This Lent, as adults, let us reflect and meaningfully engage with artificial intelligence and emerging technologies through the lens of Catholic social teaching, encyclicals, and contemporary Catholic thought.

Using the See-Judge-Act method, together we will connect our lived experiences with Church wisdom, guided by key thinkers: Thomas Merton (technology and spirituality), Marshall McLuhan (media environments), Mortimer Adler (shared inquiry), Omar Arias Zurita (AI literacy), and Matthew J. Gaudet (AI and encounter).

Practice See-Judge-Act with media and technology, and reflect on how Joseph Cardinal Cardijn’s approach to the industrial revolution can inform our ethical engagement with digital innovations

today.

Catholic Social Teaching: Key Themes

• Human dignity: Every person is created in God’s image

• Common good: Society flourishes when all participate and benefit

• Solidarity: We are responsible for one another

• Participation: All have the right to contribute to community life

These themes apply to us in the Autonomous Revolution, which is the revolution creating digital innovations, offering us a path to live our faith meaningfully today, to see-judge-act with the guidance of the Spirit and a little help from other human beings.

Question: How does technology influence human dignity, community participation, and our responsibilities to one another in the digital age?

Over this Lent, I will use these Guides for Our Journey to help us grow together in faith and understanding.

• Thomas Merton: Technology and the contemplative life

• Marshall McLuhan: Media as extensions of ourselves

• Mortimer Adler: Shared inquiry and asking good questions

• Omar Arias Zurita: How AI works and reshapes society (AI literacy)

• Matthew J. Gaudet: AI through Catholic social teaching and “culture of encounter.”

• Joseph Cardinal Cardijn: The wisdom he shared with his people during the Industrial Revolution will have application to our Autonomous Revolution.

See: Our Digital Everyday

• Where do you meet technology and AI each day?

• Phones, TV, email, search engines, online forms, chat recommendations, in your car, at work, in your kitchen appliances, and network news?

• McLuhan: Media are “extensions of man”—they extend our eyes, ears, and memory

• Zurita: Understanding how these tools work helps us ask better questions

• What “extension or technology” do you rely on most?

Judge: Technology and the Heart

• Merton: Technology isn’t opposed to spirituality, but it can tempt us toward speed, noise, and distraction

• Gaudet: Does this technology foster real encounter—mind with mind, heart with heart—or does it isolate us?

• Cardijn: Does digital life help you become more attentive, compassionate, free? Or the opposite? and Why?

• Adler/Zurita: This is “AI literacy”—learning enough to ask good questions about tools that shape society

Act: A Small Experiment This Week

• Choose one practice: tech-free meal, handwritten prayer, or period of silence

• Notice how this affects your mood, prayer, or relationships

• Be ready to share with family, friends, and colleagues: What did you see? How did you judge? What will you act on?

Remedying the World’s Conditions: An Excerpt from Lumen Gentium

“The laity…by their competence in secular training and by their activity…vigorously contribute their effort, so that created goods may be perfected…for the benefit of all humans…Moreover, let the laity also, by their combined efforts, remedy the customs and conditions of the world, if they are an inducement to sin.” (LG 36)

“The Church needs all of its lay-folk, not the clergy, to bring the kingdom of God into the present-day world.” ~ Louis J.Putz CSC 1956

As members of the Cardijn movements, we all know scripture is at the heart of all Catholic Social Teachings. It was at the heart of Joseph Cardijn, and the foundation of the Encycicals and the Docments of Vatican II. Artificial intelligence is already reading the Dead Sea Scrolls faster than we can, translating ancient manuscripts we thought were lost, and helping seminary students write their papers. Whether or not you understand the technology, it’s reshaping our world. Here’s what’s actually happening—and why it matters for faithful biblical scholarship.

A Question Worth Asking

Have academic and public institutes considered how artificial intelligence will reshape biblical research, anthropology, and theology over the next decade? This isn’t science fiction—tools are already changing how we work with ancient texts and the theological questions we face.

