><li>A vocation as a healer of humanity.</li></ul><div><p><b>What Cardijn says</b></p><p>"<i>At the root of the YCW and of our whole conception of life, there is one great truth: that each young worker has here on earth a vocation, a personal mission to fulfil; and each one must fulfil this mission through the ordinary acts of his daily life in his natural environment.</i>"</p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>- Joseph Cardijn, <i><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/47" target="_blank">The young worker faces life</a></i>, 1949.</p><p>"<i>Each Christian, each Catholic, by his Baptism, must be an apostle and a missionary-he has an apostolic and missionary vocation. Each one is called by God to Existence, to life, and to a collaboration in His creative and redemptive work. The earthly vocation is an apostolic and missionary vocation... The apostolate of the laity is the vocation both Christian and human of the laity in the Church and in the world.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/55" target="_blank"><i>The world today and the apostolate of the laity</i></a>, 1951.</p></div><p></p><div><b>Lay person, lay people, lay men/women, laity</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says:</b> Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/lay-person-lay-people-lay-menwomen-and.html?view=classic" target="_blank">here</a> for details.</div><div><br /></div><div>In every instance in the Instrumentum Laboris, references to the role of lay people refer to their role INSIDE the Church, co-responsible with the clergy, and/or in services provided by the Church.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is not a single reference to lay people having a specific role in transforming their lives, communities and society.</div><div><br /></div><div>How does this accord with the teaching of Vatican II, e.g. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html" target="_blank">Lumen Gentium</a> 33: Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html" target="_blank">Gaudium et Spes</a> 43: Secular duties and activities belong properly although not exclusively to lay people.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apostolicam Actuositatem 1: proper and indispensable role in the mission of the Church.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>What Cardijn says</b></div><div><br /></div><div>"Have we given sufficient thought to the apostolate of the laity, have we understood its place in the Church? There exists in the Church an apostolate which is proper to the laity, which transforms lay life into an apostolic life."*</div><div><br /></div><div> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/25" target="_blank"><i>The laity,</i></a> 1935.</div><div><br /></div><div>"<i>The apostolate of lay people has two essential, primordial and inseparable aspects:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>1. Its relationship with God, Christ and the Church; with the plan of God in the work of Creation and Redemption.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>2. Its relationship with the fundamental problems of man and the world, with their influences and their depth, in their total dimension</i>."</div><div><br /></div><div> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2165" target="_blank"><i>Note 2, Vatican II</i></a>, 1960.</div></div><p><b>Apostle, apostolate and lay apostolate</b></p><p><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says:</b><b> </b>Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/apostle-apostolate-and-lay-apostolate.html?view=classic" target="_blank">here</a> for details.</p><p>The Second Vatican Council was the first ecumenical council to devote a document to the "apostolate of the laity" or the "lay apostolate."</p><p>This was a revolutionary concept since the concept of a lay apostolate was long regarded as an oxymoron, since the bishops alone were the successors of Jesus' original Apostles. Indeed, one of Cardijn's major battles at Vatican II was precisely for recognition of a specifically lay apostolate.</p><p>He succeeded so well that <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html" target="_blank">Apostolicam Actuositatem</a>, the Vatican II Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, uses the term "apostolate" in this context 122 times.</p><p>In contrast, the Instrumentum Laboris only contains six references to the terms apostle/apostolate/apostolic and in four different senses:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Jesus' Twelve Apostles</li><li>The bishops as successors of the Apostles</li><li>Religious with an “apostolic vocation”</li><li>The lay apostolate of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn.</li></ul><p></p><p>Let us quote the full reference to "the lay apostolate of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn':</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Since the Second Vatican Council, Church teaching has often read the signs of the times by employing the See-Judge-Act method associated with the lay apostolate of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn.</p></blockquote><p>This actually makes it sound as if the "lay apostolate" is something exclusive to followers of Cardijn rather than something integral to the Church's mission.