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Cardijn’s role at the Council

In an undated checklist probably written around 29 October when he was organising his trip to Rome, Cardijn lists the topics he wished to raise with Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo dell’Acqua.

Checklist

  • Presence in Rome during the Council
  • Support for YCW Missionary Action:

1. by the Council

2. by Propaganda Fide

3. by certain foundations

Publication of “The Apostolate of the Laity in the dimension of the world”.

Clearly, Cardijn was seeking some clarity on the role he could or should play during the Council, given the fact that he had not been made a peritus.

Again, he frames his visit in terms of looking for assistance for YCW rather than lobbying or advocating at the Council.

Interestingly and significantly, he is more specific in the mention of his book on “the apostolate of the laity,” an issue he had avoided mentioning in his communication with Suenens.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1300

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An IYCW office in Rome during the Council?

On 29 October 1962, Cardijn wrote to his bishop, Cardinal Suenens, to inform him of his plan to visit Rome from 18-21 November, i.e. during the First Session of the Council.

In a file note signaling possible topics of discussion with Suenens, Cardijn mentions

1. An office for the International YCW in Rome for the duration of the Council

2. Publication of the book on the laity (?)

The book referred to is of course Cardijn’s long awaited book.

In his letter, Cardijn diplomatically avoids all mention of the Council itself, explaining his objectively as simply “to contact some Council Fathers who wish to speak to me about the international YCW.”

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1300

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Will we reach people speaking Latin?

During the debate on liturgy, French Bishop Alfred Ancel spoke in favour of the use of the vernacular.

May the Council Fathers who are not involved in ministry remember that a great number of Christians only rarely over the course of their lives enter a church. Is it by speaking Latin that we will be able to reach them?

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

PHOTO

Alfred Ancel / Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon

Creative Commons – Paternité. Pas d’utilisation commerciale. Pas de modification.

Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon / P0901 FIGRPTP0044 01

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Publish the book before the 2nd Session: Palémon Glorieux

On 28 October 1962, theologian Palémon Glorieux, who was now assisting Liénart as his conciliar adviser, responded to Cardijn’s invitation to read the manuscript of his book, recommending its publication “without the slightest hesitation,” and calling for it to appear “before the Second Session of the Council.”

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 8, Suenens vs Cardijn, Lay people in the frontlines (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Jesus Christ and the Church of the Poor group launched

On 26 October 1962, a group of bishops and priest met together at the Belgian College with the objective of ensuring that the Council addressed the problems of the poor.

They chose as the subject of their meeting “Jesus Christ and the Church of the Poor,” taken from the title of a book about to be published by Paul Gauthier, a French worker priest working with Arabic communities in Galilee, Israel.

Convoked by Himmer and Bishop George Hakim of Galilee, the meeting took place under the presidency of Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon, France, a JOC supporter from the time of its foundation in France in 1926.

Other participants with strong connections to the Specialised Catholic Action movements included Georges Béjot (JOC), Guy Riobé (JOC/JAC), both French, and the Brazilian Antonio Fragoso (JOC) while Helder Camara and Alfred Ancel excused themselves as did Patriarch Maximos IV.

The objective was to consider how to develop the theme of poverty within the Council. The working group that emerged thus adopted the title of Gauthier’s book (French title: Jésus, les pauvres et l’Eglise; English title: Christ, the Church and the Poor) becoming known as the Jesus, the Church and the Poor or the Church of the Poor group.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Council adopts Message to the World

At its Third General Congregation on 20 October 1962, the Council Fathers adopted a Message to the World, as originally suggested earlier by MD Chenu.

Chenu’s draft text, which he had discussed with his confrere, Yves Congar, was viewed by conciliar bishops as based too much on ‘natural morality.’

“[T]his was normal terrain for dialogue with non-believers, but it had no chance of being accepted by a Council,” according to Archbishop Emile Guerry.

“The draft made no mention of the Saviour. It therefore had to be discarded.”

The draft text was reworked by Cardinal Liénart, Guerry, Archbishop Garrone of Toulouse and Lyon Auxiliary Bishop Alfred Ancel, all jocist bishops.

Chenu was not satisfied, criticising its “division between nature and grace.”

The final version was “drenched in holy water,” he felt.

Congar agreed that the text was “more dogmatic” than Chenu’s draft and felt it suffered from shades of paternalism.

