Formation Archives - Cardijn @ Vatican II

April 10, 1961April 13, 2021

The need for apostolic formation

By April 1961, the reflections and contributions of other members of the PCLA as well as other relevant organisations were coming in.

Attentive as always, Cardijn responded carefully to the issues raised, as Note 7 on “Religious formation and support for Catholic Action leaders” illustrates.

“The COPECIAL notes rightly emphasise the necessity of a very profound religious, apostolic, supernatural formation for all leaders who are engaged at local, regional, national or international level; and also on the necessity of sufficient aid to guarantee their perseverance,” citing approvingly a paper submitted by the Permanent Committee for International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate, a semi-official body created following the first World Congress on Lay Apostolate in 1951.

“The notes also signal the importance of belonging to Secular Institutes,” Cardijn continued, before turning to his more substantive comments in which he appears to be more critical of the positions of the COPECIAL.

“It is necessary first to insist on the duty and the possibility of the Catholic Action movements to give this formation and to ensure this aid,” Cardijn argued, emphasising the role of the movements in providing such formation.

“These movements would not be movements of Catholic Action if they neglected or under-valued the profound religious formation of their members, a fortiori of their (men and women) leaders, whether the latter are volunteers or fulltimers at whichever level of the movement,” he added.

Secondly, it was “important to note that ‘extension workers’ are not the only international fulltime leaders,” he noted, referring to those movement workers and volunteers who left to promote and develop their movements in other countries and continents.

“The members of the International Executive Committees, Bureaux and Secretariats are the first to bear fulltime apostolic responsibilities,” highlighting the importance of their roles.

The leaven in the dough

Thirdly, this formation needed to be provided at every level:

“This formation which goes progressively from the base to the summit, is the only one which guarantees contact with life and needs of the mass and places the leaven in the dough, and not beside or above it.”

It must therefore “be one of the principal preoccupations of the Catholic Action movements, their leaders and chaplains, to continually seek to improve, to renew and to adapt this formation,” he continued.

Fourthly, he insisted on the importance of the role of lay leaders, particularly warning against the usurpation of those role by lay leaders who belonged to secular institutes whose role necessarily had to remain discreet.

“In general, the leaders do not know if a member, militant or leader of a movement belongs to a Secular Institute,” he said. “They must not know. They are not obliged to reveal their belonging to an Institute, either to leaders, or chaplains.

“If it is done, it more as a gesture of personal confidence with respect to a chaplain or a leader, or for practical reasons; however it is not because they are obliged juuridically or morally. Those who receive this information personally are bound by secret. They cannot use this belonging to a Secular Institute to confide a charge or a function in a Catholic Action movement.”

Rather, it was “the movement alone which decides the choices of its leaders and the influence that they exercise.”

“The assistance of the Secular Institute belongs on another level; it can never replace that of a Catholic Action movement and must always and everywhere be as discreet as possible,” he said.

The role of members of secular institutes was more in the nature of a counsellor, he concluded.

“The problems of counsellors belonging to Secular Institutes, as to Religious Congregations is different from that of (men and women) leaders,” he said.

SOURCES

Original French

Joseph Cardijn, Note 7 – Formation religieuse et soutien des dirigeants d’Action catholique (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

English translation

Joseph Cardijn, Note 7 – Religious formation and support for Catholic Action leaders (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

December 15, 1960December 15, 2020

Two initial realities: Church and life

In his third note (Note 3) dated 15 December 1960, Cardijn offers his “Reflections and Suggestions” in response to the proposed plan of work of the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate as outlined by its secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux, during the first plenary meeting of the commission in November.

A theoretical framework

Framed very abstractly, the program read as follows:

1. Notions and definition of the lay apostolate

2. Forms and methods

3. Formation for the lay apostolate

4. Submission to the hierarchy

5. Priests and laity

6. Catholic Action

7. Relationship between the various forms of the lay apostolate

8. Charitable action

9. Drafting of texts to be presented to the Central Commission.

Many comments could be made about this framework, beginning with the fact that it appears to assume the objectives of the lay apostolate are clear and well understood.

Notable also is the fact that the issue of “submission to the hierarchy” features prior to discussion of the roles of priests and laity, a completely top down conception of the Church to say the least.

Strangely, while “Charitable action” and “Social action” are listed, there no mention of “Evangelisation”, which was the subject to be studied by the first sub-commission to which Cardijn had been appointed.