</p><p>Given that Apostolicam Actuositatem seems to be one of the most ignored documents of Vatican II, perhaps this is not totally surprising. Nevertheless, it is extremely regrettable.</p><p>At the end of the day, sad to say, the understanding of "apostolate" and "lay apostolate" in the Instrumentum Laboris is a pre-Vatican II understanding.</p><p><b>What Cardijn says</b></p><p>"<i>The lay apostolate is</i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>is the lay (secular) life of lay people, the problems of that life, at every level: local, <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>regional, national and international;</i></li><li><i>is the divine value of this life to implement the work of God and Christ, in order to transform life and the world;</i></li><li><i>is a transformation that must take place with, by and in Christ and the Church, with the resources of the Church (prayer, sacraments, etc.) but which are incarnated in the affairs of the world, the institutions of the world, in view of the inseparable goals that are the happiness of humanity and the glory of God.</i>"</li></ul><div> - Joseph Cardijn, <i><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/92" target="_blank">The lay apostolate, Vatican II</a></i>, 1965.<br /></div><p></p><p>"<i>The lay apostolate does not create a new Church, it does not introduce new structures into the Church, it does not confide a new mission to the Church in the world. The Church and the lay apostolate are not two separate things. The apostolate of the laity is the vocation both Christian and human of the laity in the Church and in the world.</i>"</p><p><span> </span> - Joseph Cardijn, <i><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/55" target="_blank">The world today and the apostolate of the laity</a></i>, 1951.</p><p><b>Formation</b></p><p><b>What the Instrumentum Laboris says:</b> Click <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/2021/06/formation.html?view=classic" target="_blank">here</a> for details.</p><p><a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html" target="_blank">Apostolicam Actuositatem</a> devotes a whole chapter to "Formation for the Apostolate" understood as "a diversified and thorough formation" of the lay person, which "is demanded not only by the continuous spiritual and doctrinal progress of the lay person himself but also by the accommodation of his activity to circumstances varying according to the affairs, persons, and duties involved." (AA§28)</p><p>How does the IL look at "formation," particularly formation for lay people?</p><p>The IL makes 21 references to formation in relation to a variety of areas:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>a) Faith formation, sacramental formation</p><p>b) Formation for seminarians, deacons, clergy and religious</p><p>c) Formation for students and teachers</p><p>d) Formation for church workers</p><p>e) Formation for adult parish leaders</p><p>f) Formation for children and young people loosely connected to the Church</p><p>g) Formation for married life</p><p>h) Formation for the Gospel mission and Christian living.</p></blockquote><p>Thus, it is clear that formation is thought of mainly in reference to various roles in the Church. Moreover, the emphasis is on "faith formation" although the meaning of this is not explained. However, from the context, it appears to refer mainly to formation in Christian doctrine.</p><p>While the text does refer to formation for "Christian living," the only reference to the specifically lay vocation is in relation to married life (as important as this is). There is no reference at all to formation for lay people's vocation in transforming life, community and world. </p><p><b>What Cardijn says</b></p><p>"<i>The consciousness of the apostolic and missionary significance of the whole of life and realisation of this apostolic mission of the lay person thus supposes a formation that is both human, divine and Christian. This formation forms an integral part of the lay person's general formation in the religious and moral field. The whole of religious formation is essentially apostolic.</i></p><p><i>Apostolic formation thus commences in the family, in parish catechism and at school. It reaches its culminating and decisive point at the age that determines the orientation of personal life –between 14 and 25 years – when the young man or young woman become adults and are confronted with the problems of their own bodily and psychic transformation, their professional and family future, their human mission in the world of today and tomorrow.</i></p><p><i>To be effective, this apostolic formation must be both:</i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>an apprenticeship in the discovery of human problems (knowledge, seeing, learning to understand) thanks to the observation of lay life itself and a conception of life in the light of human destiny;</i></li><li><i>a search and an implementation of solutions that are needed to these problems (know how to judge in the light of a few principles) and from there, an action beginning with one's immediate milieu;</i></li><li><i>an exercise in indispensable collaboration that will enable the organisation in common of tested solutions appropriate to the physiognomy of the present world.