A journey with Joseph Cardijn & the Jocist Network (1959-65)
On 10 March 1963, Bishop Larrain’s secretary, Fr Huidobro, replied on his behalf to Cardijn’s request for commentary on his book manuscript, signalling the “great service” that the book would provide for the drafting work of the Lay Apostolate Commission.
SOURCE
Archives Cardijn 1608
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 8, Suenens vs Cardijn, Lay people in the frontlines (Australian Cardijn Institute)
Cardijn attended his first meeting of the Lay Apostolate Commission from 4-10 March 1963.
SOURCE
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 10 – The apostolate proper to lay people -Australian Cardijn Institute)
On 27 February 1963, Jean Rodhain, wrote to Mgr Jean Streiff, secretary general of French Catholic Action and now also a member of the Lay Apostolate Commission, informing him of a proposal discussed in the commission for a new Vatican body dealing with the lay apostolate.
SOURCE
Archives Streiff 605
On 26 February 1963, Mgr Achille Glorieux, secretary of the Lay Apostolate Commission, wrote to Cardijn saying that Marguerite Fiévez had written to inform him that Cardijn had finally received his “billet” or “ticket” as a peritus from Cardinal Cicognani.
SOURCE
Archives Cardijn 1607
On 31 January 1963, Mgr Jean Streiff, the secretary for Catholic Action in France, wrote to Mgr Achille Glorieux informing him that Cardinal Liénart had forwarded him a letter appointing him as a peritus for the Lay Apostolate Commission.
Paris, 31 January, 1963
Monsignor GLORIEUX
Commission Secretary
Apostolatu Laicorum
Opizio S.Marta
Vatican City – ROME
Ref.63/47
Dear Monsignor,
His Eminence Cardinal LIENART, back from Rome, sends me a letter of appointment and a card of “Peritus” from the Council.
He asks me in his letter to place me at your disposal immediately, which I gladly do.
In a few days we have a meeting of the National Committee for the Apostolate of the Laity and we have included in the program the remote preparation of the World Congress and the search for the best method to work usefully and efficiently on the texts that you kindly sent us.
Be assured, dear Monsignor, of the assurance of my prayers for your work which affects us so closely in the expression of my religious and very friendly sentiments.
Monsignor Jean STREIFF
Secretary General of Catholic Action
SOURCE
Archives Streiff St 11 467 (Institut catholique de Paris)
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)
On 26 December 1962, French priest, Jean Rodhain, wrote to Cardinal Liénart seeking intervention by the French bishops over what he regarded as a lack of balance among the periti.
“I consider it as the most elementary loyalty to share my concern and to admit how much the designation as an expert in the Commission of a French priest resident in France and specialising in Catholic Action appears desirable to me,” he wrote.
Although, according to Rodhain, the experts only had a “very accessory role,” the lay leaders of Catholic Action might also “like me, end up astonished and worried,” he warned.
In striking contrast with Suenens failure to react to Cardijn’s non-appointment, Liénart responded swiftly, immediately intervening to obtain the appointment in January 1963 of Msgr Jean Streiff, secretary of the French bishops’ commission on lay apostolate.
SOURCE
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)
Archives Jean Streiff St 11, 465 (Institut catholique de Paris)
On 2 December 1962, Archbishop Gabriel Garrone of Toulouse, member of the Lay Apostolate Commission, responded to Cardijn praising his book manuscript.
“‘I owe everything to the JOC,” Garrone wrote, “through which the Church has re-presented its eternal message to us in the language of reality.”
He even suggested a subtitle for Cardijn’s book: “The secret of your life.”
SOURCE
Archives Cardijn 1777
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 8, Suenens vs Cardijn, Lay people in the frontlines (Australian Cardijn Institute)
The new Commission on the Apostolate of the Faithful, as it had been named despite the protests of its secretary, Mgr Achille Glorieux, and others held a preliminary meeting on 22 November to discuss its new mandate to draft an abbreviated ‘Decree on the Laity’ – not on ‘lay apostolate’ – in place of the Constitution originally proposed.
Still informally known as the “Lay Apostolate Commission,” its mandate was to establish ‘general principles’ under three main headings:
a) the apostolate of the laity in the service (actio) of the reign of Christ;
b) the apostolate of the laity in charitable and social works;
c) societies of the faithful, based on a schema for a ‘Decree on the Societies of the Faithful’ which had been prepared by the Preparatory Commission for the Discipline of the Clergy and Faithful.
These instructions clearly maintained the structure of the original schema that had frustrated Cardijn.
Worse, writes Stefan Gigacz, the change in name of the Commission from ‘Apostolate of the Laity’ to ‘Apostolate of the Faithful’ amounted to an unambiguous rejection of the line he had championed, although it continued to be known (in protest) as the Lay Apostolate Commission.
SOURCE
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)
On 20 October 1962, the results of the elections for the conciliar commissions were announced.
In addition to the 160 elected bishops, John XXIII added nine appointed members bringing the total number in each commission to twenty-five.
