Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate Archives

October 8, 1962May 27, 2023

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

October 1, 1962May 26, 2023

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

September 24, 1962May 26, 2023

Cardijn not a peritus

On 24 September 1962, the first list of 201 Council periti was published.

Surprisingly, Cardijn was included on that list.

What had happened?

Stefan Gigacz writes:

After his prodigious efforts in the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate and the success of Mater et Magistra, he now found himself excluded from the Council’s work.

Was it an oversight, a deliberate decision, or simply the fact that Cardijn, who had never claimed to be a theologian, was about to turn eighty? Who made the decision? Was it the Council secretariat, the Central Preparatory Commission or even Pope John? Was Suenens involved?
Whatever the reason, it was a huge disappointment that emerged as the JOCI Executive Committee was about to meet in Berlin, a venue strategically chosen to make an impression on the German bishops.

Source

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn

Graphic

Sharon Kabel

July 5, 1962September 12, 2022

Draft constitution ‘well received’

On 5 July 1962, the Preparatory Commission for Lay Apostolate wrote to its members to inform them that the draft “Constitutionis Apostolatu Laicorum” had been “well received.”

We are pleased to inform you that the files of the Constitution on the Apostolate of the Laity, prepared with your skilful collaboration, proposed to the Central Commission for discussion in the last Session, were very well received.
Certain improvements of minor importance were indeed required, which are now being reduced, with the help of the Members who live in Rome.
Taking the opportunity again and again, we send our greatest greetings to you and we predict a very happy outcome in your apostolate.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1584

June 19, 1962May 31, 2023

Schema on Lay Apostolate finalised

At its meeting on 18-19 June 1962, the Central Preparatory Commission finalised its review of the Schema on Lay Apostolate.

Criticisms included “unclear” principles, an “overly negative concept of the laity,” “insufficient stress on the dependence of the (lay) apostolate on the hierarchy,” as well as the schema’s “concept of priesthood” and the “unsuitability” of mentioning charisms of the laity.

The most significant proposed change, perhaps in a nod to Suenens’ views, was for the term “the apostolate of the laity” to become the “genus proximum” for all lay apostolic organisations, while Catholic Action, as well as other religious, charitable and social organisations, would be regarded as the various “species of the apostolatus officialis laicorum.”

Naturally, this did not please Cardijn, who continued to fight for recognition of a “specifically lay apostolate for lay people,” writes Stefan Gigacz.

Even so, the most critical comments from within the CPC came, unsurprisingly, from the now-Cardinal Suenens, who expressed “regret that the schema had not adopted a renewed understanding of Catholic Action.”

According to Ferdinand Klostermann, however, Suenens’ suggestions were “unambiguously rejected” by the PCLA, which held firm.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 6, Church, world and lay apostolate (Australian Cardijn Institute)

May 21, 1962September 12, 2022

Draft Constitution on the Apostolate of the Laity circulated

On 21 May 196, the Prep Com Secretariat wrote to inform its members and consultants that the draft Constitution on the Apostolate of the Laity had been sent to the Central Commission for discussion in June.

The Secretariat further apologised for not having circulated the draft in advance to its members and consultants

It summarised the work of the Commission and its sub-commissions as follows:

“The Roman group of the First Subcommission held sessions on 27 February and 1, 5 and 7 March.

Next, each Subcommission held a special session, from 12-17 March, to prepare drafts that they could then be compared with each other in a common session.

“This session, in which two or three of the delegates from each Commission met, took place in the house whose name is “Domus Mariae,” for a whole day, morning and evening, from the 21 to 26 March,” the Secretariat explained.

It continued:

The first Sub-Commission had three additional sessions on the 27, 29 and 3 March.
Finally, from the 2-8 April, a Plenary Session was held in which the text of the “Constitution of the Apostolate of the Laity” was proposed to the Members for voting.
The Secretariat then prepared the copies which were handed over to the Central Commission for printing on 14 April.

Finally, the Secretariat congratulated Mgr Aemilio Guano on his appointment as a bishop.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1584

REFERENCE

Bishop Emiliano Guano (Catholic Hierarchy)

April 15, 1962May 31, 2023

Draft Constitutio de Apostolatu Laicorum completed

The final draft of the Constitutio de Apostolatu Laicorum or “Constitution on the lay apostolate” was completed in April 1962, less than eighteen months after the first full Commission meeting.

Later it would be regarded as one of the best of the pre-conciliar schemas, but Cardijn was not happy. As Mgr Achille Glorieux recognised: “it was Msgr Cardijn who insisted that we determined the specific role of lay people in accomplishing the mission of the Church.”

Several texts “attempted to define it, but in vain,” he noted, verifying Cardijn’s major critique.

The truth was that, from Cardijn’s perspective, the whole enterprise was compromised from the outset by the structuring of the three Sub-Commissions, which led to a very clerical, inward-looking schema, notes Stefan Gigacz.

Summary of the Schema Constitution de Apostolatu Laicorum

a) General Introduction

b) Part I: General Notions, divided into ten chapters including ‘Relations of the laity with the Hierarchy,’ ‘Lay people serving the Church in special positions’ and ‘The family as a subject of the apostolate,’ titles which clearly illuminated the thinking that still dominated the Commission.

c) Part II: The apostolate of the laity in the service of the direct promotion of the reign of Christ, drafted by the Sub-Commission in which Cardijn had participated, was divided into two ‘Titles’ dealing with ‘The forms of organised apostolate’ with a generally, strong ‘ecclesial’ focus and ‘The different forms and domains,’ including chapters on ‘The apostolate of the word’ and ‘The apostolate of the family.’ Nevertheless, some Jocist influence was evident in references to ‘the apostolate of youth,’ ‘the apostolate in one’s own professional and social milieu.’

d) Part III: The apostolate of the laity in charitable works presented in 36 articles ‘the nature and field of charitable works’ without neglecting to include a chapter on ‘justice and charitable works.’

e) Part IV: The apostolate of the laity in social action was divided into two ‘Titles’ opening with chapters on ‘lay action to direct and perfect the natural order’ alongside the inevitable chapter on ‘relations of the laity with the hierarchy.’ A chapter on ‘formation of the laity’ no
doubt pleased Cardijn while Title II added chapters on contemporary issues concerning the family, education, women at work and in society, economic and social life, science and art, civic life, state affairs and the international order.

Even though, according to Glorieux, the Commission had formally abandoned the distinction between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ forms of apostolate, it persisted in the structure of the document. Similarly, although Glorieux credited Cardijn’s insistence on the specifically lay apostolate as having inspired the schema’s ‘descriptive’ approach to the characterisation of the lay role, this too remained trapped within the structure of a ‘works’-dominated conception of lay action.

New wine but old wineskins

Despite its flaws, the draft Constitution was not a total loss, Stefan Gigacz observes.
The ‘General Introduction,’ for example, immediately began to characterise the Church as ‘the People of God,’ ‘a holy people’ and ‘royal priesthood’; only in second instance did it deal with ‘the Sacred Hierarchy’ (§2). There was a ‘greater awareness of the fact that the laity are the Church’ (§3). Moreover, the fields that ‘await the apostolate of the laity’ had been ‘immensely extended by scientific and technical progress’ and the Church’s mission here was ‘increasingly urgent.’
Paragraph 37 extolled the ‘Christian dignity of work’ and encouraged workers to ‘daily take Christ with them into their factories, fields, workshops and offices’ in words closely reflecting the traditional JOC prayer. Thus, ‘economic and social structures’ needed to be established to ‘ensure that the modes and forms of labour are compatible with the dignity of the sons of God,’ another passage echoing Cardijn’s concerns.
Similarly, §41 called for the faithful ‘to take an active part in public life,’ adding in §42 that laity ‘cooperate in the formation of a world community’ and penetrate it ‘with the healthful leaven of the Gospel.’