</i>"</li></ul><p></p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/92" target="_blank">Note 1, Vatican II</a>, 1960.<br /></p><p>"<i>Just as there are no priests without seminary training, and no monks or nuns without their novitiate, so there cannot possibly be young Christian workers without formation... The aim of the YCW is to make sure that each young worker will receive the formation, which he needs so much in his life and environment for all the acts of his daily life and in preparation for his future. The YCW is precisely this: a movement of young workers who, in and by and with young workers, in and by all the acts of their daily lives, form each other, support each other, help each other, love each other, and together prepare themselves for their future.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/47" target="_blank"><i>The young worker faces life</i></a>, 1949.<br /></p><p>"<i>I must bring about a double transformation, I must transform my boys and my girls so that they see the problems, judge and act, and become apostles, but also I must help them to transform the environment wherever they are. There is the double transformation, an interior transformation of boys, and an exterior transformation, of the bus, of the workshops and the factories, and the mines; and we must discover and help the boys and girls to discover that.</i>"</p><p> - Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/60" target="_blank"><i>Quaerite Primum</i></a>, 1954.</p><p><b>Conclusion</b></p><p>If there's one conclusion that arises from the above, I would suggest it is that the excellent passage in §126 of the Instrumentum Laboris recognising that the majority of people, i.e. lay people, live out their Christian mission "primarily in the context of their family life, their workplace and their engagement with their culture and society" needs to become a central focus of the Plenary's work.</p><p>In a sense, everything else that the Council needs to do will flow from this. But clearly a Cardijn perspective offers a great challenge to the Plenary and the Australian Church.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://australiancardijninstitute.org/plenary/" target="_blank">Australian Cardijn Institute Submission to the Plenary</a></p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://plenaryreflections.blogspot.com/?view=classic" target="_blank">Plenary Reflections</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-13984200472936675062021-06-06T19:33:00.005+10:002021-06-10T11:09:43.385+10:00Cardijn, François Houtart and the princes of the Church<p>Four years already since the death of François Houtart on 6 June 2017! I did an interview with him for my thesis in 2014. And naturally he had many stories to share of his experience with Cardijn, the JOC, at Vatican II, with Karol Wojtyla and more.</p><p>One of those experiences was a visit to Cuba with Cardijn and Marguerite Fiévez during the early 1950s. Cardijn was staying in the episcopal palace with Cardinal Arteaga y Betancourt.</p><p>It was so vast that when François went to meet Cardijn he got lost in all the rooms. As he moved through the luxurious corridors of the palace, he was shocked to stumble across a hairdressing salon with all the latest equipment, specifically for the use of residents. </p><p>Finally, Houtart found Cardijn, who was enraged by the contrast between the poverty of the Cuban workers, including the JOC members and leaders, and the luxury enjoyed by the Church elite.</p><p>"They don't know what's coming to them!" Cardijn told him.</p><p>Indeed, a couple of years later, it did come in the form of the Cuban Revolution!</p><p>This wasn't the only time Cardijn expressed his disgust at the ostentatious wealth of the Church's clerical elite. In fact, François Houtart also <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2013/03/no-pomp-and-privilege-for-cardijn.html" target="_blank">recounted another similar story</a> of Cardijn's horror after visiting a Yugoslav cardinal prior to the Second World War.</p><p>Cardijn undoubtedly shared these experiences with other JOC chaplains and leaders too. No surprise then to find many of these jocist bishops playing a key role as part of the Jesus Christ and the Church of the Poor Group at Vatican II.</p><p>And after the Cuban Revolution, François Houtart continued to travel there, eventually becoming a friend and confidant of Fidel Castro.</p><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pgPu2ZGuxGY?start=140" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>