At this stage of the Council, though, the priority was to find a text acceptable to the Fathers. Thus, Council Secretary-General Archbishop Pericle Felici presented the revised message “as a proposal of the Council of Presidents approved by the Pope.”

This is an unofficial translation of the original Latin text:

We wish to convey to all men and to all nations the message of salvation, love and peace which Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, brought to the world and entrusted to the Church.

In fact, it is for this reason that we, the successors of the apostles, all united in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, forming one single apostolic body whose head is the successor of Peter, are gathered here at the invitation of His Holiness Pope John XXIII.

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we intend in this meeting to seek the most effective ways of renewing ourselves and of becoming increasingly more faithful witnesses of the Gospel of Christ.

We will strive to propose to the men of our times the truth of God in its entirety and purity so that they may understand it and accept it freely.

Conscious of our duties as pastors, we wish deeply to meet the demands of those who seek God “and perhaps grope after him and find him though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17: 27).

Faithful, therefore, to the mandate of Christ, who offered Himself a holocaust “in order that he might present to himself the Church in all her glory … but that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27) we shall devote ourselves with all our energies, with all our thoughts toward renewing ourselves and the faithful entrusted to us, that the image of Jesus Christ, which shines in our hearts “to give enlightenment concerning the knowledge of the glory of God” (II Cor. 4:6) may appear to all people.

We believe that the Father loved the world so much He gave His Son to save it; and that He freed us from the slavery of sin through this same Son, “that he should reconcile to himself all things, whether on the earth or in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20) that we might be called and truly be His sons.

Moreover, we receive the Holy Spirit from the Father that, living the life of God, we may love God and our brothers, with whom we are united in Christ.

We, therefore, the followers of Christ, are not estranged from earthly concerns and toils. Indeed, the faith, hope and charity of Christ urges us to serve our brothers in imitation of the example of the Divine Master who “has not come to be served, but to serve” (Matt. 20:28).

Neither was the Church born, therefore, to dominate but to serve. “… He laid down His life for us; and we likewise ought to lay down our life for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

While we hope that the Faith may shine more clearly and brightly from the work of the council, we also expect a spiritual renewal which may provide a happy impetus for human welfare; that is, the findings of science, the progress of the arts and of technology, and a greater diffusion of culture.

United here from every nation under heaven, we carry in our hearts the anxieties of all peoples entrusted to us, the anxieties of body and soul, sorrows and desires, and hopes. We turn our mind constantly toward all the anxieties afflicting men today.

Our concern is directed especially to the more humble, the more poor, the weaker, and, in keeping with the example of Christ, we feel compassion for the throngs who suffer hunger, misery and ignorance.

We are constantly attentive to those who, deprived of the necessary assistance, have not yet reached a standard of living worthy of man.

For this reason, in performing our earthly mission, we take into great account all that pertains to the dignity of man and all that contributes toward the real brotherhood of nations. “For the love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor. 5:14); in fact, “He who has the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17).

Here are two great problems facing us:

In his broadcast message of Sept. 11, 1962, His Holiness Pope John XXIII stressed two points especially. First of all, he recommended everything that favors peace among peoples.

There is no man who does not detest war and who does not ardently desire peace. This is the greatest wish of the Church who is the mother of all. Through the voice of the Roman Pontiffs, she has never ceased to proclaim not only her love for peace, but also her resolve for peace, always ready to give herself wholeheartedly and effectively to every sincere proposal.

She tends, furthermore, with all her strength, to unite all peoples and to create among them a mutual esteem of sentiments and of works.

Is not this conciliar assembly — admirable for its diversity of races, nations and tongues — a testimony of a community bound by fraternal love which it bears as a visible sign?

We proclaim that all men are brothers, irrespective of the race or nation to which they belong.

Secondly, the Pope urges all to social justice. The doctrine outlined in the encyclical letter, “Mater et Magistra” (Mother and Teacher), clearly shows how the Church is needed by the world today to denounce injustices and shameful inequalities and to restore the true order of goods and things so that, according to the principles of the Gospel, the life of man may become more human.

We have neither the riches nor the powers of the earth, but we place our faith in the strength of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus Christ to His Church.

Therefore, we humbly and ardently invite all to collaborate with us to establish in the world a more ordered way of living and greater brotherhood. We invite all, not only our brothers of whom we are the pastors, but all our brothers who believe in Christ and all men of good will whom “God … wishes … to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:4).

In fact, it is the divine will that the kingdom of God through the means of charity, shine even now, in a certain sense, upon earth, almost in anticipation of the eternal kingdom.