This in turn implied the need for Christian formation (§44) (based on the see-judge-act) in which:
[l]ay people should be made aware of the circumstances of the environment in which they are living and working, that they should learn to bring a Christian judgement to bear on these circumstances and to adopt in them a worthy behaviour.
Glorieux, too, recognised the significance of this section drafted by Cardijn’s Sub-Commission, which contained ‘very clear affirmations with respect to the duty of the apostolate.’ It exhorted lay people not to be ‘solely concerned with their own salvation’ but to ‘understand the duty of the apostolate.’ Moreover, it linked these perspectives to ‘the whole question of formation.’
From the beginning the PCLA also sought to clarify the meaning of the word ‘lay,’ Glorieux wrote. Seeking to go beyond a ‘wholly negative definition,’ it looked at the dignity of the baptised person within the people of God, the rights and duties of each person in the Church, the work of edification of the Mystical Body of Christ, in the ordinary conditions of family and social life.’
Thus, it edged towards clarifying ‘the role that pertains more specifically to lay people in the one apostolic mission of the Church,’ Glorieux noted.95 In the development of these points – baptismal basis of mission, formation, dignity of the person, people of God, specific role of lay people – Cardijn certainly played a key role.
Regarding the hot potato issue of Catholic Action, §53 listed four ‘marks’ by which it could be identified, which, as Glorieux noted with a sense of satisfaction, survived to be included largely unchanged in the final conciliar decree.
Perhaps the best section of the draft Constitution, however, was Part IV on social action, drafted under the leadership of Hengsbach and Pavan. This acknowledged that lay people have ‘a greater role in building up, for Christ’s glory, the temporal order (§84),’ even referring to this as ‘a specific task of lay people.’ Here again it referred to the need for formation ‘through action.’ Much of the content of Part IV would later be included in the future Gaudium et Spes.
In all, there were many excellent elements in the draft Constitution. Perhaps the real problem lay in the fact that, constrained by its terms of reference, the Commission struggled to contain new wine in old wineskins.

SOURCE

Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 6, Church, world and lay apostolate (Australian Cardijn Institute)

March 21, 1962September 12, 2022

Final meeting at Domus Mariae

Delegates from each of three subcommissions met at Domus Mariae in Rome from 21-26 March to finalise the draft Constitutionis Apostolatu Laicorum – Constitution on Lay Apostolate.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1584

March 15, 1962April 30, 2022

Thanks but no thanks

On 15 March 1962, Mgr Glorieux wrote to Cardijn acknowledging receipt of Cardijn’s notes containing his reflections on the latest draft documents from the Prep Com.

Although Glorieux thanks Cardijn, his answer cannot have given much encouragement to the founder of the JOC.

HE Cardinal Cento immediately passed me your latest letter, requesting me to thank you for it. I myself received the same documents in the following mail delivery, and I want to express our gratitude to you without delay.
We are in the process of revising the texts, first each SC separately, with two Members from each SC working together next week. Your suggestions were already mentioned while we were gathering comments; they take on even more force in your recent Note. As there will be very few of us to carry out the work, it is not necessary to send us other documents (which would moreover risk arriving too late). – Thank you also for the detailed remarks on the various documents
On behalf of His Eminence and the small Secretariat group, I also take this opportunity to send you our fervent and cordial good wishes for the feast of Saint Joseph. We will pray for you.
Be assured, dear Monseigneur, of my respectful attachment in Xo.

SOURCE

Original French

Achille Glorieux – Joseph Cardijn 15 03 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

English Translation

Achille Glorieux – Joseph Cardijn 15 03 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

March 8, 1962April 11, 2022

Detailed remarks

Along with his Note 15 on the Materially and Formally Lay Apostolate of Lay People, Cardijn prepared two additional notes (13 and 14) offering his particular and general remarks on the three draft documents prepared by the PCLA on lay apostolate, social action and charitable action.

Lay apostolate

With respect to the draft document on lay apostolate, as always he insisted on the need to emphasise the specifically lay vocation of lay people.

“Isn’t there a way to begin with what is proper to lay people: ‘negotia mundi christiane gerendo, ordinem temporalem Christo lucrifacere et in Deum ordinare…’,” he asked.

He lamented that “the lack of an apostolic sense and apostolic spirit” among lay people was “certainly the consequence of lack in religious formation.”

But he added that this was because “priests and religious responsible for this religious formation do not believe in the apostolic mission of lay people in the Church.”

” Isn’t it necessary to make an appeal” to these priests and religious, he asked. “Isn’t it necessary to insist on the unity of life under every aspect? It is the separation between temporal life and religious life that is the greatest evil of our time.”

He called for “parents to involve their sons and daughters in joining apostolic movements appropriate to their age and situation, most of on leaving school and starting work?”

Cardijn also insisted on the importance of ecumenical collaboration in this context.

“Should nothing be said about collaboration and coordination with non-Catholics and non-Christians, for certain moral, social, cultural, economic, etc.,” he asked.

Social action

Here Cardijn’s concern was on prevention rather than palliating social problems.

“In a true economic and social order should we not prevent evils, rather than organising insurance that covers certain consequences of these evils? For example, regarding unemployment, shouldn’t everything be done to prevent or eliminate it, rather than guaranteeing a subsidy, even if it is adequate, for the unemployed?

“It is the same thing for all these evils, including accidents, illnesses, robots, etc.”

As always, he insisted on the need for a focus on young people, particularly young working people.

“Above all, there is the problem of young people, including their preparation for working life, their recruitment for businesses, apprenticeship, security, etc.,” he wrote. “Lack of jobs, lack of interest and stability are among the greatest scourges affecting young people in certain countries and continents.”

He was particularly critical of the draft chapter on global issues.

“This chapter seems too weak to me,” Cardijn wrote:

“I would prefer a solemn and pressing appeal to all Christians and to people – and above all to the ruling authorities – for a deep search based on loyal understanding and effective collaboration, with a view to ending
– underdevelopment in all its forms;
– the increasingly disastrous arms race, which increases mistrust between peoples;
– public immorality, bargaining and espionage between nations and inhuman situations within nations.
AN IMPRESSIVE DECLARATION affirming that the Church is ready for unanimous participation in the efforts necessary to bring about justice, charity and peace among all people, of all races and every opinion, would provide a witness for the whole world.”

Charitable action

Here Cardijn was concerned with what he felt was a limited understanding of charitable action.

“I note that the definition includes all acts and all works inspired by charity, whether they are individual or collective acts or works, of national or international scope, relating to the social or cultural order, assistance or exchange, public or private initiative.

“It seems to me that this document confuses acts of charity performed by Christians (acts performed by virtue of the love of God and neighbour) and the action of assistance which needs to respond, at the individual and collective level, to the needs of our most disadvantaged brothers and sisters, in the temporal, social, moral, etc. fields. The purpose of this document is to deal with this assistance action in its various forms and in the various fields,” he warned.

Instead, he proposed the following emphases:

1. Acts and works of assistance, mutual aid, etc. should be animated by supernatural charity. We create them or we suggest them, we make them act or we participate in them, through supernatural charity; and it is this supernatural charity that the lay apostle diffuses there, even when the people or authorities who create or manage these institutions are animated by a spirit of philanthropy or merely human social assistance.
2. There are acts and works of a charitable nature which respond to personal, particular or hidden needs, and Christians need to be educated to seek them out and devote themselves to them. But in the modern world, it is necessary that all Christians understand the collective needs that affect large sectors of humanity and endanger its future: material, physical, social and cultural needs economic, technical and scientific needs… It is also necessary for Christians be the first to seek an answer to these problems through effective and unanimous mutual aid. Thus hunger, disease, the inadequacy of technical and scientific equipment are not scourges which relate uniquely to charitable activity, but rather activities of human solidarity and collaboration. For Christians, these activities will be prompted and animated by supernatural charity.

