These are the very concrete reflections on the life that Cardijn sent to Mgr Emiliano Guano regarding Proposals 50 and 51 from the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate.
REFLECTIONS ON PROPOSALS 50 AND 51
De actione sociali familiali – De apostolatu a familia exercendo
The two texts need to be compared so that they complement each other and meet current needs:
1. Many young people are prevented from founding a Christian home because of unemployment, lack of family housing, and thus live in an irregular marital life: it is the same for many newlyweds who, for lack of work or family home encounter insurmountable or almost insurmountable difficulties in having a truly Christian married life. The more privileged Christian families have a duty to promote testimonies of community mutual aid and the social institutions indispensable to a truly human and Christian social-family order.
2. Heads of families – husbands and parents – who hire domestic workers (maids) for their families, have a grave obligation – especially in the case of minors – to take the necessary measures to safeguard their health, their moral welfare and their future and to monitor the conditions that could compromise them: comfortable and safe bedroom, organised work and salary. In some continents, statistics show that prostitutes are ex-servants, who have been poorly housed, badly treated and abandoned. Young domestic workers need protection and above all training appropriate to their profession and their life: protection and training which should be provided through belonging to the JOCF (Girls YCW), either one of its branches or services (1).
(1) This second proposition could be included in the chapter on women (De actione sociali in specie – Pr. 54)
SOURCE
FRENCH ORIG
Joseph Cardijn, Refléxions à propos des Propositions 50 et 51 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Joseph Cardijn, Reflections on Proposals 50 and 51 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)