It is our ardent desire that the light of the great hope in Jesus Christ our only Savior may shine, in this world which is still so far from the desired peace because of the threats engendered by scientific progress itself — marvelous progress — but  not always intent upon the supreme law of morality.

Despite its limits, the message “played the very important role,” historian Andrea Riccardi noted, “of accentuating the Church’s expression of sympathy for the world” while several ecclesiological themes it raised “would become supremely important during the Council.”

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

Text of Council’s Message to World (Vatican II @ 50)

PHOTO

Catholic Press Photo / Wikipedia

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Election results announced

On 20 October 1962, the results of the elections for the conciliar commissions were announced.

In addition to the 160 elected bishops, John XXIII added nine appointed members bringing the total number in each commission to twenty-five.

Although there was no Jocist ‘ticket,’ the results revealed a significant representation of movement-linked bishops in nearly every Commission.

This was particularly so in the all-important Doctrinal Commission on Faith and Morals (Doctrinal Commission) and in the Lay Apostolate Commission (LAC), which now had the clumsy, formal title of Commission on the Apostolate of the Faithful, Press and Public Spectacles [sic], each of which each included at least eight such bishops.

Doctrinal Commission

Elected

Gabriel-Marie Garrone, longstanding proponent of the JOC
Joseph Schröffer, who participated in the IYCW Rome pilgrimage in 1957
Alfredo Scherer, a JOC supporter from Brazil
Paul Emile Léger, a Canadian proponent of the SCA movements
André-Marie Charue, who had links with the Belgian JOC back to 1924
Marcos McGrath CSC, Holy Cross father and JOC patron in Panama
Maurice Roy, pioneer JOC chaplain, cousin of Quebec JOC founder, Henri Roy

Appointed

Bishop Georges Pelletier, Canadian bishop closely linked to the SCA movements

Lay Apostolate Commission

Elected members

Manuel Larrain, pioneer of Specialised Catholic Action in Chile
Franz Hengsbach, bishop of Essen, seat of the German JOC/CAJ
Jacques Ménager, bishop responsible for Catholic Action movements in France
John E. Petit, an English bishop close to the YCW
Joseph Blomjous, of Dutch origin, supporter of the SCA movements in Tanzania
Paul Yu Pin, JOC pioneer in China before coming to Formosa (Taiwan)
Gerardus De Vet, director of (Specialised) Catholic Action, Breda, Netherlands

Appointed

René Stourm, an early JOC chaplain in France

This gave the Jocist bishops close to a third of the numbers in each of these commissions, with the former responsible for the future Lumen Gentium, and both responsible for the eventual Gaudium et Spes.

Other members of the LAC also supported the JOC and Specialised Catholic Action to varying extents, including Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, the Salesian archbishop of Santiago, who admired Cardijn, Emilio Guano, a former International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS-Pax Romana) chaplain from Italy, as well as Castellano and Luigi Civardi
from Italian Catholic Action.

The Doctrinal Commission also included Vienna Cardinal Franz König, who had known Cardijn for decades particularly through the Pax Romana network.

A notable absentee in the LAC, however, was Cardijn’s Belgian ally, Charles-Marie Himmer, whose nomination had been opposed by Suenens, who confirmed this in a 16 October 1962 letter to Veronica O’Brien of the Legion of Mary:In any event, the 65 Belgian missionary bishops are behind me – which is not the case for the seven here (i.e. the seven diocesan bishops)… I felt this in De Smedt’s manoeuvres which aimed to place Himmer on the list of candidates for the Catholic Action Commission (i.e. Lay Apostolate Commission). I told him privately that I did not agree with the idea but he publicly returned to the charge for him to be included on our list.

Indeed, Suenens was ‘very isolated among the Belgian bishops on account of his ideas of the lay apostolate,’ as Congar noted, although he remained undeterred in his campaign against the alleged ‘monopolisation’ of Catholic Action.

Other Commissions

Promisingly, every other commission also included a Jocist presence.