Nevertheless, Cardijn equally emphasised the importance of the Christian obligation to charitable action, which he said “should be genuinely proposed as the fundamental sign of a Christian: the love of God, which manifests itself in and through love and assistance given to the other.”

But while insisting on respect and protection of the freedom to take social and charitable action, he also emphasised “the need for a loyal and objective collaboration of Christians in the socialisation of this order. “

“We should recommend to Christians not to distance themselves from institutions, works and organisations, whether private and public, national and international, created or directed by unbelievers, on a non-confessional or multi-confessional basis,” he emphasised.

And in this field, it was even more necessary than elsewhere for formation “to become formative action” which also needed to be “apostolic at the same time.”

Catholic Action

Unsurprisingly, Cardijn was particularly preoccupied with the draft chapter on Catholic Action. Here he called for a total revision, particularly in relation to:

The apostolate of organised lay people.
The apostolate proper to organised lay people..
The responsibility of lay leaders of Catholic Action with respect to method, action and organisation.
The links and relationship with the hierarchy.
Specialisation and coordination.
Young people and adults.

Young people

Finally, he called for attention to young people from various milieux and for attention to the method of their education.

“This document should address the following issues,” he said:

1. Notion of apostolate by young people.
2. Its necessity and importance.
3. Specialisation and coordination.
4. Young workers.
5. Young rural people.
6. Young students
7. The fundamental method of educating young people.

SOURCE

Original French

Joseph Cardijn, Note 13 – Remarques particulières (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

English translation

Joseph Cardijn, Note 13 – Detailed remarks (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

March 8, 1962April 5, 2022

The formally and materially lay apostolate of lay people

On 8 March 1962, Cardijn finalises a new note (Note 15) for the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate entitled “The formally and materially lay apostolate of lay people.”

He borrows this distinction between “formally and materially lay apostolate” from another unnamed member of the PCLA.

“This distinction is not of my making,” he explains. “It comes from one of the most eminent members of our Commission.

“If, despite my previous interventions and notes, I am returning to this point, it is because I believe that, at this hour which is so decisive for the Church and the world, our Commission would be failing in its mission if it did not highlight the ‘formally secular’ lay apostolate of lay people.

“Without this, the materially apostolate of lay people will not only be inadequate but it may also be harmful to lay people themselves as well as to the Church as a whole,” he warns.

He explains further:

Purpose and necessity
1. The material apostolate of lay people is that which all the faithful are called to exercise (priests, religious and lay people); it is the apostolate of prayer, suffering, liturgy, catechesis, charity, etc.
2. The formally lay apostolate of lay people is the apostolate proper to them. No one will be able to exercise it in their place and the world will not be evangelised in all its dimension if they fail to take it on themselves; it is irreplaceable. It is essential to the Church and complementary to the apostolate of the priesthood.
3. The formally lay apostolate of lay people is increasingly important for the future of humanity. Because it is their apostolate embedded and lived out in their secular life (family, social, cultural, political), in the milieux of their lives, and in the problems and structures of temporal life (technical, scientific, economic, etc.) As Pius XII said,
“the Church today more than ever needs young workers (lay people) to valiantly build, in joy and in difficulty, in successes and trials, the world as God wants it, a fraternal society in which the suffering of the most humble will be shared and alleviated. May your apostolate therefore be exercised in a perspective of universality and always, as appropriate, in filial submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy; may it find there the source of its effectiveness and of its fidelity to the intentions of Christ.”
And he continued:
“This is in order for lay people to become Catholics in the full sense of the term, that is to say… members of the Christian community, fulfilling a task of their own that is indispensable to the community, its life and balance.1
4. The necessity and importance of this formally lay apostolate, as well as formation for this apostolate of their own cannot be emphasised and insisted on enough. The experience developed over the past 50 years, the results of which can be seen, proves the value and effectiveness of this apostolate.
Those priests who, with perseverance and humility, have loyally tried it out, are unanimous in saying that becoming aware of and remaining faithful to this apostolate develops an unparalleled dynamism, conviction, fervour, and spirit of sacrifice in the religious life of lay people; it gives them a sense of pride in their Christianity and a desire to commit themselves which gives rise to the greatest efforts and hopes.
Finally, in my opinion, the formally lay apostolate of lay people remains the only positive response to materialism, liberalism and secularism, the separation of religion from real life, and from the problems most deeply felt and experienced by lay people.
Lay people themselves are deeply aware of the need for this apostolate and there is an increasing number who desire to commit themselves to this even at the cost of great sacrifices. They are also aware of the need for formation training and support inherent in this mission which is unique to them and they are concerned that they usually fail to get any response to this from the clergy responsible.
The documents
This is why I would like the documents on this subject to be revised. Instead of a formulation which seems to minimise the mission of lay people in the Church and which is merely negative – “neither priests nor religious”… “ordinary, common members” (1.0.3, p.4, paragraph 3) – on the contrary, words should be used that value the active presence and task of lay people in the Church.
For example, we could say: “Lay people are those members of the Church who are called to build the world of tomorrow as God wishes it and as Christ merited it; who, by their very lives, need to transform the world with the spirit of Christ; and who are invited to become witnesses and collaborators of Christ in this world through their life and their action.”
All this is said in the document, but scattered in various places and as if in passing, in the midst of many other considerations on “the material apostolate of lay people.” I would like this to be strongly emphasised, to have an impact both on lay people as well as all those – priests, men and women religious – who are responsible for educating lay people for their proper and irreplaceable apostolate.
Requests
1. It is here that I would like a request to be made that a Dicastery be appointed for the implementation of this apostolic conception of the mission of lay people in the Church, at all levels and in all “formally lay” aspects, i.e. family, professional, political and social, etc. This body should also be responsible for encouraging the formation for lay people, which is essential for this apostolate, both in method and organisation.
The conception and functioning of this institution needs be studied with the greatest care in order to always safeguard and develop – both in formation and apostolic action – the dynamism that ceaselessly begins from the grassroots of the Church and rises to the top under the irresistible inspiration and impulse of the Holy Spirit, who enabled Christ to say: “I thank you, Father, because you have revealed these marvels to the little and the humble, while you hide them to the wise and the skilful…” (Lk. 10, 21).
2. Finally, I would like the Commission to respond to the expectations of many lay people involved in the apostolate of the Church and are requesting the Council to solemnly confirm the value that the Church recognises in their formally lay apostolate and its desire to see them become more and more involved in this apostolate.

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, Note 15 – The formally and materially lay apostolate of lay people (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Formal and material principles of theology (Wikipedia)

January 24, 1962January 29, 2022

Rome yet again

Cardijn travelled to Rome again for a meeting of the PCLA from 24-31 January 1962.

REFERENCE

1962 Meeting Program

January 15, 1962January 18, 2022

A proposed new chapter on lay apostolate

On 15 January 1962, Cardijn again wrote to Archbishop Garrone of Toulouse thanking him for his letter of 10 January and following up with further proposals.

“In an earlier note to His Eminence Cardinal Cento, I expressed the wish that the importance of the apostolate specific to the laity should be highlighted in the documents of the Commission with a special chapter, either before or after the chapter on the family apostolate,” Cardijn noted.

“I took the liberty of sending you a copy of that previous note.

“I have now attempted to draft the contents of this chapter in the note that I am now sending you – a copy is attached,” Cardijn continued, referring it seems to his Note 12 “The essential and irreplaceable apostolate of lay people.”

“I don’t know if such a chapter could find a place among the documents already proposed by the three Sub-Commissions.