AI is already here in our field. The question isn’t whether to engage, but how to do so faithfully and responsibly.

What AI Actually Means for Our Work

Let me translate what’s happening into plain language.

Reading the Unreadable

You know those charred Herculaneum scrolls we’ve been unable to read for centuries? AI-powered imaging technology is now “virtually unrolling” them and making the text legible without physically touching the fragile materials. This isn’t theoretical—it’s happening right now, and it’s producing results faster than any human team could manage.

Similarly, optical character recognition (OCR) software—think of it as extremely sophisticated text-reading technology—is identifying and transcribing ancient scripts from damaged manuscripts at speeds that would take human scholars years or even decades to match. This means more texts are becoming available for study at an unprecedented rate.

Analyzing Language and Patterns

Natural language processing—essentially, computer programs that can “read” and analyze language—can now examine thousands of biblical and related texts simultaneously, identifying patterns, themes, and connections that would take a human lifetime to discover. Imagine being able to trace every echo of a particular phrase across the entire corpus of Second Temple literature in seconds rather than months.

There are also AI assistants being developed specifically for biblical study. These tools can help with language translation, cross-referencing, and fact-checking. However, they raise important questions: Who decides what these tools teach? Whose interpretation do they privilege? How do we maintain scholarly responsibility when we’re relying on algorithmic assistance?

Biblical Anthropology Meets Artificial Intelligence

Here’s where things get theologically interesting—and complicated.

Testing Our Assumptions About Humanity

AI unexpectedly mirrors our beliefs about human nature. When we ask what makes humans unique—created in God’s image—intelligent machines compel us to clarify. The difference isn’t just intelligence; humans are embodied, relational, vocational, and oriented toward communion with God and neighbor. AI can process information, but does not love, hope, suffer, or worship.

The Personhood Question

As AI grows more sophisticated, it may claim to be conscious or self-aware using its own definitions. Today, we urgently need clear theological criteria for personhood that become woven into cyberspace.

AI in Theological Education and Ministry

Make no mistake: generative AI—tools like ChatGPT that can write, summarize, and analyze text—is already embedded in theological education and pastoral practice. That ship has sailed.

What’s Already Happening

In the past three years, these tools have transformed how students and scholars work, supporting research, recall, synthesis, and argument development. They’re used for sermon prep, curriculum, and academic writing. The issue is not if this continues, but how to guide its use.

AI as a Theological Test Case

AI forces us to reconsider doctrines of creation, providence, ecclesiology, and salvation. The ambition behind some AI projects resembles the Tower of Babel: a pursuit of near-divine knowledge and power. We must discern if this is faithful stewardship or technological idolatry.

What’s Coming in the Next Five Years

Let me be realistic about what we’re likely to see:

Research Tools Becoming Standard

Expect AI-powered research platforms to become as common as Bible software is today. These will integrate manuscript databases, linguistic analysis tools, and theological literature, complete with citations and (hopefully) safeguards against bias and error. You’ll be able to ask complex research questions and receive comprehensive, sourced answers in seconds.

Text Recovery and Translation at Scale

Machine learning will routinely help reconstruct fragmentary texts and produce preliminary translations. Interactive translation tools will show you multiple options for translating a passage and explain the linguistic reasoning behind each choice. This doesn’t replace human translators—it assists them and makes their work more transparent.

Institutional Changes

Seminaries and universities will need to establish formal theological and ethical frameworks for the use of AI. This means policies on:

• What counts as authentic authorship when AI assists in writing

• How AI should be used in spiritual formation versus academic analysis

• Teaching students to discern when to depend on AI tools and when to resist them

• Ensuring communal interpretation rather than isolated algorithmic answers

Bible study platforms will increasingly incorporate AI features, which means we’ll need to teach discernment, the dangers of over-dependence on technology, and the irreplaceable value of communal interpretation much more carefully.

Opportunities and Risks: Eyes Wide Open

The Promise

AI offers extraordinary opportunities. Scholars and laypeople worldwide will have unprecedented access to primary sources and language tools that were previously available only to specialists. A pastor in rural Kenya could analyze Greek syntax as easily as a professor at Oxford. This genuinely democratizes biblical scholarship.