Bishops and Government of Dioceses

Emile Guerry, another French JOC pioneer
Pierre Veuillot, previously in the Holy See, connected to France’s Mission ouvrière

Discipline and Sacraments

Alexandre Renard, Liénart protégé, involved in the Ecole Missionaire du Travail in Lille

Discipline of the Clergy and the Christian People

Guillaume Van Zuylen, bishop of Liège, Belgium
Agnelo Rossi, JUC/JIC chaplain from Brazil
François Marty, JOC/JAC chaplain in France
Thomas Cooray omi, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Religious

Gerard Huyghe, bishop of Arras, another Liénart protégé and promoter of SCA
Jean Janssens SJ, the Jesuit Superior General and close friend of Cardijn

Missions

Guy Riobé, bishop of Orleans, JAC chaplain and promoter of JOC and ACO
Jean Zoa, bishop of Yaoundé, Cameroon, former JOC chaplain
Cardinal Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, a Cardijn disciple since the 1930s

Liturgy

Henri Jenny, Sillon sympathiser from Lille, and auxiliary bishop to Guerry at Cambrai
Joseph Malula, JOC chaplain from Congo Kinshasa
Enrique Rau, former national chaplain of JOC Argentina
Bernardo Fey Schneider, former national chaplain of JOC Bolivia
Seminaries, Studies and Catholic Education
Ramon Bogarin, JOC founder in Paraguay
Denis Hurley omi, Cardijn disciple from South Africa
Emile Blanchet, participated in 1950 JOC Internationale congress, Brussels
Justin Simonds, Melbourne co-adjutor and long-time JOC supporter

Christian Unity

Christian Unity
Emile-Joseph De Smedt, former JOCF chaplain and close to Cardijn

, former JOCF chaplain and close to Cardijn

Oriental Churches

Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Cardijn asks Palémon Glorieux to comment on his manuscript

On 17 October 1962, Cardijn wrote to French theologian, Palémon Glorieux, who was accompanying Cardinal Liénart at the Council as his personal advisor, asking him to comment on the manuscript of his book.

Brussels, 17 October, 1962

Reverend Monsignor P. Glorieux,
Procurator of S. Sulpizio,
113, via Quattro Fontane,
Roma, Italy

Dear Monsignor,

Would you mind if I bother you? I tried to reach you at Lille; and Monsieur Dewitte gave me your address in Rome, encouraging me to contact you.

For three or four years, I have been asked to compile several articles that I have published on the apostolate of the laity and Catholic Action since 1935. Alas! my travels around the world never allowed me to complete the tasking of compilation and “aggiornamento”. Now we are about to celebrate my 80th birthday; the Council is about to speak, and the publishers insist that I no longer postpone the matter.

I had a search made for the articles which seemed to me the most characteristic. Mademoiselle Fiévez has linked them by a thin historical thread and the text, which is being mimeographed at the moment, and will be finished next Monday.

This is only a draft publication. Would you have the time and the courage to read it and could you give me your opinion confidentially? Can we publish it? Are there not serious omissions, too flagrant theological errors? Will it not seem like “figs after Easter”?

Before risking its publication, I would like to obtain the opinion of a very sincere and very sure friend. This opinion will decide on its immediate publication or its postponement till later in a more careful and better researched publication. Dear Monsignor, if you could promise to give me your personal opinion after reading the mimeographed text, by the first half of November, I will send you this text on Monday.

Please excuse my impertinence, and accept, dear Monsignor, with my prayers for the work with which you are so closely associated at this moment in Rome, my most affectionate thanks and the assurance of all my attachment.

Jos. Cardijn,
Chaplain general of the YCW

90, rue des Palais,
Brussels 3

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1777

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Liturgy the first topic of discussion

On 15 October 1962, the Council of Presidents decided that the first topic of discussion at the Council would be the schema on the liturgy, De sacra liturgia.

This was thought likely to be among the least controversial subjects as well as being the best schema of the seven that were distributed prior to the Council.

Cardinals Liénart and Frings along with Tisserant, Ruffini and Alfrink voted in favour of this.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

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Cardinal Liénart upends the Council agenda

The first business session, or First General Congregation of the Council, took place on Saturday 13 October.

The opening item was the election of sixteen Council Fathers to each of the ten conciliar commissions.

Before Cardinal Tisserant, the session president, could begin, however, Cardinal Achille Liénart of Lille rose to make a statement that would upend the Council’s work.

Like many others, Liénart was unhappy with most draft schemas. As he later recalled, the objective, as defined by John XXIII, was not ‘to formulate new doctrinal definitions, but rather to present, in a form better adapted to modern minds, all the truths already established… that [the Church] had the mission of transmitting to every generation.’

This meant, Liénart believed, that the gathered bishops had to develop ‘une pensée commune’ – ‘a common way of thinking’ – as a basis for ‘the total revision of their pastoral attitudes and to engage the Church in the new way where its permanent mission called it today?’