<p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/321" target="_blank">François Houtart</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)</p><p>Geoffrey Pleyers, <a href="https://intercoll.net/Francois-Houtart-A-sociology-of-liberation" target="_blank">François Houtart, A sociology of liberation</a> (Intercoll)</p><p><a href="http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/barteaga.html" target="_blank">Manuel Cardinal Arteaga y Betancourt</a> (Catholic Hierarchy)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2013/03/no-pomp-and-privilege-for-cardijn.html" target="_blank">No pomp and privilege for Cardijn</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2012/04/karol-wojtyla-channels-cardijn.html" target="_blank">Karol Wojtyla channels Cardijn</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2017/06/rip-francois-houtart.html" target="_blank">RIP François Houtart</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2017/06/the-joc-influence-at-vatican-ii.html" target="_blank">The JOC influence at Vatican II</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2017/06/marx-houtart-wojtyla-and-see-section-of.html" target="_blank">Marx, Houtart, Wojtyla and the "See" in Gaudium et Spes</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, C<a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2019/10/cardijn-and-pact-of-catacombs.html" target="_blank">ardijn, Camara and the Pact of the Catacombs</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p>Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2019/10/the-jocist-bishops-who-signed-pact-of.html" target="_blank">The jocist bishops who signed the Pact of the Catacombs</a> (Cardijn Research)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-52559692353552515252021-05-29T02:12:00.012+10:002021-06-07T12:26:07.549+10:00Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski - A founding JOC chaplain<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7vvZLjrf2G5mp6h1VfpYvniFSSRw8zSb8rrmcj6w4J-EttFyRwWc-ckdv5Xi13507pnBM8nAFdzgiB6rT0pI3__bLpG3d6fqtBfKMaL6jmpfxlU-U6bD4WSE_-dbtXYv9PP_cK8ZUfgha/s402/Stefan_Wyszy%25C5%2584ski.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski" border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="302" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7vvZLjrf2G5mp6h1VfpYvniFSSRw8zSb8rrmcj6w4J-EttFyRwWc-ckdv5Xi13507pnBM8nAFdzgiB6rT0pI3__bLpG3d6fqtBfKMaL6jmpfxlU-U6bD4WSE_-dbtXYv9PP_cK8ZUfgha/w300-h400/Stefan_Wyszy%25C5%2584ski.jpg" title="Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski" width="300" /></a></div><br />Back when I was a young fulltime worker for the YCW in Melbourne in the late 1970s, I was looking for writings about the theology of work. The only thing I found was an English translation of a little book by a Polish cardinal, Stefan Wyszynski, who died 40 years ago today on 28 May 1981.<p></p><p></p><p>The original title of the 1960 English edition was simply "Work." (A more recent edition or translation is called "All you who labour: Work and the Sanctification of Daily Life.") And I wondered: Did Wyszynski know Cardijn? Did he know the JOC/YCW?</p><p>At that time, Poland was still a communist state and there was no YCW there that I knew of, although later I learned that a number of efforts had been made to launch it during the 1970s.</p><p>Today I learned that young Father Stefan Wyszynski was indeed a Cardijn priest.</p><p>He first encountered the JOC and Cardijn while studying in Rome in 1929-30, which coincided with the first jocist pilgrimage to Rome in September 1929. He also made study trips to observe the development of Catholic social thought in some European countries: Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.</p><p>After he returned to his home diocese of Wloclawek, in 1932, he founded the Katolickie Stowarzyszenie Mlodziezy Robotniczej - the Young Catholic Workers Association, which followed the principles and methods of Cardijn's JOC!</p><p>In fact, the JOC had barely reached beyond Belgium, France and other francophone countries by 1930. This makes the Polish JOC one of the earliest in the world.</p><p>It appears that Fr Wyszynski again heard Cardijn speak at the Pax Romana Congress in Bled, Yugoslavia in 1938 where the JOC founder was the keynote speaker. Indeed, Wyszynski later published a report of the conference in which he cited Cardijn.</p><p>In light of this, it is also easy to discern a Cardijn influence in the very title of Wyszynski's book on "Work and the sanctification of daily life."</p><p>How well did Wyszynski, who is expected to be beatified on 12 September this year, know Cardijn? Hard to say. Interestingly, though, they both addressed Vatican II on the issue of <a href="https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/declaration-on-religious-freedom-gaining-support/" target="_blank">religious freedom</a> on the same day, i.e. 20 September 1965.</p><p>Well, there's obviously much more to investigate on this issue. But it also sheds a certain light on the interest in Cardijn and the JOC that another young Polish priest, Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, would also later show.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>PS Thanks to Julia Maria Koszewska, who kindly helped locate and translate some of these references.</p><p>REFERENCES</p><p><a href="https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bwysz.html" target="_blank">Stefan Cardinal </a>Wyszynski (Catholic Hierarchy)</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Wyszy%C5%84ski" target="_blank">Stefan Wyszyński </a>(Wikipedia)</p><p><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Wyszy%C5%84ski" target="_blank">Stefan Wyszyński</a> (Wikipedia Polish)</p><p><a href="https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/declaration-on-religious-freedom-gaining-support/" target="_blank">Declaration on Religious Freedom Gaining Support</a> (Vatican II: 50 years ago today)</p><p>S. Wyszynski. Sprawy pasterskie i religijno-społeczne. Poznanie społeczno-katolickie: poznanie i wykonanie uchwał Synodu Plenarnego szczytnym posłannictwem polskiego katolicyzmu. Wolność w życiu społecznym. Kongres Pax Romana w Bled.