Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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)

Posted on

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)

Posted on

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)

Posted on

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)

Posted on

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)