Consequently, the choice of the ‘the most qualified’ commission members was of the greatest importance. But how to identify them if they did not know each other, he asked:

Abruptly, I leaned towards the Cardinal president to tell him in a low voice: ‘Eminence, it is truly impossible to vote like this… If you allow me, I am going to take the microphone.’ ‘I cannot give it to you,’ he replied… So, I said to him, ‘Excuse me but I am going to speak…’.


I rose… to request that a reasonable time be given so we could better inform ourselves of the best election candidates…. Cardinal Frings, archbishop of Cologne, who was sitting beside me at the presidency table, also rose to offer his support and the applause doubled.

This forced the hand of the presidency breaching the stranglehold that the Roman Curia had exercised over the Council. Although Liénart denied that his intervention was ‘a coup planned ahead,’ other bishops had approached him, and even provided him with draft texts for his intervention, including his compatriots Cardinal Joseph-Charles Lefebvre, Garrone and Ancel. Camara apparently also wanted a postponement, while others such as the South African Denis Hurley ‘knew what was brewing.’

SOURCES

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)

Daybook, Sessions 1-2, 24: https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/council-daybook-vol-1-opening-general-congregation/

Achille Liénart, “Vatican II” in Mélanges de Science Religieuse, 33, Numéro Supplémentaire (1963): 63.

PHOTO

Le cardinal Liénart (à droite) avec Mgr Dubois pendant le concile Vatican II / Roman Catholic Diocese of Besançon / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0

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John XXIII opens Council

On 11 October 1962 in the presence of 2540 bishops from around the world, Pope John XXIII officially opened the First Session of Vatican II.

In his speech, he emphasised that the Council’s primary purpose was not to discuss “the themes of ecclesiastical doctrine” but to examine, deepen and expound it “according to what is required by our times.”

“We must not only guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity,” the pope warned, “but, without fear, we must continue in the work that our age demands, following the path that the Church has traveled for almost twenty centuries.”

“Great importance should be attached to this method and, if necessary, applied with patience; that is, one must adopt that form of exposition which most corresponds to the magisterium, whose nature is predominantly pastoral,” stated.

SOURCE

John XXIII, Solemn Opening of the Second Vatican Council, Speech of the Holy Father (Vatican.va)

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Opening General Congregation
October 11, 1962

Pope John XXIII set the tone for the Second Vatican Council by declaring at its solemn opening that it would be a council of hope and a preparation for Christian unity.

Pope John declared that the Church “considers it her duty to work actively” toward the realization of Christ’s prayer for Christian unity.

He also stressed that the prophets of disaster are not to be heeded and that the ecumenical council will concentrate on emphasizing the validity of the Church’s teaching rather than concern itself with condemning heresies.

The Pope proclaimed his fearless hope that the council “will bring the Church up-to-date where required.” He assured the cardinals and bishops gathered around him near the tomb of St. Peter that the council will compel “men, families and peoples everywhere to turn their minds toward heavenly things.”

He confessed that he has frequently been bothered by prophets of doom, who with misplaced zeal have tried to convince him that the modern world is lost in a “morass of prevarication and ruin.”

These prophets, the Pope noted, say that our era in comparison with past ages is constantly growing worse. Such men have learned nothing from history, Pope John said, for they seem to believe that “in the past, particularly at the time of former councils, everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and way of life and for proper religious liberty.”

In actual fact, the Pope said, these prophets of disaster are wrong. Divine Providence is guiding the Church today, he continued, “toward a new order in human relations wherein — by men’s own efforts and even beyond their greatest expectations — the superior and inscrutable designs of God’s will are being fulfilled.”

The Pope said that he sees even in the constant differences among men advantages that lead to the greater good of the Church.

Pope John expressed his gladness that the ecumenical council can meet in an atmosphere of freedom from the political pressures exerted on past councils.

Even though the majority of mankind today is locked in controversy over the direction in which political and economic order should be pursued, he said, and although vast numbers have no time or regard for spiritual reality, “the new conditions of modern life have at least this advantage: They have eliminated those innumerable obstacles by which at one time the sons of this world impeded the free action of the Church.”

The Pope noted with sorrow the absence of many bishops restrained by godless governments. But he said that he foresees that the Church, untrammeled by political considerations, will “from this Vatican basilica, as if from a second apostolic cenacle, now through the intervention of her bishops, raise her voice anew with resonant majesty and greatness.”

