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Camara slams First Session failures

As the Council closed on 8 December, 1962, Helder Camara was delegated to celebrate Sunday Mass for the journalists covering the Council, who had not been permitted to enter the Council hall.

Frustrated at the limitations of the First Session, Camara lashed the meagre results of the First Session in a draft sermon, translated into six languages, as journalist Robert Kaiser later reported.

The Council had “unforgivably” failed “to tackle the great world issues of the day and could hardly be proud of its balance sheet,” Camara lamented.

Although he toned down his remarks at the request of Felici, who ordered all copies of the original text and translations to be destroyed, Camara’s remarks were widely published in the US.

SOURCE

Robert Kaiser, Pope, Council and world (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 204.

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

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Camara appeals to Suenens

Given that Cardijn had not been appointed to the Lay Apostolate Commission, Brazilian Bishop Helder Camara took it upon himself to approach Cardinal Suenens for assistance.

On 7 December, the day before the First Session closed, he wrote to him, noting that a public celebration celebrating Cardijn’s 80th birthday, which had already taken place in November, was drawing near:

Taking advantage of Msgr Cardijn’s (80th birthday) jubilee, please offer the JOC Internationale a broad gesture of understanding and paternity (a letter, a visit, invitation for a dinner). This would crown a task that I have had the joy of sharing, and which has met with resounding success.

SOURCE

Archives Suenens, 589.

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

1962 12 07 Camara – Suenens
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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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Jocism inspires and dominates the Council

Astounded by what Bishops José Tavora, Helder Camara and Manuel Larrain at the Domus Mariae Hotel during Cardijn’s meeting with them on 18 November 1962, Cardijn commented in a handwritten note:

‘[They’re] crazy! Jocism inspires and dominates the Council. Pressing call to stay and return,’ an astounded Cardijn scribbled in his notebook following his meeting with .

SOURCE

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

Archives Cardijn 1300.

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Jesus Christ and the Church of the Poor group launched

On 26 October 1962, a group of bishops and priest met together at the Belgian College with the objective of ensuring that the Council addressed the problems of the poor.

They chose as the subject of their meeting “Jesus Christ and the Church of the Poor,” taken from the title of a book about to be published by Paul Gauthier, a French worker priest working with Arabic communities in Galilee, Israel.

Convoked by Himmer and Bishop George Hakim of Galilee, the meeting took place under the presidency of Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon, France, a JOC supporter from the time of its foundation in France in 1926.

Other participants with strong connections to the Specialised Catholic Action movements included Georges Béjot (JOC), Guy Riobé (JOC/JAC), both French, and the Brazilian Antonio Fragoso (JOC) while Helder Camara and Alfred Ancel excused themselves as did Patriarch Maximos IV.

The objective was to consider how to develop the theme of poverty within the Council. The working group that emerged thus adopted the title of Gauthier’s book (French title: Jésus, les pauvres et l’Eglise; English title: Christ, the Church and the Poor) becoming known as the Jesus, the Church and the Poor or the Church of the Poor group.

SOURCE

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

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Cardinal Liénart upends the Council agenda

The first business session, or First General Congregation of the Council, took place on Saturday 13 October.

The opening item was the election of sixteen Council Fathers to each of the ten conciliar commissions.

Before Cardinal Tisserant, the session president, could begin, however, Cardinal Achille Liénart of Lille rose to make a statement that would upend the Council’s work.

Like many others, Liénart was unhappy with most draft schemas. As he later recalled, the objective, as defined by John XXIII, was not ‘to formulate new doctrinal definitions, but rather to present, in a form better adapted to modern minds, all the truths already established… that [the Church] had the mission of transmitting to every generation.’

This meant, Liénart believed, that the gathered bishops had to develop ‘une pensée commune’ – ‘a common way of thinking’ – as a basis for ‘the total revision of their pastoral attitudes and to engage the Church in the new way where its permanent mission called it today?’

Consequently, the choice of the ‘the most qualified’ commission members was of the greatest importance. But how to identify them if they did not know each other, he asked:

Abruptly, I leaned towards the Cardinal president to tell him in a low voice: ‘Eminence, it is truly impossible to vote like this… If you allow me, I am going to take the microphone.’ ‘I cannot give it to you,’ he replied… So, I said to him, ‘Excuse me but I am going to speak…’.


I rose… to request that a reasonable time be given so we could better inform ourselves of the best election candidates…. Cardinal Frings, archbishop of Cologne, who was sitting beside me at the presidency table, also rose to offer his support and the applause doubled.

This forced the hand of the presidency breaching the stranglehold that the Roman Curia had exercised over the Council. Although Liénart denied that his intervention was ‘a coup planned ahead,’ other bishops had approached him, and even provided him with draft texts for his intervention, including his compatriots Cardinal Joseph-Charles Lefebvre, Garrone and Ancel. Camara apparently also wanted a postponement, while others such as the South African Denis Hurley ‘knew what was brewing.’

SOURCES

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

Daybook, Sessions 1-2, 24: https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/council-daybook-vol-1-opening-general-congregation/

Achille Liénart, “Vatican II” in Mélanges de Science Religieuse, 33, Numéro Supplémentaire (1963): 63.

PHOTO

Le cardinal Liénart (à droite) avec Mgr Dubois pendant le concile Vatican II / Roman Catholic Diocese of Besançon / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0

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No objection to Rio International Council: Vatican

On 16 October 1961, Archbishop Antonio Samorè (finally) replied to Cardijn indicating that the Holy See had no objection to the holding of the YCW International Council in Rome.

“I was away from Rome when your letter of 17 September arrived and it is only now that I am able to reply,” Archbishop Samorè wrote.

“As you wish, I therefore hasten to let you know that there does not seem to be any objection to the Second International Council of the YCW taking place in Rio in 1961.

“I am also happy to learn of the valuable contribution that Bishop Helder Câmara has promised you to facilitate this meeting. For my part, I will not fail to intervene with the competent Offices of the Curia to obtain financial assistance for you, but I cannot predict how effective my efforts will be.

“In expressing the best wishes for this second international session, I beg you to accept, Monsignor, an assurance of my devoted commitment in Our Lord.”

SOURCE

ORIGINAL FRENCH

Mgr Antoine Samorè – Joseph Cardijn 16 10 2021 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Mgr Antoine Samorè – Joseph Cardijn 16 10 2021 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

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Commission on Bishops and Diocesan Government

L’Osservatore Romano announced the members of the Commission for bishops and government of dioceses on 30 July 1960.

Three bishop members of the Commission had direct experience of the jocist movements:

Archbishop Emile-Maurice Guerry of Cambrai, who had helped found the JOC and other movements in Grenoble, his diocese of origin. He had also written widely on the theology of Catholic Action.

Bishop Georges-Léon Pelletier of Trois Rivières had been a Catholic Action in Montreal prior to his appointment as a bishop;

Bishop Pierre Veuillot of Angers had worked with Montini at the Vatican Secretariat of State before becoming a bishop.

The sociologist-priest Canon Fernand Boulard had long experience with the French JAC and carried several famous sociological enquiries on the Church.

The consultors included:

Archbishop Justin Simonds of Melbourne, a longstanding champion of the YCW, who had first learnt of the movement while studying at Louvain during the late 1920s;

Bishop Helder Pessôa Câmara, auxiliary of Rio de Janeiro, who had been an early JOC chaplain in Brazil as well as responsible for Catholic Action in the nation;