“I am sending it to you, Excellency, in order to let you know how much the question haunts me. Please excuse me for daring to be so forthright.”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Joseph Cardijn – Gabriel-Marie Garrone 15 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Gabriel-Marie Garrone 15 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

January 11, 1962January 29, 2022

Copy to Mgr Glorieux

On 11 January 1962, Cardijn copied his letter to Cardinal Cento to Commission secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux.

“I am enclosing here with a copy of the letter and the note that I sent yesterday to H. Em. Cardinal Cento on “The essential, proper and irreplaceable apostolate of the Laity”.
“If you think it is not too late, I will bring copies of the note for all the members of the Commission. Just let me know the number.
“See you soon, dear Monsignor. I will stay at the same address, with the Sisters of the Retreat of the Sacred Heart, 2, Via Ulisse Seni.”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 11 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 11 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

January 10, 1962January 29, 2022

Another letter to Cento

Less than two weeks after his previous letter, Cardijn wrote again on 10 January 1962 to PCLA president, Cardinal Cento, to insist on the importance of the lay apostolate and enclosing his proposed chapter on the issue (Note 12).

“Please excuse me, Your Eminence, for bothering you again,” Cardijn began:

“In my previous letter of 28 December and the note that accompanied it, I expressed my fear that the proper and irreplaceable apostolate of the laity in the Church would be drowned in all the apostolate common to all the faithful and that not enough attention would be given to this aspect and its importance in the documents under preparation. I believe, moreover, that this fear is shared by a certain number of members of the Commission.
“Since then, I have tried to condense all the notions relating to this apostolate specific to the laity in a special chapter. Perhaps this short statement will not fit into the plan and the texts adopted by the Commission. Your Eminence will be the judge. Would you have any problem with the Secretariat of the Commission sending or providing this note to the other members?”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Joseph Cardijn – Fernando Cento 11 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Fernando Cento 11 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

January 10, 1962January 16, 2022

Garrone backs Cardijn

On 9 January 1962, French Archbishop Gabriel-Marie Garrone of Toulouse responded to Cardijn’s 29 December 1961 letter expressing his concerns over the draft documents of the Preparatory Commission.

“You were able to see how much I share your concerns during our last meeting,” Garrone began.

“I believe that everyone agreed on the effort to be made and the direction to go,” he continued, defending the members of the commission. “Actually, we are currently faced with the problem of implementation.”

Nevertheless, he said he agreed with Cardijn’s concerns.

“I think that all your remarks are justified, and I am also quite favourable to your conclusions, in particular on p.3, regarding social action: the opening statement concerning the apostolate of the laity obviously applies to the whole whole and this needs to be explicitly marked.

“This statement is expressed quite well theologically. However, it still needs to be given that impetus to make an impact, and also to show the application of these remarks to the whole field of work.

“In my opinion, it is here that what you are asking for at p. 4, paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 needs to be said,” he said.

More needed to be done, he agreed, however.

“I understand that Mgr GLORIEUX had sought to constitute a small team,” he noted.

“But in a somewhat private manner,” he added, in a clear indication of the delicate problems that existed in the Preparatory Commission.

“We could perhaps hope that there will be a more explicit investiture for the last phase of the work which will be final,” he concluded.

“See you soon, dear Monsignor. We must trust in Providence and speak with the total frankness that is required.”

SOURCES

FRENCH ORIGINAL

Gabriel-Marie Garrone – Joseph Cardijn 09 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Gabriel-Marie Garrone – Joseph Cardijn 09 01 1962 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

January 9, 1962January 3, 2022

The apostolate in temporal life

Having provided a theological explanation of the lay apostolate proper to lay people, Cardijn naturally wished to show what that meant in practice.

This he explained in an annex to his Note 12. Naturally enough, he drew on the example of the JOC.

“The experience of the last 25 years, which, through Catholic Action formation, has oriented a great number of lay people in their specific apostolate in life, in institutions and temporal milieux, shows that this presence and action in the temporal sphere is closely linked to the christianisation and evangelisation of milieux of which the majority are not reached by the Church,” he wrote. “The religious apostolate is inserted in apostolic action at the heart of secular life.”

“The experience of the YCW is realised in this fashion and has been encouraged by the recent Sovereign Pontiffs,” he noted.

The human level

The first level of this apostolate is the human level, Cardijn said:

In general the concrete apostolate starts on the human level properly speaking, i.e. young people win their comrades to attitudes which incite greater respect, more justice, more security, more dignity whether in the milieu of work, during leisure or in the field of health, preparation for the future, etc.
And that, they want it and obtain it, not just for their immediate comrades, but for all, for all those who are around them, without distinction, and for all the workers of the world and other races of different colours, other religions and ideologies.
These acts multiplied infinitely create a habitual, permanent attitude which gives birth by itself to a climate of confidence, friendship and collaboration among all; little by little, they spread a conception of life, bring out a surge in public opinion; they transform working environments, leisure and living environments; they develop new kinds of human relationships at individual, national and international level; henceforth, these are relationships based on confidence, solidarity, collaboration for the equitable and positive solution of common human problems.

Group apostolate

The next stage, according to Cardijn, develops progressively from a personal apostolate into “a group apostolate that is more structure and organic.”

“On one hand, this gives rise to apostolic grassroots groups (in the parish, the neighbourhood, etc.) which unite people and develop into regional federations, movements and national and international movements of the apostolate,” Cardijn explained.

“On the other hand, at local as well as national and international levels, it leads to interventions in existing secular organisations and institutions, whether private, public or semi-public.”

Preparing the way for deeper action

Next Cardijn explains the linkages between these human acts and the Church’s mission:
For Christian leaders who act in secular daily life, these acts, realisations and processes are truly acts of apostolate. To achieve this, they make personal sacrifices and all kinds of renunciations which transform themselves; to achieve this, they pray and unite themselves with Christ and the Church in sacramental, liturgical and ecclesial life. In their personal life, unity is achieved between their religious life and their secular life; in their action with and on others.
Their intentions are not limited to the human and temporal level; they aim for the glory of God, the reign of Christ, the extension of the Church, the evangelisation and salvation of souls. Their presence and action, which is profoundly human, prepares the way for much deeper action: it breaks down prejudices and obstacles; it invites people to seek and recognise the truth.

Impact on others

This kind of action also has an impact on others, including non-Christians, Cardijn argues. In some cases, it even leads to the catechumenate:
For non-Christians who participate in this action or who at least witness it, it is primarily a shock and a testimony. It raises questions in them: Why are my comrades doing this? Why have they given up that? How can they do this? Why are they so much against injustice whereas we thought that religion preached resignation?
And for a certain number of non-Christians, this shock and testimony will lead to a catechumenate of which the initial discoveries are those of a religion lived out integrally in both daily and secular life. Because it is in regard to all these secular problems that friendship and confidence lead to exchanges: “Why respect, help or love others? Why work? Why found a family? What use is money? Why earn it and how to share it?” In their turn, these occasional discussions lead to making deeper and more complete contacts: visits to homes, books and magazines, collective action in the neighbourhood, participation in meetings.

Faith comes from the interior

What is important in all of the above, according to Cardijn, is a climate of openness, sympathy and friendship without any kind of pressure:

The revelation of Christ and the Church thus takes place in a climate of openness, sympathy and friendship, which is already that of lived out charity. The faith cannot be imposed through pressure, but it comes above all from the interior; it is sought, guessed at then requested, like a gift, a grace that transforms the person, family and society. It will not always and immediately result in baptism, sacramental or ecclesial life. How many examples there are of young workers who were Sauls and who have become Pauls! And this is so in every continent, every race and every form of civilisation.
The path followed, the apostolic pedagogy which are valid for non-Christians are equally valid for non-practising Christians accustomed to separating their religious practices from their daily life; or even all those who are still – alas! – so numerous and who have never received any real religious formation or only a child’s or adolescent’s formation.