Two initial realities: Church and life

Despite the politeness of his response, it is evident immediately that Cardijn is not happy with this framework. He therefore suggested:

“In order to clarify the concept and definition of the apostolate of the laity, we can began with two initial realities :

“1. The Church, its mission, its composition: the Hierarchy and its collaborators consecrated by means of a sacrament or a vow (priests and religious), their own mission; all the other faithful, members of the People of God who are the Church and who may be called laity in the ecclesial sense – hence the apostolate of the laity in the Church.

“2. The life, the needs of all people, created by God and who have a mission and a vocation received from God : a mission, vocation and apostolate that they fulfill in their own life, with all other people and in all human institutions, to use the whole of creation for their divine destiny. The apostolate of the laity in the ecclesial sense is necessary with respect to all other people and in all human institutions in order to enable people to discover and realise the mission of humankind and the world.”

As usual, Cardijn thus refuses to focus on the Church on its own or by itself. Instead, he seeks to confront the twin “realities” of

a) the Church and its mission with

b) the life and mission of the people “created by God” and the world they live in.

The contrast with the approach proposed by the PCLA could barely be greater.

Apostolic formation based on the see-judge-act

Cardijn further develops these ideas in his comments on the subsequent paragraphs of the draft plan.

The forms and methods of lay apostolate must be “appropriate to the life, milieux as well as to the problems and institutions of life, they will give birth to the specialised lay apostolate, which by its effectiveness and competence acquires a power of penetration and representation not only within a limited local field but also at national and international levels,” he argues.

Formation “is essentially apostolic,” he continues. “There can be no deep religious formation without formation for the apostolate. Humankind has received a divine mission from God; It is by recognising it and fulfilling it that it truly gives glory to God, collaborating in the establishment of his Kingdom, “on earth as in heaven.” Prayer, sacraments, liturgy, worship and interior life cannot be separated from apostolic life, just as the latter cannot be separated from the sources and expressions of religion.”

The jocist method educates the individual to see, judge and act “as a person, and as a Christian and apostle,” he insists.

“Could the Council insist on the urgency of integrating the apostolic formation of the laity at the heart of all religious formation, especially during the age of vocation (14 to 25 years)?” Cardijn proposes.

Regarding “submission to the hierarchy,” he recognises the primacy of the clergy in doctrinal and sacramental matters but insists on limiting this in other areas.

“Temporal, professional, social and cultural matters, submission to the Hierarchy will be expressed by virtue of and to the extent of the competency of the latter,” he argues.

“This submission must never be or appear to be a form of tutelage, an impediment to the initiative and responsibility of the laity,” Cardijn warns. “On the contrary, it must be and must ppear to be a guarantee of authenticity, an encouragement and support for all initiatives, all efforts and often all the sacrifices that are necessary for the extension of the Reign of God and for the salvation of people.”

Collaboration across the board

Concerning the relations between priests and laity, he emphasises the need to determine “the proper role and the complementary link between the priestly apostolate and the lay apostolate in the mission of the Church, both for the formation of the laity in their apostolate as well as in the permanent collaboration between priests and laity in the exercise of this apostolate.”

He calls for clarification of the notion of Catholic Action and insists on the need to find ways for Catholics to cooperate “with all the various non-Catholic and non-Christian lay organisations and institutions, whether private or public, governmental or non-governmental, local, national and international.”

He insists on the need for collaboration between the various forms of lay apostolate as well as emphasing the importance of both charitable and social action.

A declaration by the Council

Finally, in relation to the drafting of conciliar documents, Cardijn proposes “a kind of solemn declaration by the Council insisting on the current importance of the apostolate of the laity, its growing necessity before the current problems of the world to which the Church must and desires to provide a response.”

“This declaration would also be addressed to non-Catholics and non-Christians, recalling the divine mission of the whole of creation and the whole of humanity, expressing how much the Church desires to collaborate with all people and all human institutions against the terrible scourges that threaten the world and in favour of the complete progress of the human race,” he explains.

“This union of all people in a common effort to overcome obstacles to human freedom and to promote genuine progress responds closely to the desire of the Creator and the Redeemer,” Cardijn explains.

“The Church desires to be the leaven of this union in peace for the respect, raising up and happiness of all,” he concludes, offering his vision of a Church acting from within society rather than from on high.

“The Church’s call to the faithful, members of the Church is also addressed to all people who are all created by the same God and saved by the same Christ in order that together they may be united at this decisive hour for the peace of the world and the salvation of the human race,” he notes in a final appeal for the Council to look beyond the confines of the Church itself.

SOURCES

French Original

Joseph Cardijn, Réflexions et suggestions (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

English translation

Joseph Cardijn, Reflections and suggestions (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

February 1, 1960November 6, 2020

The Social Doctrine of the Church

In February 1960 as part of his preparation for his forthcoming to Rome to visit Vatican officials and Pope John XXIII, Cardijn drafted a short paper, “Les prêtres et la doctrine sociale de l’Eglise” or “Priests and the social doctrine of the Church.”

