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Schema on Social Communications

The discussion on the schema on social communication took place over three days from 23 November and was the least controversial topic to be discussed, writes Stefan Gigacz.

Indeed, René Stourm, introducing the discussion, joked that it was introduced to provide an opportunity for relaxation! But he was completely serious in his proposals.

‘There are three things that we have always kept in mind,’ Stourm noted:

a) We wanted to affirm that the Church has a duty to teach that it cannot fulfil … if does not place the press and other means of communications at its service;

b) We wanted to affirm the Church has a right to educate, and thus the duty to encourage the press… and the duty to remind all those … concerned by these obligations of their obligations and responsibilities…

c) We wanted to affirm that the work of the Church in this field must be coordinated… (Emphases added)

Such an organisation needs to be established at international, national and diocesan levels.

In other words, the Church’s work in the field of social communications must serve, educate and represent (or be coordinated), Stourm proposed, explicitly following the old Jocist formula.

Moreover, a major criticism of the schema, coming from those with a Specialised Catholic Action background, such as Cardinals Tarancon and Léger was that the media was an area more suitable for lay people than priests.

SOURCE

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

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First preliminary meeting of Conciliar Lay Apostolate Commission

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)

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Two petitions on world and Church

On 20 November 1962, two overlapping groups of bishops, many of whom were linked to Cardijn and had met him during his visit to Rome, addressed two petitions to Pope John XXIII on the twin themes of the world “ad extra” and the Church.

Stefan Gigacz writes:


Although it is not possible to definitively establish a link with Cardijn’s visit, which concluded on 20 November, it is highly suggestive that the next day, two overlapping groups of bishops, including several whom Cardijn had just met, addressed petitions to Pope John via Cardinal Cicognani dealing with the twin themes of world and Church.

At least eight of the first group, namely Himmer, Larrain, Ancel, Angerhausen, Marcos McGrath, Cooray, Helder Camara and Bernard Yago, were all closely linked to Cardijn.

Citing the pontiff’s own insistence that the problems of the world have always been in the heart of the Church and appealing for solutions based on the dignity of man and the Christian vocation, they called for the establishment of a secretariat or commission that would discuss the role of the Church ‘ad extra’ in responding to ‘the most important issues of today’s world.’

The same day the second group of eleven bishops addressed another letter to Cicognani calling for greater clarity in the organisation of the work before the Council and proposing that the next session of the Council should begin with a discussion on the Constitution on the Church. Overlapping with the signatories on the first letter, this group included Camara, McGrath,

Larrain and Cooray as well as another three Jocist bishops, Jean Zoa, Pierre Veuillot and Maurice Baudoux.

In any event, it is clear that lobbying for the Council to adopt a twin focus on Church and world was making significant progress.

SOURCE

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

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The anguished call of a great apostle

Among the first people Cardijn met were Chilean Bishop Manuel Larrain and Brazilians Dom Helder Camara and Dom Jose Vicente Tavora, a former JOC national chaplain.

Helder Camara recorded the meeting in one of his letters to his colleagues in Brazil:

Msgr Cardijn has just left. He cried with joy at everything that Dom Larrain, Dom Tavora and I told him. If God wishes, we will succeed in having him appointed as an expert on lay apostolate issues (and who surpasses him in this area?).

Tomorrow he will come to celebrate his 80th birthday with us. What a life, fully and well lived in the light of grace!

In the same letter, Camara recalled Cardijn’s 1951 speech on ‘The lay apostolate and the world today’ at the First World Congress on Lay Apostolate, which had made such an impression on him – ‘one of the greatest of my life.’

‘Just about everything that we are trying to achieve, with the grace of God, is in response to the anguished call of this great apostle,’ Camara added.

SOURCE

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

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Ottaviani introduces schema on Revelation

On 14 November 1962, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani presented the schema on Revelation for debate.

He lauded the pastoral value of the schema since it was based on truth, which remained always and everywhere the same.

Pushback from the Council floor was immediate, led once again by Liénart’s immediate non placet, supported by Alfrink, Frings, Bea, König, Suenens, Léger, Ritter and Patriarch Maximos IV.

Stefan Gigacz sums up the debate:

As deadlock emerged, it was Ancel who proposed that Pope John might appoint additional experts from the opposing school of thought to prepare a completely new schema.42 Now another Cardijn ally took the floor, namely De Smedt, who criticised the lack of ecumenical spirit in the draft schema. In a statement that met with thunderous applause, he warned that ‘if the schemas prepared by the Theological Preparatory Commission are not drafted in a different manner, we shall be responsible for having crushed, through the Second Vatican Council, a great and immense hope.’

It was during this debate that a purported opposition between ‘doctors’ (teachers) and ‘pastors’ began to be articulated. This drew a swift response from the French bishops, who, aware that they were regarded as favouring the pastoral approach, wanted to eliminate any misunderstanding. ‘The separation between doctrine and pastoral is inadmissible,’ stated Archbishop Guerry in an interview with La Croix:


It is a mistake. It weighs like an ambiguity on the Council because it risks ending up by dividing the Council Fathers into two groups: on one side, those who faithfully safeguard and defend doctrine; on the other, pastors concerned primarily with fulfilling their pastoral (mission)…’


Or to put it in terms of the Cardijn dialectic, the point was not to oppose ‘truth of faith’ and ‘truth of reality’ but to identify a method to reconcile them.

SOURCE

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

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Abandon the shocking luxury of temples

On 12 November, another ex-JOC chaplain, Cardinal Feltin called for Easter to be fixed on the same date each year to facilitate the participation of the faithful, particularly those on a schedule such as students.

According to the journalist Henri Fesquet, “the interventions that produced the greatest impression on the Fathers were those which sought the simplification of liturgical vestments.”

Chilean Bishop Manuel Larrain, who called for the Church to take into account “the poverty of the under-developed countries, as well as the social concerns expressed by the encyclicals” and abandon the “shocking luxury of its temples and its liturgical vestments.”

He was backed up by yet another Jocist bishop, Paul Gouyon, who appealed for “greater simplicity,” including the abandonment of the ostentatious cappa magna.

SOURCE

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

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Cardijn’s role at the Council

In an undated checklist probably written around 29 October when he was organising his trip to Rome, Cardijn lists the topics he wished to raise with Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo dell’Acqua.

Checklist

  • Presence in Rome during the Council
  • Support for YCW Missionary Action:

1. by the Council

2. by Propaganda Fide

3. by certain foundations

Publication of “The Apostolate of the Laity in the dimension of the world”.

Clearly, Cardijn was seeking some clarity on the role he could or should play during the Council, given the fact that he had not been made a peritus.

Again, he frames his visit in terms of looking for assistance for YCW rather than lobbying or advocating at the Council.

Interestingly and significantly, he is more specific in the mention of his book on “the apostolate of the laity,” an issue he had avoided mentioning in his communication with Suenens.

SOURCE

Archives Cardijn 1300