The importance of the priest as a guide

All of the above depends, Cardijn insists, on the role of the priest as guide, support and counsellor.

In this apostolate – which does not separate temporal action from religious action properly speaking – the priest is always the guide, the support, indispensable counsellor for activist Christians. And little by little, it also becomes the guide of catechumens, who he leads towards their complete conversion. He is thus the soul of the transformation of individuals, and through them, of the milieux, communities, structures and the whole of society.
Thus, there will never be a lay apostolate at the level to meet the needs of the current world unless there are clergy who understand the necessity of this apostolate, who wish to make the “consecration mundi,” who understand its specific methods, its fecundity and the sacerdotal assistance which is indispensable to it.

FRENCH ORIGINAL

Joseph Cardijn, L’apostolat essentiel propre et irremplaceable de laïcs (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn, The essential, irreplaceable apostolate proper to lay people (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

January 9, 1962January 3, 2022

The apostolate proper to lay people – again!

Having criticised the most recent set of draft documents from the PCLA, Cardijn responded on 9 January 1962 with a new document setting out his conception of “the essential and irreplaceable apostolate proper to lay people.”

“All the faithful take part in the whole apostolate of the Church: hierarchical, doctrinal, sacramental, liturgical, ascetic, catechetical, missionary, etc. apostolate,” Cardijn began.

“However, in the apostolate of the Church, lay people have a specific, essential and irreplaceable mission that was given to the whole of humanity by the Creator at the very moment of Creation: that of procreating, taking possession of the earth, using it and developing it (Genesis I, 26-31).

The theological basis of this, Cardijn explained, was God’s creation of man in his own image and the mission and opportunity given to humanity to share in that mission:

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’
God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.’
God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food. And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.’ And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day. (New Jerusalem Bible translation)

The work of redemption

However, given that original and actual sin had vitiated that original mission, God now gave humanity a second opportunity to share in the work of Redemption of humanity and the world:

This primordial mission of man and humanity was vitiated by original sin and by actual sins that led to ignorance, error, corruption, injustice and under-development. It lost more and more of its divine and religious meaning. And the propagation of a materialist and secularist conception of the world — with all its practical consequences — is the greatest threat to humanity and for the Church.
It is this primordial mission of man and humanity that Christ has come, not only to re-establish, but also by his Incarnation, to raise up to a more intimate participation in the work of the Redemption of the whole human race. As the Church says in each Holy Mass:
“O God, by creating human nature, you have given an admirable dignity: in redeeming it, you have restored it even more admirable than before. Grant us, by the mystery of this water united with wine, to take part in the divinity of he who deigned to share our humanity, Jesus Christ…” (Biblical Missal)

The mission proper to lay people

The specific task of lay people, then, is to rediscover and relink the mission of humankind ot to the mystery of Creation and Redemption:

The specific (proper) mission, apostolate of the lay person thus consists in rediscovering the divine and proper mission of humanity, and rejoining it to the mystery of the Creation and the Redemption. The lay person must give or re-give to the temporal, secular world its divine, religious, redemptive meaning, in and through work, science and technology, education, international action, etc. It is the whole “consecratio mundi” of which Pius XII spoke so often:

“You are Catholics, are you are in the full sense of the term, that is to say, not only as individuals professing the truths revealed by Christ and living personally in the grace of the Redemption, but as members of the Christian community and fulfilling in this community, a specific task, indispensible to its life and its balance”. (Talk to jocists, 25 August 1957, N° 19. There are many other texts of Pius XII where he proclaimed and developed the idea of the consecration of the secular world).
It is this mission in their temporal life that it is necessary to enable lay people to discover and understand. They must know and make known the divine value of the secular world in which they live; they must live integrally their specific and primordial mission in the secular world, its milieux, its existing and future institutions. And they must spread this divine and temporal conception and this sense of their specific religious mission, among the lay people in the midst of whom they have been providentially placed. Thus, they will transform the world and they will really consecrate it to the glory of God (See Annex).

And he explained this further as follows:

“This divine mission of the lay person and the whole laity — to procreate, dominate and develop the whole of creation — today acquires an apostolic and missionary importance, not only primordial, but decisive; and this, at a world dimension,

because of the unexpected growth of the world population, because of the growing needs of this population, its aspirations and its new level of consciousness;

because of new technological, scientific, cultural and social progress, which transforms the world and humanity;

because of the unity and solidarity that allthese problems create between all men, all peoples, all continents;

because of ideologies of all kinds which spread across the world, with an increasing facility and rapidity;

because of the different levels of development, which make more acute the great scourges (hunger, sickness, mortality, insecurity, illiteracy, etc.) and draw on one hand international oppositions and on the other hand international institutions which battle against the great scourges.”

No separation between religious apostolate and lay apostolate

Cardijn continues on to develop his critique of the artificial division by the PCLA of its work into evangelisation, social action and charitable action.

“The Church and religion cannot stay on the sidelines of building, humanising, transforming the world. While distinct from responsible secular authorities and the technological means of work and progress, they can neither be separated or ignored,” he insists. “This separation would be deadly for humanity and the Church.”

“The essential, proper and irreplaceable apostolate of lay people, whose importance cannot be exaggerated, is inseparable from their religious apostolate properly said: doctrinal, sacramental, liturgical, etc. as moreover from their religious life properly speaking.”

And he cites Pope Pius XII 1957 speech to the JOC pilgrims to Rome:

As Pius XII told the jocists:
The YCW “works to restore in all its nobility the Christian notion of work, its dignity, its holiness. You like to consider the gestures of workers as personal acts of a son of God and a brother of Jesus Christ, through the spirit and the body, for the service of God and the human community. May the members of your movement (…) cause this conception of work to penetrate the factories, offices, professional schools. This is an apostolate that is practical and necessary to a very high degree”. (Speech, 25 August 1957, N° 16).

Indispensable formation to make the whole of lay life apostolic

And he concludes with an explanation of the need for a holistic formation process for lay people in order that the whole of their life becomes apostolic:

This apostolate, which both sanctifies lay people and builds a more human world, always more conform to the plan of God and Christ, always more at the service of temporal happiness and the eternal destiny of humanity, always more exalting of the glory of the Creator.
The whole clergy and all lay faithful must see the need to transform the whole of lay life, to understand the increasingly important specific and irreplaceable mission of lay people. They must give and receive the indispensable formation, so that the whole of lay life becomes apostolic. Religion must be incarnated in the whole of life, to make this life an apostolate which helps to transform all milieux and all the institutions of life.
“The Church today needs more than ever young workers to valiantly build, in joy and suffering, in success and failure, a world as God would want it, a fraternal society in which the suffering of the most humble will shared and lightened.” (Speech of 25 August 1957, N° 19).
To raise this consciousness and give this formation are the only means, not only of saving the faithful from false conceptions of lay life, but also of exercising an appropriate apostolate among the non-faithful — Christians and non-Christians — that they rub shoulders with every day in their milieux of life and in institutions; to collaborate with them on the temporal and lay level; to overcome prejudices and errors in order to reveal little by little, in all their dimension, religion and the Church and to obtain that the whole of creation be redeemed by Christ and sing the glory of God.

FRENCH ORIGINAL

Joseph Cardijn, L’apostolat essentiel propre et irremplaceable de laïcs (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn, The essential, irreplaceable apostolate proper to lay people (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

December 29, 1961January 30, 2022

A matter of conscience

On 29 December 1961, Cardijn sent his responses to the latest draft documents from the PCLA to Mgr Achille Glorieux, apologising for his insistence on the lay apostolate.