The principal concern of the new council is to discover methods whereby the deposit of Christian doctrine will be both safeguarded and taught more effectively, he continued. It will teach men how to fulfill their duties as citizens both of heaven and earth, he said.

Commenting on Christ’s words, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice,” the Pope cautioned that the second part of this quotation – “and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6, 33) — must constantly be kept in mind. This means, he said, that those who seek evangelical perfection with all their might must not fail to make themselves useful to society.

While the doctrine of the Church is to influence human activities in all fields, it is necessary that the Church should never depart from the sacred patrimony of truth received from the Fathers, he said, adding:

“At the same time, however, she must ever look to the present, to new conditions and new forms of life introduced into the modern world which have opened new, avenues to the Catholic apostolate.”

The 2lst ecumenical council, drawing on the wealth of the Church’s juridical, liturgical, apostolic and administrative experience, will transmit to the world without distortion the doctrines of the Church, he said.

But the key point of the council, the Pope declared, is not the discussion of one article or another the fundamental doctrine of the Church. He noted that what as been taught by the Fathers and theologians is presumed to be familiar to all.

Rather, he said, what the world expects is “a step forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciences, in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought.” The Church desires that the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith should now be conveyed in an effective “pastoral” manner, he declared.

Referring to the question of the condemnation of heresies, Pope John said: “While the Church has always repressed errors and frequently in the past condemned them with great severity, today the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.

“She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching, rather than by condemnation.”

In fact, he said, the fallacious opinions and dangerous concepts that must always be guarded against are so evidently in contrast with the truth, that “by now it would seem that men of themselves are inclined to condemn them, particularly those ways of life which despise God and His law or place excessive confidence in technical progress and a well-being based exclusively on the comforts of life.”

Noting the presence of many important personalities from all over the world, the Pope assured them of a new hope which, seconding the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would certainly make the council “a revolutionary event not merely for the well-being of the Church but for the progress of human society.”

Msgr. James I. Tucek
NC Rome bureau chief

SOURCE

Pope Opens Council, Says Prophets of Doom Should Be Ignored (Vatican II @ 50)

PHOTO

Lothar Wolleh / Public domain/Wikimedia

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A letter of concern to Pope John

On 8 October 1962 – three days before the official opening of the First Session of the Council – the members of the IYCW International Secretariat wrote to Pope John expressing their hopes and commitments for the Council.

Their main concern however was to ensure recognition of the apostolate of the laity as understand by the YCW movement and promoted by Cardijn:

We also thought of expressing a hope that exists throughout the whole Church by requesting Your Holiness that the Second Vatican Council specify the mission of the apostolate of the laity and of the organised laity in the Church, and provide orientations regarding its insertion into the overall pastoral care of the Church. As a movement of young workers, we would like to humbly request official recognition of the need for the proper, personal and community apostolate of the workers and young workers themselves, and an insistence on the apostolic formation which needs be given to this population group. 

In light of Cardijn’s difficulties in the Prep Com on Lay Apostolate, the ongoing criticism from Cardinal Suenens and the fact that Cardijn had not been appointed as a peritus, it is clear that the IYCW leaders were highly concerned at the direction the Council might take,

Read the full letter below.

To His Holiness Pope John XXIII.

Most Holy Father,

On the occasion of the annual meeting of its Executive Committee, which took place in Berlin in September 1962, the International YCW wishes to express to Your Holiness, on the eve of the opening of the Ecumenical Council of Vatican II, how much it participates in the faith and hope which animate Catholics throughout the world before this event of providential value for the life of the Church both at present and for the future. She especially wishes to thank Your Holiness for having convened this Council, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and for having deployed, with a view to its preparation, an immense activity in which so many personalities so rich in thought and experience were associated.

In the name of the entire international YCW, we wish to inform Your Holiness how much we pledge,, to unite ourselves with the Council in prayer and apostolic action among the young workers of the whole world.

Henceforth, we promise Your Holiness and the whole Hierarchy of the Church that, with the grace of Christ, we will neglect no effort to put into practice the orientations that the Council will provide, in the same attitude of fidelity and with the same enthusiasm, with which we have endeavoured to spread knowledge and worked on the application of the providential encyclical “Mater et Magistra.”