He began by lamenting the lack of understanding of Church teaching that he had observed during his recent trip to the Americas.

“People everywhere complained about the fact that priests do not know the Church’s Social Doctrine and therefore do not spread it; that in practice they feel powerless in the face of social injustice, which seems to them to be the sole responsibility of temporal institutions.

“In general, they never speak, either from the pulpit or in parish meetings, about lay apostles, or the major problems of Latin America and the world, e.g. undernourishment, slums, lack of hygiene and social security, insufficient wages and unemployment, illiteracy.

“Rare are those who exalt the dignity of human work, of workers, worker families and their most basic rights,” Cardijn wrote.

As a result, priests failed “to think of training and organising young people or adults to seek together how to deal with the needs of their reality, their country or the world.

“Yet the Church’s Social Doctrine is nothing other than Christ’s doctrine regarding God’s plan in time as in eternity, on earth as in heaven,” Cardijn insisted.

“This mission entrusted by God to man, whom he created in his own image and likeness, makes him the irreplaceable collaborator of God, both in the work of creation and the work of redemption. Hence, the doctrine of Christ and the Church on the value of work, the dignity of the worker and his family, on the respect due to the poorest and most humble in a society animated by the Christian spirit. Is this not the only positive response to either communist or capitalist materialism?”

“If God has entrusted the implementation of His earthly plan to man, it is up to the Church to make it known to Christians and through them to humanity.

“Quomodo audient sine praedicante?” The faithful and parishioners will never be imbued with the Church’s Social Doctrine and be proud to spread it, convinced of their social mission, if the priest and the clergy in general do not evangelise them in a concrete and practical way.

“Moreover, the Church’s Social Doctrine is inseparable from its spiritual doctrine. This would be an evasion, and charity would become an artificial, fake, arbitrary kind of generosity, if it did not include justice as the basis of all human relations, including personal, family, social, economic, cultural, political, national and international.

“An individualistic conception of religion oriented only towards worship or towards a vague or simply alms-giving kind of charity is one of the greatest dangers facing the Church today,” he warned.

Instead, “Catholics must be the pioneers of a social apostolate capable of dealing with current problems.”

“The social and economic, technical and scientific transformations – which are taking place in Latin America as elsewhere – make the Church’s Social Doctrine even more urgent than ever,” Cardijn argued.

“The mass of humanity is abandoned to exploitation by the absence of a social doctrine which ensures respect for the weakest in all aspects of its earthly life, and its participation in the whole progress of civilisation,” he lamented.

Hence, the clergy needed to deal with “problems of underdevelopment.”

“Only positive formation, information and participation in international movements of apostolic action will be able to provide members of the parish or diocesan community with the means not only of forming their own consciences but of collaborating effectively in the solution of these issues problems,” he added.

“Man is a social person with a right to all the training and assistance necessary for this participation. If the masses are not encouraged to organise, this guarantees social disorder which is also the cause of temporal evils, and which moreover, is an offence to the Creator and the Redeemer.

“The formation of the disciples of Christ, from whatever social rank, includes this authentic lay apostolate, which will become increasingly urgent and must reach the whole of humanity,” Cardijn argued.

The more we proclaim it, the more this spirit of service will penetrate minds and institutions. And the more we invite the faithful to seek the means to incarnate and realise this spirit, the more the Church will raise up the militants and the apostles that the new world needs in order to be truly animated by the spirit of Christ. Secularism can only be overcome by the laity. And the laity can only be awakened and formed by the clergy.

As a result, priests also needed a social formation beginning with their seminary training. “Far from remaining theoretical, it needs to become increasingly practical, so that after leaving the seminary the priest will have not just learned doctrine but been initiated into action and organisation so as to to be able to become himself the formator, the animator and the trainer of the laity, including young people and adults.

“Seminarians, especially those in their final year, must not remain strangers to and distant from the movements of the lay and social apostolate. Pastoral courses need to include this initiation and learning, which supposes that the teachers themselves have been initiated into it,” he insisted.

And this needed to continue with priests already in ministry.

“A common front of the Church in the social field is as necessary as in the field of worship. Then the Church will display, at its head as in its members, the true face of Christ everywhere, and the whole world will have, and will be able to proclaim that it really carries out the mission of its founder: ‘Evangelizare pauperibus misit une’,” he concluded.

SOURCE

Les prêtres et la doctrine sociale de l’Eglise (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

English translation

Priests and the social doctrine of the Church (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)