“Within the limits of my time, I have carefully read the documents I found here when I returned from my trip.
“You will see the comments that I have made in the short note and the letter that I am sending by the same post to His Eminence Cardinal Cento and of which I am now sending you a copy.
“I very simply apologise for coming back to this point so insistently. I really feel obligated in conscience to do so.”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 29 12 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 29 12 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

December 29, 1961January 13, 2022

Clergy “ignorant” of lay apostolate

On 29 December 1961, Cardijn wrote to Archbishop Gabriel-Marie Garrone of Toulouse, a long time supporter of the JOC and Specialised Catholic Action as well as a member of the PCLA, to express his growing concern over the failure of the latest documents from the Prep Com on Lay Apostolate to clearly explain the lay apostolate.

Significantly, Garrone had also published a book of his own entitled “L’Action Catholique” in 1958 in response to Suenens’ article criticising an alleged “monopoly” of Catholic Action by the Specialised Catholic Action movements. Now, just a month after Suenens’ appointment as archbishop of Malines-Brussels and therefore as Cardijn’s episcopal superior, Cardijn seeks Garrone’s aid.

“I’m sorry to trouble you by sharing the anguish I experience when, after a long absence in Latin America, I find on my desk the three documents from our Commission on the lay apostolate, social action and charitable action,” Cardijn began.

“Will the tone and arrangement of these texts produce the necessary impact to enable the Church and the world today to understand the importance that needs to be attached to the proper and irreplaceable apostolate of the laity in their secular life, in their living environments (milieux), in the face of the problems of our contemporary world and humanity as a whole, as well as in the indispensable organisations and institutions that must provide a positive solution to these problems?” he asked.

And he did not mince his words:

The older I get, the more I’m terrified by the ignorance and virtually the nonchalance of the clergy regarding the apostolate of the laity, as secular problems in the solution of which lay Christians are involved by their very character as lay people and which they must assume as Christians. This ignorance seems widespread to me, even if we can count some very beautiful exceptions.
In previous months, I sent several notes on this subject to the Commission.
The three documents that I mentioned above, even if they mention the apostolate proper to the laity in various places, they fail to highlight it, because they disperse the various aspects that they deal with too widely. The document “De Apostolatu Lalcorum” among others, does not present these in a chapter that provides a synthesis: notion of this proper apostolate, importance and necessity, essential formation, etc. One might almost say that the fish was drowned…
While the family apostolate as described in Document TC 3 – chap. V does make more impression, even though it neglects certain aspects, this is because it is gathered in a single chapter. Should we not do the same for the apostolate of the laity as such and in its own domain: life, milieux, problems of life, institutions, etc. Moreover, the family apostolate is only one of the most important aspects of the lay apostolate.

“I have taken the liberty of sending these reflections that I am copying to you in this envelope to His Eminence Cardinal Cento,” he added. “I have also sent them to Monsignor Glorieux.

“Perhaps it’s too late?” he asked. “In any case, I felt that I had to unburden my conscience,” he added in a strong indication of the level of his concern.

Moreover, these were not the only documents that concerned Cardijn.

“I could have made the same remarks regarding the documents – which I received three days ago – on international life and Christian unity,” he noted.

“What a field for the apostolate of the laity, in their daily life, in their daily relationships with other Christians! What work and what field of action, for the formation of public opinion and the spirit of responsibility! And yet we are still only at the beginning,” finishing with a positive slant.

“In all of this, moreover, the international, national and local levels have become so inseparable today!” he concluded.

SOURCE

FRENCH ORIGINAL

Joseph Cardijn – Gabriel Garrone 29 12 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Gabriel Garrone 29 12 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

REFERENCE

Gabriel-Marie Cardinal Garrone (Catholic Hierarchy)

Archbishop Gabriel-Marie Garrone

December 28, 1961January 3, 2022

Lay apostolate not clear enough in draft PCLA documents

On 28 December 1961, Cardijn wrote to PCLA president, Cardinal Fernando Cento, enclosing his reflections and his concerns regarding the three draft documents prepared by the Commission.

And he does not hold back in expressing his fears.

“On returning from Latin America, I found among other items on my desk the three texts: TC3, De Apostolatu Laicorum – TC1, de Actione Sociali – TC2, De Actione Caritative.

“I have reread them successively and I am taking the opportunity to now send your Eminence a brief note commenting on all of them since I do not have time to annotate each paragraph.

“May I be permitted to express my concern to your Eminence? I fear that the decisive importance of the proper and irreplaceable apostolate of the laity, their apostolate in temporal life, does not emerge sufficiently from these documents.

“The long journey that I have just made has confirmed my observation over fifty years of priesthood devoted to this apostolate, namely that the clergy in general do not see the urgency of combating materialism, secularism and social disorder that threaten the world and the Church. It seems to me that a solemn appeal – a true SOS – by the Ecumenical Council, addressed to both laity and priests is essential.

“Your Eminence will forgive me for insisting so simply. It is my conscience that prompts me to make this appeal.

I am pleased to send your Eminence my most fervent wishes for a holy and happy Year 1962!” Cardijn concluded.

December 24, 1961December 31, 2021

The apostolate of the laity vs the apostolate of the faithful

Finally back in Brussels, Cardijn now has to catch up with his work for the Prep Com on Lay Apostolate.

On 24 December 1961, he drafted Note II, containing his reflections on three draft documents prepared by the Commission.

It was now becoming clear that Cardijn’s patience was starting to wear thin as the opening of the Council approaches and his insistent pleas for recognition of the lay apostolate of lay people continued to go unheard.

The apostolate of the laity vs the apostolate of the faithful

“The enumeration of different apostolic tasks that lay people are called to fill too easily conflates those that they carry out in religious life properly speaking (e.g. their participation in the Holy Sacrifice, in works of charity, etc.) and those that they exercise in temporal life (in their profession, civic life, etc.),” Cardijn complains.

“This mixing creates a certain confusion with respect to basic concepts. The chapter is intended to be consecrated to the apostolate of lay people, but is in fact consecrated for the most part to the apostolate of the faithful,” he laments.

“As a result of this mixing, the document fails to adequately highlight the necessity and importance of the proper and irreplaceable apostolate of lay people in temporal life.

“This point seems to me, however, to be decisive in the world of the present and the future! The Hierarchy, clergy, religious cannot replace lay people, because it is the latter who ensure the building up of the world and must positively and Christianly resolve the problems that will decide the future of the Church: materialism, secularism, moral and social disorder, etc., which threaten the mass of the whole of humanity.

Family life and the lay apostolate

Cardijn was also particularly concerned with the section of the documents dealing with family life.

The long chapter consecrated to the family apostolate shows the importance of this. However, isn’t it necessary to say that the apostolate in and by the family and the preparation for this apostolate is inseparable from the apostolate in all aspects of temporal life which influence and will influence the family even more:

ensure all the resources of the family and safeguard the possibility of existence, faithfulness, education and morality;

Life of leisure and culture: vacations paid or not, passed with the family or separately; environments and conceptions of leisure; advertising which invades the family (radio, television, the press);

civic and public life: legislation, institutions, public morality;

international life: displaced families, spouses and young people separated from the family; mixed families of races, different moral and religious conceptions who live and work together..

How then should the documents be redrafted?

“Is it not possible – before or after the chapter on family apostolate – to consecrate a whole chapter to the apostolate of the lay person in life, milieux, temporal institutions, chapters which would show methodically the primordial and decisive importance of this apostolate? Among other points:

the apostolic conception of temporal life;

the proper and irreplaceable character of the apostolate of lay people in this temporal life, its importance, its inseparability from religious life properly said, sacramental, liturgical, hierarchical;

the formation and education to be given to lay people and to priests with respect to this conception and this apostolic action in temporal life;

the absolute necessity of forming young people who work outside and far from the family, uniting them and organising them in view of the apostolate at a level appropriate to the world of today and the future.