</p><p>Konkurs na katolicką „Historię katolika”, „Historię chłopów w Polsce”. „Ateneum Kapłańskie” 24:1938 z. 1 s. 292.</p><p style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Małgorzata Laskowska, <a href="http://perspectiva.pl/pdf/p16/08LASKOWSKA.pdf" target="_blank">Troska o uniwersytet w artykułach Ks. Stefana Wyszyńskiego z lat1924-1946</a> (Perspektiva, Legnickie Studia, Teologiczno-Historyczne, Rok IX, 2010 Nr 1 (16) )</p><p style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Jerzy Turowicz, Sytuacja i rola młodego pokolenia we współczesnym społeczeństwie według Stefana Kardynała Wyszyńskiego (<a href="https://ojs.tnkul.pl/index.php/rns/article/view/10513" target="_blank">Roczniki Nauk Spolecznych</a> Tom 10 (1982) )</p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://zpokadz.edupage.org/a/nasz-patron?eqa=dGV4dD10ZXh0L3RleHQyJnN1YnBhZ2U9MQ%3D%3D" target="_blank">Zespół Placówek Oświatowych Im. Kardynała Stefana WyszyńskiegoW Kadzidle</a></p><p style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2017/06/marx-houtart-wojtyla-and-see-section-of.html" target="_blank">Marx, Houtart, Wojtyla and the "See" in Gaudium et Spes</a> (Cardijn Research)</p><p style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2012/04/karol-wojtyla-channels-cardijn.html" target="_blank">Karol Wojtyla channels Cardijn</a> (Cardijn Research)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625675273597145489.post-92085695998545253732021-05-13T10:19:00.000+10:002021-05-13T10:19:13.069+10:00Cardijn and the theology of work in Mater et Magistra<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXLQO3YpQWtEZ9BRFQfnkFfcEPB0zpg03v6WwHnZ8laxZ8XaS3Rgl2qIZ1yBGKJeIYegRe_HcXctZGMteXUagQg1vebYAeqT6KoUXnW5Z6xEm-LltETCP2WesJ6LwkTC0CRqPpUPbiIBE/s500/j23-jc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXLQO3YpQWtEZ9BRFQfnkFfcEPB0zpg03v6WwHnZ8laxZ8XaS3Rgl2qIZ1yBGKJeIYegRe_HcXctZGMteXUagQg1vebYAeqT6KoUXnW5Z6xEm-LltETCP2WesJ6LwkTC0CRqPpUPbiIBE/s320/j23-jc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Before returning to what Cardijn wrote about work in <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/05/cardijn-work-and-worker.html" target="_blank">his paper</a> for John XXIII, let's take a quick look at what popes said on the issue over the previous 70 years since <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html" target="_blank">Rerum Novarum</a>.<p></p><p><b>Leo XIII: A curse</b></p><p>Looking back at Pope Leo's pioneering encyclical, it is striking to note how gloomily he thought of human work:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">As regards bodily labor, even had man never fallen from the state of innocence, he would not have remained wholly idle; but that which would then have been his free choice and his delight became afterwards compulsory, and the painful expiation for his disobedience. 'Cursed be the earth in thy work; in thy labour thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life.' (Rerum Novarum 17)</p></blockquote><p>Having lost its primordial "delightful" nature owing to original sin, human labour was now reduced to punishment and a curse.</p><p>All the same, this did not justify injustice towards the worker, Leo XIII insisted, going on to argue memorably "that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner" and recognising the right of workers to "associate" in trade unions to protect their interests.</p><p><b>Pius XI: Continuation of creation</b></p><p>Forty years later, however, Pius XI has begun to move beyond Leo's negatively framed conception of work. In <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html" target="_blank">Quadragesimo Anno</a>, he wrote:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Every one knows, too, that no nation has ever risen out of want and poverty to a better and nobler condition save by the enormous and combined toil of all the people, both those who manage work and those who carry out directions. But it is no less evident that, had not God the Creator of all things, in keeping with His goodness, first generously bestowed natural riches and resources - the wealth and forces of nature - such supreme efforts would have been idle and vain, indeed could never even have begun. For what else is work but to use or exercise the energies of mind and body on or through these very things?</p></blockquote><p>With Pius XI, we begin to see that work is not just "toil" but also in a sense a continuation or development of what God had begun by bestowing humankind with "natural riches and resources" with which to work. Clearly, there's been a significant shift and development in Catholic thinking about work since 1891.</p><p><b>Pius XII: Cooperation in redemption</b></p><p>Although Pope Pius XII did not publish a specifically social encyclical, he did recall Pope Leo's encyclical on its 50th anniversary in a <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1941/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19410601_radiomessage-pentecost.html" target="_blank">Radio Message for Pentecost 1941</a> in which he wrote:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Rerum Novarum teaches that there are two properties of human labor: it is personal and it is necessary. It is personal, because it is accomplished with the exercise of man's particular strengths: it is necessary, because without it one cannot procure what is indispensable to life, to maintain which is a natural, grave, individual duty.