Although there was no Jocist ‘ticket,’ the results revealed a significant representation of movement-linked bishops in nearly every Commission.
This was particularly so in the all-important Doctrinal Commission on Faith and Morals (Doctrinal Commission) and in the Lay Apostolate Commission (LAC), which now had the clumsy, formal title of Commission on the Apostolate of the Faithful, Press and Public Spectacles [sic], each of which each included at least eight such bishops.
Doctrinal Commission
Elected
Gabriel-Marie Garrone, longstanding proponent of the JOC
Joseph Schröffer, who participated in the IYCW Rome pilgrimage in 1957
Alfredo Scherer, a JOC supporter from Brazil
Paul Emile Léger, a Canadian proponent of the SCA movements
André-Marie Charue, who had links with the Belgian JOC back to 1924
Marcos McGrath CSC, Holy Cross father and JOC patron in Panama
Maurice Roy, pioneer JOC chaplain, cousin of Quebec JOC founder, Henri Roy
Appointed
Bishop Georges Pelletier, Canadian bishop closely linked to the SCA movements
Lay Apostolate Commission
Elected members
Manuel Larrain, pioneer of Specialised Catholic Action in Chile
Franz Hengsbach, bishop of Essen, seat of the German JOC/CAJ
Jacques Ménager, bishop responsible for Catholic Action movements in France
John E. Petit, an English bishop close to the YCW
Joseph Blomjous, of Dutch origin, supporter of the SCA movements in Tanzania
Paul Yu Pin, JOC pioneer in China before coming to Formosa (Taiwan)
Gerardus De Vet, director of (Specialised) Catholic Action, Breda, Netherlands
Appointed
René Stourm, an early JOC chaplain in France
This gave the Jocist bishops close to a third of the numbers in each of these commissions, with the former responsible for the future Lumen Gentium, and both responsible for the eventual Gaudium et Spes.
Other members of the LAC also supported the JOC and Specialised Catholic Action to varying extents, including Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, the Salesian archbishop of Santiago, who admired Cardijn, Emilio Guano, a former International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS-Pax Romana) chaplain from Italy, as well as Castellano and Luigi Civardi
from Italian Catholic Action.
The Doctrinal Commission also included Vienna Cardinal Franz König, who had known Cardijn for decades particularly through the Pax Romana network.
A notable absentee in the LAC, however, was Cardijn’s Belgian ally, Charles-Marie Himmer, whose nomination had been opposed by Suenens, who confirmed this in a 16 October 1962 letter to Veronica O’Brien of the Legion of Mary:In any event, the 65 Belgian missionary bishops are behind me – which is not the case for the seven here (i.e. the seven diocesan bishops)… I felt this in De Smedt’s manoeuvres which aimed to place Himmer on the list of candidates for the Catholic Action Commission (i.e. Lay Apostolate Commission). I told him privately that I did not agree with the idea but he publicly returned to the charge for him to be included on our list.
Indeed, Suenens was ‘very isolated among the Belgian bishops on account of his ideas of the lay apostolate,’ as Congar noted, although he remained undeterred in his campaign against the alleged ‘monopolisation’ of Catholic Action.
Other Commissions
Promisingly, every other commission also included a Jocist presence.
Bishops and Government of Dioceses
Emile Guerry, another French JOC pioneer
Pierre Veuillot, previously in the Holy See, connected to France’s Mission ouvrière
Discipline and Sacraments
Alexandre Renard, Liénart protégé, involved in the Ecole Missionaire du Travail in Lille
Discipline of the Clergy and the Christian People
Guillaume Van Zuylen, bishop of Liège, Belgium
Agnelo Rossi, JUC/JIC chaplain from Brazil
François Marty, JOC/JAC chaplain in France
Thomas Cooray omi, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Religious
Gerard Huyghe, bishop of Arras, another Liénart protégé and promoter of SCA
Jean Janssens SJ, the Jesuit Superior General and close friend of Cardijn
Missions
Guy Riobé, bishop of Orleans, JAC chaplain and promoter of JOC and ACO
Jean Zoa, bishop of Yaoundé, Cameroon, former JOC chaplain
Cardinal Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, a Cardijn disciple since the 1930s
Liturgy
Henri Jenny, Sillon sympathiser from Lille, and auxiliary bishop to Guerry at Cambrai
Joseph Malula, JOC chaplain from Congo Kinshasa
Enrique Rau, former national chaplain of JOC Argentina
Bernardo Fey Schneider, former national chaplain of JOC Bolivia
Seminaries, Studies and Catholic Education
Ramon Bogarin, JOC founder in Paraguay
Denis Hurley omi, Cardijn disciple from South Africa
Emile Blanchet, participated in 1950 JOC Internationale congress, Brussels
Justin Simonds, Melbourne co-adjutor and long-time JOC supporter
Christian Unity
Christian Unity
Emile-Joseph De Smedt, former JOCF chaplain and close to Cardijn
, former JOCF chaplain and close to Cardijn
Oriental Churches
Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh
SOURCE
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council, Chapter 7, The Council opens without Cardijn (Australian Cardijn Institute)