Social action vs lay apostolate

Cardijn again confronts the problem created by the artificial division of the Prep Com’s work into three subcommissions on evangelisation, social action and charitable action.

“Doesn’t it cause concern and misunderstanding to separate the presentation on social action from that on lay apostolate?” he asks pointedly. “Isn’t social action the direct or indirect lay apostolate?”

Moreover, “isn’t social action done in practice with organisations of the lay apostolate, e.g. the JOC, the LOC, the MOC, and others?” Cardijn asks, clearly concerned at the separation of social action from the work of the lay apostolate.

Charitable action

Concerning charitable action, Cardijn is clearly concerned about an “aid” mentality present in the draft documents. He insists on the need for an emphasis on social justice.

“Isn’t it necessary to pay homage to the universal preoccupation of our era, which seeks to promote and to organise the aid necessary to ensure that all people of all races and all continents have a more human and dignified life?

“Isn’t it necessary to add that this preoccupation with aid now involves what is called ‘social and international justice‘ and which requires education as well as international institutions (Caritas, Misereor, etc.),” Cardijn asks.

Proposals

Offering his own response to his critique, Cardijn concludes with his own proposals:

“1- Couldn’t a very clear chapter be inserted in the text setting out what is the specific role of lay people in the apostolate of the Church, the tasks by which and in which it is exercised, its relationship to the apostolate of the priest, etc. (see above, page 2)? The fact of this declaration would enlighten immediately the other documents which follow.

“2-. To meet the expectations of the world today and of the whole Church, in particular those of lay people involved in the apostolate, could not the text also include a solemn appeal by the Council which would commit the whole Church — Hierarchy, priests, religious, lay people — to promote by all means the apostolate of the laity and the personal and collectie formation of all those who must become involved?

“3-. Would it not be possible to form a small team within the Commission which would coordinate the drafting of the three documents referred to in this note and which presents the apostolic action, the social action and the charitable action of lay people with a more pronounced unified character?”

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, Note 11 – Réflexions sur les trois textes de la Commission, 24 décembre 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn, Note 11 – Reflections on the three documents of the Commission, 24 December 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

December 1, 1961January 29, 2022

1962 meeting program

In December 1961, the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate sent out a proposed calendar of work for 1962.

Although not signed, it is very probable that the document was sent by the commission secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux.

It read as follows:

The Commission will hold two more Plenary Sessions at the beginning of 1962. In fixing the dates, we have tried to meet the preferences of Our Lords the Bishops; but above all we were obliged to take into account two circumstances – degree of advancement of our work and meetings of the Central Commission at that time; which led us to fix these Sessions on the following dates:
from Wednesday 24 to Wednesday 31 January and from Wednesday 4 to Wednesday 11 April
Between now and these dates, here is how the Commission will work:
1) The 2° & 3° Sub-Commissions have practically completed their work; they will finalize the texts based on the suggestions heard, in particular during the Thursday morning session.
2) As for the 1st Sub-Commission, it still has a lot to do. One of the purposes of the additional meeting on Saturday afternoon is precisely to clarify how the remaining work can be completed. It will then be necessary to coordinate between them the texts of the three Sub-Commissions.
3) The essence of the Session at the end of January will be to present in plenary session the texts of the 1st Sub-Commission and the initial results of the coordination work.
4) The comments gathered at this time will be used to prepare a general draft, which will be proposed as final. This will be sent to all Members and Consultors, to gather their latest comments, from which a definitive text will be established.
5) The April Session will be devoted exclusively to voting on this text.

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Achille Glorieux, Les prochaines réunions (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Achille Glorieux, Coming meetings (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

November 20, 1961November 19, 2021

Cardijn still travelling after the Rio Council

On 20 November 1961, Marguerite Fiévez wrote to PCLA secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux, to let him know that Cardijn was still travelling in Latin America following the World Council of Rio de Janeiro.

“You may be aware that Mgr Cardijn will not return from Rio before the end of this month,” Fiévez wrote.

“In his absence, I opened the latest batch of documents from the Commission. I don’t know if Monsignor will have something to send you regarding the two documents, TC 1 and TC 2.

“But even if he had any amendments or suggestions to propose, he obviously could not send them to you before the 1st December as you request. Moreover, following the YCW World Council, Mgr Cardijn needs to visit several countries before returning to Brussels.

“It is obviously practically impossible for me to reach him to send him the relevant documents. Nevertheless, in practice, I very much doubt that he would have anything to send you.”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Marguerite Fiévez – Achille Glorieux 20 11 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Marguerite Fiévez – Achille Glorieux 20 11 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

October 23, 1961November 4, 2021

Rome again

On 23 October 1961, Cardijn arrived again in Rome for the meeting of the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate.

While in Rome, he would also seek to obtain greetings and blessings for the imminent YCW International Council in Rio de Janeiro.

SOURCE

FRENCH ORIGINAL

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 07 08 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Achille Glorieux 07 08 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

PHOTO

valy270 / Pixabay

October 5, 1961October 6, 2021

Reserving a room

Time for another trip to Rome.

On 5 October 1961, Cardijn booked his lodgings at the Retraite du Sacre Coeur for the next meeting of the Prep Commission on Lay Apostolate.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1301

August 31, 1961October 13, 2021

The Layman and the Council… Does the Layman ‘Belong’?

Romeo Maione, a Canadian with long experience in the lay apostolate is currently international president of the Young Christian Workers. He sends this article from Belgium. He recently visited Rome for meetings in connection with the anniversary of the social encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI. He will return to Canada at the end of this year to become assistant to the director of the Social Action Department of the Canadian Catholic Conference.

By ROMEO MAIONE

A few years ago, a small group of highly regarded theologians met to discuss the role of the layman in the Church. The principal result of their discussion nicely illustrates a central problem in the life of the Church today. For nothing like a consensus on the role of the layman came out of the meeting. The theologians could agree only that the layman is neither priest nor Religious. Around the world. hopes are running high that the Fathers of the forthcoming Ecumenical Council will have something positive to say about the role of the layman. And there is good reason to believe that these hopes are well-founded. In response to the calls of modern popes, laymen have begun to shoulder more and more responsibility for action. Indeed, the question is no longer whether laymen can bear the responsibility of carrying the Christian message into everyday life, but how far to go.

Lay apostles sincerely attempting to “restore all things in Christ” according to the mandate of Pope St. Pius X are asking for clarification of the limits of their responsibility and the extent of their autonomy. In the absence of a consensus on the necessary distinctions, too-easy solutions have often been provided. Those who have advanced near temporal-spiritual distinctions, and would limit the involvement of the Church in our time to the purely spiritual level, have learned that circumstances demand something more. Many questions are heard, but perhaps the most familiar and the most critical could be put this way; “How far can the lay apostolate go into the temporal order without committing the Church to detailed, debatable, political or economic programs?”

The failure to resolve this question led to the division of the vast and well-organized family movement in France in 1950. One element wanted to plunge into the political field to solve the pressing housing problems, while others insisted the movement remain purely educational. The movement finally split, and the French hierarchy set up a new apostolate to insure live spiritual development of the two movements. Other examples of how pressing this particular question can be have occurred in Australia, Italy and Spain. In Australia, a lay apostolate organization called simply “the Movement” did a very effective job of clearing the communists out of the trade unions, then tried to clean up the small minority of communists in the Labour Party The Labour Party asked the Movement to stop its activities. It didn’t. The Labour Party condemned the Movement and, in time, the Movement split the Labour Party. In Italy, the ACLI (Associazione Christiano Laboratore Italiano), one of the major Italian lay worker movements, is facing a crisis because many of its leaders are also members of parliament. The Church has called on the organization to get out of politics. An ACLI leader can no longer take a responsible job in the political field. The Temporal-spiritual division, it appears, is better made in books than in life. The average worker neither has the theological background nor the time to treat frontiers of action as textbook exercises.