</p></blockquote><p>And he goes further than his predecessor, linking human work not just to God's work of creation but to Christ's redemption of the world. Citing both Leo XIII and Pius XI, he insists that believers have a "moral duty" to cooperate "in the ordering of society and, in a special way, of economic life."</p><p>"Is not this a sacred duty for every Christian?" he asks. "Let not the makers of errors and unhealthy theories mislead you... currents which pretend that, since redemption belongs to the order of supernatural grace and is therefore the exclusive work of God, it does not need our cooperation on earth. Oh wretched ignorance of the work of God! "<i>Dicentes enim se esse, sapientes, stulti facti sunt</i>." (Rom 1:22).</p><p><b>Cardijn: A human act of creation and redemption</b></p><p>Even though there is clearly a gradual development in the way Leo XIII, Pius XI and Pius XII viewed work, none of them attempted to propose a more complete or holistic view.</p><p>Here, Cardijn's uplifting and positive view of work and the worker reaches a new level that is not present in earlier Catholic social teaching on work.</p><p>Work, for Cardijn, is no longer a curse or even simply a right or duty, but it is the defining human act:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>The first truth that is the source and the principle of all the others is: work is the necessary and primordial act of the human person. No work without workers.</p></blockquote><p>Certainly it is the means for providing for the concrete needs of the worker and his or her family: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>It is by this necessary and primordial act that the human person provides and must provide for the needs of his person and of his family; needs that are increasingly developed and elevated, that human work itself develops in its production and its extension.</p></blockquote><p>But work also exists FOR the personal development of ALL workers and their families, Cardijn continues: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>One cannot deform the link between work and the worker; the worker does not exist for work, but work for the worker, for himself, for his family, for his development and his elevation, and this not for a minority but for the whole of humanity.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>This truth is at the base not only of the person, of the family taken individually, but of the person as a social person, but of the national and international community.</p></blockquote><p>Indeed, work also has a spiritual dimension, which makes the human person a collaborator of God both in the work of CREATION and REDEMPTION, Cardijn argues: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>It is in this sense that we say that the worker by and in his work is the necessary and irreplaceable collaborator of God in the execution of his plan of love in the work of Creation; and after original and actual sin in the work of Redemption.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>The worker, conscious of the meaning and of the purpose of work collaborates with the redeemer in restoring the divine order in the world of work and in the world quite simply; the worker by his collaboration participates in the earthly and eternal glorification of God Creator and Redeemer.</p></blockquote><p>This is indeed a profound and elevated conception of the importance of human work for the worker as a human person that is light years away from Pope Leo's perception.</p><p><b>Pope John XXIII</b></p><p>How then does Pope John address the nature of work in his encyclical, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_15051961_mater.html" target="_blank">Mater et Magistra</a>? To what extent does it echo Cardijn's own thought?</p><p>Citing Leo XIII, Pope John begins in §18 by noting that work is to be regarded "not merely as a commodity" but - like Cardijn - "as a specifically human activity."</p><p>"In the majority of cases a man's work is his sole means of livelihood," he recognises, hence its remuneration could not be made to "depend on the state of the market" but "must be determined by the laws of justice and equity."</p><p>Drawing on Pius XI, he highlights the pontiff's affirmation in <i>Quadragesimo Anno</i> that "if the social and individual character of work be overlooked, it can be neither justly valued nor equitably recompensed." </p><p>But Pope John also goes further.</p><p>In §106, he observes that "people are aiming at proficiency in their trade or profession rather than the acquisition of private property." This is as it should be, he says, since work "is the immediate expression of a human personality" and must therefore "always be rated higher than the possession of external goods which of their very nature are merely instrumental." (§107)</p><p>"This view of work is certainly an indication of an advance that has been made in our civilisation," Pope John notes.