Taking account of Suenens’ observations, Cardijn prepared a series of revised footnotes and paragraphs to be added to the original text.
These included a footnote making clear that Cardijn was using the expression “Catholic Action” in the sense that it had been used prior to Vatican II and that its future use would be subject to the decisions of the Council.
He also added several paragraphs making clear that the lay apostolate was not limited to temporal action but was “evangelising action in life” and that it must be under the direction of the hierarchy, as Suenens insisted:
It is not a matter of temporal action but of spiritual evangelising action in life, the milieux of life and the issues that it raises. This action requires union with the Hierarchy and the priesthood whose action it extends. This concern for the apostolate in the life of lay people does not exclude other concerns, quite the contrary. A concrete book on the JOC would show it very clearly. The number of priestly, religious (even contemplative) and missionary vocations is an eloquent testimony to this.
He added a footnote adding that the expression “lay apostolate” also had a broader meaning than the meaning that Cardijn had given it in his book as “the lay apostolate proper to lay people.”
And he also added a footnote making explicit that the specifically lay apostolate of lay people was integrated into the apostolate of the whole Church.
These footnotes appear to have been drafted by Marguerite Fiévez.
