Cardijn’s homage to John XXIII

Writing in the July-August edition of the IYCW Bulletin, Cardijn paid homage to the recently deceased Pope John XXIII.

Despite not knowing him before he became pope, Cardijn developed a very close relationship with the pope, who had promised to support him even more than Pius XI and Pius XII had done.

Here is his homage to John XXIII.

Bulletin of the International YCW

July – August 1963 No. 90

During the reign of John XXIII: A New Pentecost

In five years John XXIII, the “transition Pope” has renewed the Church and the world! “Et renovabis faciem terrae…”.

He spoke so freely of a new Pentecost!

I will never forget our first meeting.

I was in New Zealand when we learnt on the radio through the Archbishop of Christchurch of the death of Pius XII. After a session of fervent prayer in the chapel, we asked ourselves: “How will we find a worthy successor to such a great and holy Pope?”

I continued on my voyage to Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia and it was at the airport of Formosa (now Taiwan) that people told us: “We have a new Pope: John XXIII!”

– John XXIII, who is he?

– It’s Cardinal Roncalli, the Patriarch of Venice

– Roncalli… never heard of him!

A little later, I went to Rome after also visiting Japan, Korea and finishing my tour of Asian countries. The Pope received me. I wanted to kneel down and ask for his blessing… but he came to me with open arms and embraced me:

– I have known you for such a long time! I have been following you and your work. I will support the YCW as Pius XI and Pius XII, indeed even more than they did!

He stopped and looked at me:

– How old are you?

– Holy Father, I was born in 82.

– And I was born in 81!

– What month?

– November, Holy Father…

– Me too. What day? I was born on the 25, the feast of St Catherine! You see, we are young! We will work together for the salvation of the workers…

And he told me about his life, he spoke about his family, the reforms that he proposed to introduce at the Vatican in relation to the salaries of the guards, employees and families.

I saw him again in 1959:

– Very Holy Father, could I propose to the Pope an idea that has come to me? In two years, in 1961, it will be the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum. The times and the problems have completely changed… And I launched into an explanation.

– Send me a written note!

How many times he thanked me for it! He did not merely want a doctrine; he lived it and he wanted the world to live it: the dignity of the most human person, the poorest, of every race and colour; the dignity of the poorest family. And with that, all the consequences and all the applications from the social and human point of view; the relations between communities, based not on force, arms and profit, but on openness, loyalty, and the most absolute solidarity; the price finally, between all and for all, guaranteed by a just authority instituted, recognised and supported by all, and not by an atomic power that would ruin the world.

To achieve this, dialogue is necessary, person to person contact, simple, open, straight, whatever our opinion, ideology or the religion of our interlocutor.

And John XXIII opened the Vatican to all, friends and adversaries. Or rather, he did not have adversaries, only misunderstanding and obscurities. And whatever the cost these needed to disappear. He did not know obstacles, he left the Vatican, visited sick friends, hospitals, handicapped asylums, poor parishes and prisons. He wanted to see, to understand, to be present.

And to achieve this, he decided that all the bishops and their advisers would meet in Rome in an Ecumenical Council where they would discuss problems, seek solutions, not secretly but we could say in the open air in front of representatives of other Churches and confessions as well a the press and international opinion.

That took five years… Five years of youth, will, courage, prayer and work! With no rest. And the world, the whole world was touched, turned upside down, more than by an atomic bomb!

John XXIII died on the second day of Pentecost. “Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and you will renew the face of the earth…”

May the Holy Spirit give to the Church and to the world a new John XXIII!

Jos. Cardijn.

(Translation Stefan Gigacz, 27 May 2012, Version 1.0)

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, During the reign of John XXIII: A New Pentecost (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

The Coordinating Commission

At the end of the First Session of the Council, Pope John XXIII appointed a Coordinating Commission whose role was to coordinate the work of the various conciliar commissions.

Members of the Commission

Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, Secretary of State

Cardinal Achille Liénart, Lille, France

Cardinal Francis Spellman, New York, USA

Cardinal Giovanni Urbani, Venice, Italy

Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, Secretary of the Congregation for Semaries and for the Sacred Consistorial Congregation

Cardinal Julius Döpfner, Munich and Friesing, West Germany

Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens, Malines-Brussels, Belgium.

SOURCE

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

Church, know thyself

On 4 December, a day full of significant interventions, yet another Jocist bishop, Gerard Huyghe of Arras, called for the Church to apply the Socratic maxim ‘know thyself’. ‘It happens that the Church, far from leading souls to Christ, turns them away from him,’ Huyghe warned.

‘The world expects that the Church will question itself’ and ‘discover its true face,’ he continued, adding that the documents to be drafted would ‘commit the Church for centuries.’

SOURCE

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

Church as a communion

On 28 November 1962, another former JOC chaplain, Léon-Arthur Elchinger, called for an ecclesiology inspired by ‘pastoral concern’ based on the Church ‘as a communion’ rather than as ‘an institution.’

‘In the past, theology affirmed the value of the hierarchy,’ Elchinger noted, ‘now, it is discovering the People of God.’ Moreover, where ‘in the past, the theology of the Church considered its internal life above all; now it sees the Church turned towards the world,’ he added.

SOURCE

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

De Smedt hits out at hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry and papolatry

In one of the first speeches on the De Ecclesia schema, Bishop Emile-Joseph De Smedt hit out at what he characterised as the dangers of “hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry and papolatry.”

In the first chapters of the Draft the traditional picture of the Church predominates. You know the pyramid: the pope, the bishops, the priests, who preside and, when they receive the powers, who teach, sanctify, and govern; then, at the bottom, the Christian people who instead receive and somehow seem to occupy second place in the Church.

We should note that hierarchical power is only something transitory. It belongs to our status on the way. In the next life, in the final state, it will no longer have a purpose, because the elect will have reached perfection, perfect unity in Christ. What remains is the People of God; what passes is the ministry of the hierarchy.

In the People of God we are all joined to others and have the same basic rights and duties. We all share in the royal priesthood of the People of God. The pope is one of the faithful; bishops, priests, lay people, religious: we are all the faithful. We go to the same sacraments; we all need the forgiveness of sins, the eucharistic bread, and the Word of God; we are all heading towards the same homeland, by God’s mercy and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But as long as the People of God is on the way, Christ brings it to perfection by means of the sacred ministry of the hierarchy. All power in the Church is for ministering, for serving: a ministry of the Word, a ministry of grace, a ministry of governance. We did not come to be served but to serve.

We must be careful lest in speaking about the Church we fall into a kind of hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry, or papolatry. What is most important is the People of God; to this People of God, to this Bride of the Word, to this living Temple of the Holy Spirit, the hierarchy must supply its humble services so that it may grow and reach perfect manhood, the fullness of Christ. Of this growing life the hierarchical Church is the good mother: Mother Church.

SOURCE

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

A Tidbit from Vatican II: Reflecting on the “Hierarchy” (Deacons Today: Musings on Diakonia and Diaconate)

The schema De Ecclesia

The final schema up for debate in the First Session was De Ecclesia with debate taking place from 28 November – 4 December was De Ecclesia.

Again, the Jocist bishops took the lead. In fact, trouble had begun inside the Doctrinal Commission when Léger and Garrone refused to endorse the proposed schema, Léger even threatening to resign from the Commission if he were not free to criticise it in the plenary.

SOURCE

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