</p><p>No doubt influenced by his experience as the son of a rural sharecropper, he has a similarly lofty view of the importance of farm work.</p><p>"Those who live on the land can hardly fail to appreciate the nobility of the work they are called upon to do;" he notes in §144. "They are living in close harmony with Nature—the majestic temple of Creation. Their work has to do with the life of plants and animals, a life that is inexhaustible in its expression, inflexible in its laws, rich in allusions to God the Creator and Provider. They produce food for the support of human life, and the raw materials of industry in ever richer supply."</p><p>What's more "theirs is a work which carries with it a dignity all its own," he continues (§145).</p><p>"It brings into its service many branches of engineering, chemistry and biology, and is itself a cause of the continued practical development of these sciences in view of the repercussions of scientific and technical progress on the business of farming. It is a work which demands a capacity for orientation and adaptation, patient waiting, a sense of responsibility, and a spirit of perseverance and enterprise."</p><p>And he summarises all this in his concluding paragraphs, linking it to the humanisation and Christianisation of modern civilisation:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">256. That a man should develop and perfect himself through his daily work—which in most cases is of a temporal character—is perfectly in keeping with the plan of divine Providence. The Church today is faced with an immense task: to humanise and to Christianise this modern civilization of ours. The continued development of this civilisation, indeed its very survival, demand and insist that the Church do her part in the world.</p></blockquote><p>Indeed, this is why Pope John insists that the Church needs and claims "the cooperation of her laity:"</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">In conducting their human affairs to the best of their ability, they must recognize that they are doing a service to humanity, in intimate union with God through Christ, and to God's greater glory. And St. Paul insisted: 'Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.' 'All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.'</p></blockquote><p>People - both clergy and laity - are thus "called to a share in His own divine life; and since they are united in mind and spirit with the divine Redeemer even when they are engaged in the affairs of the world, their work becomes a continuation of His work, penetrated with redemptive power," Pope John concludes in §259.</p><p>"Thus is man's work exalted and ennobled—so highly exalted that it leads to his own personal perfection of soul, and helps to extend to others the fruits of Redemption, all over the world.</p><p>"It becomes a means whereby the Christian way of life can leaven this civilisation in which we live and work—leaven it with the ferment of the Gospel," he concludes, echoing an expression - the leaven in the dough - that Cardijn had all but made his own over the previous quarter century.</p><p><b>Conclusion</b></p><p>It is clear, then, that there is much in common between Cardijn's vision of human work as cooperation in God's own work of creation and redemption and that expressed by Pope John in <i>Mater et Magistra</i>.</p><p>Unlike the see-judge-act, which was obviously due to Cardijn's advocacy and example, it's not so evident how much this shift in pontifical theology of work owed to Cardijn.</p><p>Moreover, other theologians had made significant contributions to the emerging theology of work, in particular, Cardijn's Dominican colleague and friend, Marie-Dominique Chenu, who had in 1955 published "Pour une théologie du travail."</p><p>In any event, there is little doubt that the explosive growth of Cardijn's JOC and its sister movements around the world, which had a presence in 90 countries by 1961, helped foster this theological reflection.</p><p>Plus, as we have seen, it was Cardijn himself who lit the spark that led to <i>Mater et Magistra</i> and opened the way to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html" target="_blank">Gaudium et Spes</a>.</p><p>Even so, it's equally clear that not even <i>Mater et Magistra</i> managed to articulate such a compelling theology of work as that proposed by Cardijn in his paper for John XXIII.</p><p>Stefan Gigacz</p><p>PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES</p><div>1. Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/05/cardijn-work-and-worker.html" target="_blank">Cardijn, work and the worker</a> (Cardijn Research)</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Stefan Gigacz, <a href="https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2021/05/mater-et-magistra-endorses-see-judge-act.html" target="_blank">Mater et Magistra endorses the See Judge Act</a> (Cardijn Research)</div><div><br /></div><div>REFERENCES</div><div><br /></div><div>Joseph Cardijn, <a href="https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/65">The Church and the World of Labour</a> (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)<br /><div><br /></div><div>MD Chenu, Pour une théologie du travail, Seuil, Paris, 1955.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com