He knows that as a lay apostle. he is called to be a good politician. As the leader of an organized movement, it is his job to develop an apostolic spirit among members, encouraging them to take positions on moral issues in political and economic life, the temporal order.

At least in Europe, the question of the day is, how far can an apostolic movement go into the temporal order? It cannot escape the attention of the Council.

In Europe, of course, the rural society in which the Church was actively present and very much involved is gradually giving way to a new and industrialized Europe. This evolution is much slower than in the U. S. In America, the “new ideas” about the lay apostolate came to a new country. In Europe, they germinated and grew in a well established order. Today, the Church in Europe is trying to free itself from the “old order” so that it can embrace and bring the good news to the developing new way of life. In an effort not to be identified with the old ways, some advocate that the Church completely remove itself from the temporal order.

This, of course, would reverse the whole movement of the lay apostolate to date. From a state of suspended animation, the laity has now been awakened, and responding to the Popes, is attempting to meet some of the serious crises of our age. And inevitably, the spiritual and temporal interests intersect.

It would be difficult to pinpoint the moment in modern history when the laity was awakened. The lay apostolate itself is, of course, not a new thing in the Church. Pius XII pointed this out to exponents of the lay apostolate attending the First World Congress of the Lay Apostolate in Rome in 1950. The apostles used the Roman roads, and laymen in those times did an effective job of spreading the good news of the Gospels everywhere.

Pius XII repeated the exhortation of Pius XI in asking laymen to exercise an active apostolate in the Church. The words of both these modern Popes gave new life to many traditional lay organizations, and at the same time gave birth to new lay movements like the Young Christian Workers, Young Christian Farmers, the Young Christian Students, the Christian Family Movement, and a host of others.

This revival of lay activity was also marked by the creation of international coordinating bodies, based in Rome, designed to implement the work of lay movements. The Conference of Catholic International Organizations, whose main office is in Fribourg, Switzerland, and the Permanent Committee for the Organization of the Lay Apostolate Congresses, whose offices are in Rome, are both working to develop the lay apostolate internationally.

The Permanent Committee for the Organization of the Lay Apostolate, which has already organized two international conferences on the lay apostolate in Rome, is planning a third to be held just after the Ecumenical Council.

Although preparations for the Council and the work of its various commissions are shrouded in silence, it is becoming clearer that one of the central themes of the Council will be the question of the lay apostolate. One of the commissions of the Council will address itself exclusively to the problems of the lay apostolate. (It is interesting to note that this commission is the only one which does not depend directly on any of the congregations making up the Curia.)

The setting up of this commission of the lay apostolate was greeted with great joy by laymen active In the affairs of the Church, although some were less than joyful to find that no laymen are present on any of the commissions, particularly the lay apostolate commissions.

At a recent international meeting a lay leader was overheard to say, jokingly, “Well, it was the men who discussed the role of women in society and finally granted them the right to vote; it is now the turn of the clergy to release the potential energies of the layman.”)

Many lay leaders, particularly in Holland and Austria, have been openly discussing the absence of laymen in the preparatory work of the Council —and some high Church authorities have promised to bring the matter up in Rome.

While one may regret the absence of experienced laymen in the preparatory work, one can rejoice at the impressive array of internationally-known clerics with first hand experience of the lay apostolate who make up the Commission which will deal specifically with lay matters.

Fernando Cardinal Cento, the president of the Lay Apostolate Commission, was once a nuncio in Belgium and has first hand knowledge of the lay movements, especially the worker movements. Monsignor Achille Glorieux, secretary of the commission, was once a Young Christian Workers chaplain in France, and is now chaplain of the Permanent Committee for the Organization of Lay Apostolate Congresses. Monsignor Joseph Cardijn, international chaplain and founder of the Young Christian Workers, and Bishop E. Larrain of Chile, vice president of CELAM, the Latin American Council of Bishops, are two others on the commission.

(It was Monsignor Cardijn, incidentally, who was the first to make the see-judge-act method which Pope John recommends in Mater et Magistra as a central part of the modern lay movement.)

The general lines of the commission study are apparent; the role of the layman in the Church and the relations between the lay apostolate organizations and the hierarchy, the problem of the limit and extent of the autonomy of the lay apostolate in the temporal order, all these will certainly be on the agenda.

Many well-informed laymen seem to be reasonably sure that the Fathers of the Council will set up a Congregation for the Laity which will play an active part in the Curia. In any event, the question of the laity in the Church is bound to be taken up by several of the Commissions.

The Commission on Theological Studies will discuss the doctrinal position of the laity. The Liturgical Commission will discuss the participation of the laity in the liturgy. The Seminaries Commission will approach the problem under the heading of the necessary formation of priests who will be formers of lay apostles. The Missions Commission will surely study the question of the laity when it discusses the penury of the clergy in mission lands, and in a more particular way, Latin America. This will lead to a discussion on the pastoral role of the layman in mission countries.

Finally, the commission set up to deal with the unity of the Churches will be discussing the laity because of the increasing contacts between Catholics and non-Catholics in everyday life. So the laity will be very much present in the Council, sharpening the awareness expressed by Bishop de Smet of Bruges in a pastoral written in preparation for the Ecumenical Council.

“Jesus continues His priesthood in the Christian community as a whole,” the Bishop wrote. “It is in it and by it that He offers sacrifice to the Father. It is by it and in it that He spreads His gospel. It is by it and in it that He will realize the consecration of the world. It is false to think that Catholic doctrine reduces the faithful to a passive state. It is inexact to pretend that they are but a flock of sheep, docile and forcibly resigned to being led by their pastors. If you have understood correctly. you will know that the Church is a cooperation of all the baptized who —together— form the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ.”

SOURCE

Romeo Maione, The Layman and the Council… Does the Layman ‘Belong’?, Pittsburgh Catholic, Thursday August 31, 1961 (Catholic News Archive)

August 9, 1961November 24, 2021

Cardijn seeks support from Mgr Emiliano Guano

On 9 August 1961, Cardijn wrote to Mgr Emiliano Guano, a former chaplain to the International Movement of Catholic Students, at the national secretariat of the Italian Catholic Action movement seeking his support to set up a small team to work on some new proposals for the Prep Com on Lay Apostolate.

He is clearly concerned that his efforts are not cutting through.

He wrote:

May I disturb you by communicating my concerns to you?” Cardijn began. “I had the impression that you also shared these concerns during the last session of our Conciliar Commission. And since we had so little time to exchange our impressions, please forgive me for disturbing you by sending you these few notes.
You will therefore find attached:
1 – A copy of the letter that I have just sent to Monsignor Glorieux regarding proposals 51 and 52 and on the subject of my desire to insist on the importance of the apostolate of lay people in the problems specific to lay life;
2³ – Under separate cover, the three notes that I had prepared previously and sent to Monsignor Glorieux concerning the program of our Commission; I don’t know which of these notes you received.
As I have written to Monsignor Glorieux, until the end of November I will be entirely occupied with the International Council of the YCW in Rio de Janeiro and its preparation. But after that date I will be freer and will be able to make the time needed to work with a small team on the finalisation of some proposals concerning the apostolate of the laity, which seem to me essential at the present time.
I apologise for writing to you so simply. Do not see any pretension in it but simply a need for frankness and trust and a desire to serve the Church as best as I can. Time is advancing, the Council is approaching and I would blame myself for not having fulfilled the mandate that the Holy See deigned to entrust to me if I did not try to express all my thoughts, submitting them very humbly to the decisions of the Holy See. Authority.
We may have the opportunity to discuss all of this again at the next session. It is from there that I will leave for Rio…

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Joseph Cardijn – Emiliano Guano 09 08 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Joseph Cardijn – Emiliano Guano 09 08 1961 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)