Your Holiness knows how, in more than 90 countries of the world, young men and women workers within the YCW and the Church are striving to respond to their vocation as apostles of Christ and the Church in the whole of their lives, in all their circles, among their working brothers and sisters. It is the YCW’s intention to constantly multiply among the humble and the little ones of this world the number of those who commit themselves to live Christianly and apostolically, to unite them in an organised laity and to collaborate with the Hierarchy for the Christian solution of the problems of life and the Christianisation of all young workers of the whole world.

It is in this spirit that we would like to express to Your Holiness some good wishes, which we humbly ask Him to submit to the Ecumenical Council.

The surveys that the YCW has carried out in all the countries where it exists regularly underline how much living conditions, both in rich and industrialised countries and in developing countries, influence the religious and moral life of young workers. Could we express the desire that in the pastoral care and liturgy of the Church, an effort be made to be very close to the realities of the life of young workers so that they can more easily find an answer to their spiritual hunger in the Church?

We also thought of expressing a hope that exists throughout the whole Church by requesting Your Holiness that the Second Vatican Council specify the mission of the apostolate of the laity and of the organised laity in the Church, and provide orientations regarding its insertion into the overall pastoral care of the Church. As a movement of young workers, we would like to humbly request official recognition of the need for the proper, personal and community apostolate of the workers and young workers themselves, and an insistence on the apostolic formation which needs be given to this population group. 

To concretise this participative effort of young workers in the Council through prayer, the International YCW has launched an appeal to all the national movements, requesting that they ask YCW members and young workers to offer up to the Lord all their work every Friday for the duration of the Council. This offering of work with its joys and sorrows, or sometimes the offering up of a “lack of work,” is a prayer that the young workers will make in union with the prayers of the whole Church for the success of the Council.

Your Holiness, please accept with all Your goodness as the common Father of men, the feeling of total adherence as well as the desires and the promises which we wish to express in the name of the young workers of the world.

Renewing the expression of our total fidelity to Your Holiness, we humbly request You to give Your paternal blessing to the whole movement throughout the world.

Bartolo Perez, President.

Jos. Cardijn, Chaplain General.

Brussels, October 8, 1962.

Betty Villa, Vice President.

Brussels, 8 October, 1962.

Source

JOCI Archives 6.3

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Council of Presidents

To carry out the immense task of organising and coordinating the work of 2500 bishops and 500-odd theologians, Pope John appointed a 10-member Council of Presidents to coordinate the work of the General Congregations.

The Council of Presidents

Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, a Frenchman, who had been a Sillon sympathiser, and was Vatican Librarian and Archivist

Cardinal Achille Liénart, Lille, France

Patriarch Ignace Gabriel I/Cardinal Théophile Tappouni, Patriarch of Antioch and Bishop of Beirut

Cardinal Norman Gilroy, Sydney, Australia

Cardinal Francis Spellman, New York, USA

Cardinal Josef Frings, Cologne, West Germany

Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini, Palermo, Italy

Cardinal Antonio Caggiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cardinal Bernard Alfrink, Utrecht, Netherlands

Cardinal Albert Meyer, Chicago, USA

Cardinal Stefan Wyszinski, Gniezno and Warsaw, Poland

Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Genoa, Italy

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute) (Australian Cardijn Institute)


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Offering up joys and sorrows for the Council

At the beginning of October 1962, the IYCW International Secretariat wrote to all national movements requesting them to follow closely the progress of the Council in particular by offering up their “joys and sorrows” for its success.

International Secretariat of the YCW

78, Boulevard Poincaré, Brussels 7

B.01/38

To national YCWs, members, trial members and associated organisations

To extension workers

Dear friends,

October 1962

The celebration of the Second Vatican Council constitutes an extraordinary event in the life of the Church and of the world in this century..

During the preparatory period for the Council, several national YCW (F), as well as the International YCW put forward their suggestions and requests, particularly to the Commission on Lay Apostolate in which our dear Mgr Cardijn took part as a consultant.

The YCW, a Movement of the Church among young workers, must live this great event intensely and make it known to all young workers around the world.

To this end, we recommend that all national YCW (F) establish a plan of action for the days of the Council, taking as a basis of orientation the following points:

1. Request YCW members and young workers to offer up to the Lord their work each Friday with its joys and sorrows each week for the duration of the Council; for some, this will mean offering up their “lack of work”.

2. Follow the progress of the Council and effectively inform young workers.

3. Each diocesan or national JOC (F) should send to the respective bishops a message expressing their adhesion and presenting its prayers for the success of the Council.

4. Depending on the initiatives and the situation of each country, other activities may contribute to living out the Council more intensely.

Sending you our cordial greetings, we remain united in Christ and His Church for the salvation of the young workers of the whole world.

(original text in Spanish)

The International YCW Executive Committee.

SOURCE

JOCI Archives 6.3

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The lay apostolate

In another undated and probably uncirculated document from around the time of the opening of the First Session of Vatican II, Cardijn again summarised his conception of the lay apostolate.

Emitti spiritum tuum

Et renovabis facium terrae.

THE LAY APOSTOLATE.

  1. I believe that it is necessary to give greater emphasis to, to insist more on the absolute necessity of the apostolate of the laity and for a profound and complete conception of the necessary, essential, proper, irreplaceable apostolate of the laity.
  2. Yes, individual, personal apostolate, but leading to an organised apostolate encompassing life, the whole of lay life – personal, proper, autonomous – with each one having a mission, a vocation proper to them that is necessary for the realisation of the plan of love of God in the order of creation and redemption.
  3. But also and necessarily organised on the scale of the modern world, including all aspects of modern life – education, family, work, profession, culture, production – locally, regionally, nationally, internationally.
  4. In movements, organisations, institutions which allow and ensure formation, education, action, responsibility of the interested parties, of the agents who must discover, seek, realise the problems and their solutions.
  5. By collaboration, solidarity, association, both between individuals and between institutions; both between private initiative and with public authorities.

It is the very conception of the Church, of the Mission of the Church, that needs to be renewed, the whole Church, priesthood and laity, hierarchy and mystical body.

The lay apostolate cannot appear as a faculty, a possibility, an accessory, but as indispensable : without the lay apostolate the Church is powerless to fulfill its mission of transforming the world into a Christian world : renovare faciem terrae, omnia instaurare in Christo.

Hence the necessary collaboration of the clergy, their support, their vigilance in the necessary formation, action and apostolic organisation of the laity everywhere and always.

This conviction must shine through in all relations of the clergy with the laity, children, young people, adults, in all aspects of religious education in the family, in the parish and in movements.

Personally, I believe that this conception of the lay apostolate cannot be sufficiently and effectively expressed in general Catholic Action, but that it absolutely requires specialised Catholic Action. Not expressing it clearly enough seems to me not only a setback in pastoral care, but an impossibility of responding to the problem of the present world and in particular of the world of work which will become more and more decisive for the future of the whole world.

With regards to this, could we not employ an even more dynamic, more enthusiastic, more colloquial tone in the schema on the apostolate of the laity, insisting above all on the decisive importance of the vital problems posed by the modern lay world, always more technical, more intrusive, ever more influential in all essential aspects of social life; family, work, leisure, culture in an increasingly united, inseparable and diverse world.

This insistence could perhaps be made via interventions from the authorised spokespersons of the lay apostolate movements in the various continents for the various milieux in the General Assemblies of the Council.

This insistence on the need for the Apostolate of the Laity could also appear in the spirit, the composition, the suggestions, the implementations of the World Secretariat of the Apostolate of the Laity at the Vatican.

Spirit : apostolic and missionary, an irresistible atomic center; open, representative, realistic, not a priori; not theoretical, but speaking loudly as a spokesperson for the world movements; dialoguing with all, seeking with all, listening to all; in which the varioius sections are not ????, but collaborate closely for the goal as a doctrinal section:

theology of the laity

“ work

“ family

“ culture

“ leisure

sections: backgrounds

continents

suggestions: methodology

missionary

technicians

sessions, internships, exchanges

achievements – international, continental,

regional, national, local

WSAL would be both a mirror, an echo, Cenacle, a driving force: through its information, its documentation, its assignments, its calls for collaboration.

The guarantee for such apostolic program would be based on the composition of the permanent team of the secretariat which should include genuine representatives of the various milieux, continents, aspects.

This permanent team would form working teams with the leaders of the various movements and various aspects:

international movements of mediums

“ of doctrine

“ of publicity

“ of art

Suggestions and realisations.

Suggestions and realisations would be valued on their content and would never be imposed by the Hierarchy.

The Preparation Committee for the secretariat would propose to the Holy Father the candidatures presented by the movements. The duration of all the functions as of all the mandates will be temporary.

SOURCE

Original French

Joseph Cardijn, L’apostolat des laïcs (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Joseph Cardijn, The lay apostolate (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)