The Peril

But there are serious dangers. AI systems can perpetuate biases present in their training data. If built mainly by Western technologists with Western sources, these tools will further marginalize non-Western voices and interpretations.

The Real Challenge Ahead

Here’s my bottom line: The next five years won’t be about AI replacing biblical scholars. That’s not the threat. The real challenge is figuring out what faithful, responsible, and genuinely human inquiry looks like when machine partners are always present.

Look, I get it—history can feel like a dusty classroom subject. Dates, dead people, things that happened before we were born. Who cares, right?

But Thomas Merton—this Trappist monk who somehow became one of the most influential spiritual voices of the 20th century—had a completely different take. For him, ignoring history wasn’t just lazy. It was spiritually dangerous.

History Is Where We Actually Meet God

Here’s the thing about Merton: he wasn’t your typical “Hollywood” version of a monk hiding away from the world. Sure, he lived in a monastery in Kentucky. Still, he was writing about nuclear war, racism, Vietnam, and the spiritual crisis of modern life. He believed that if you wanted to encounter God, you couldn’t just float off into some blissed-out spiritual state. You had to get your hands dirty with reality—including the messy, violent, complicated reality of the past.

He once wrote that contemplation without historical awareness is “a flight from reality.” Read New Seeds of Contemplation, and discover Merton’s understanding of Real prayer, Real contemplation, means looking straight at the truth—all of it. The wars, the racism, the times the Church blessed violence instead of stopping it. And then asking: What does faithfulness look like right now, knowing what we know?

The Mirror We’d Rather Not Look Into

Merton saw history as a brutal but necessary mirror. It shows us patterns we’d rather not see—how violence keeps repeating itself, how nations (including our own) tell themselves comforting lies, how religious people can do horrible things while convinced they’re doing God’s work.

But here’s what’s wild: the mirror also shows moments of genuine courage, love, and transformation. Saints who actually lived as Jesus meant it. People who resisted injustice when it cost them everything. For Merton, both sides of that mirror matter. History reveals “both the grandeur and tragedy of human freedom.”

He was writing during World War II, the Cold War, the civil rights movement—crisis after crisis. And he kept saying: Our survival depends on whether we’re willing to let go of our illusions. Whether we can face what our history actually tells us about ourselves.

Why Nations and Churches Love to Forget

Here’s something Merton understood deeply: we want to forget. Nations want to see themselves as innocent heroes. Churches want to believe they’ve always been on the right side. It’s uncomfortable to remember that:

• Christians launched the Crusades

• European colonialism was often justified with Bible verses

• American Christianity essentially blessed (or ignored) slavery and segregation

• The “good guys” in our national mythology often weren’t all that good

Merton was particularly fierce about racism. He called it “a white problem”—not because Black people don’t suffer from it (obviously they do), but because white people created it, benefit from it, and need to own that history. He knew you can’t fix a problem you won’t remember.

Forgetting history, he said, is how societies justify doing the same terrible things over and over. Collective amnesia is collective permission.

The “Crusader Mentality” We Haven’t Kicked

When Merton looked at Christian history—the real story, not the sanitized version—he saw a pattern he called the “crusader mentality.” It’s this toxic mix of religious certainty and violence, where we convince ourselves that our wars are holy, our nation is chosen, our enemies are evil.

He saw it in the medieval Crusades, obviously. But he also saw it in modern wars, in how Americans talked about communism, in how Christians blessed nuclear weapons. Same sick pattern, different century.

The early martyrs and the ancient church practices—Merton didn’t study them as museum pieces. He studied them to ask: When did we lose the plot? When did following Jesus stop meaning nonviolence and start meaning blessing empires?

History as a Contemplative Practice (Wait, What?)

This is where Merton gets really interesting. Most people think contemplation means closing your eyes and thinking about nothing. Peace, serenity, escape.

Nope. Not for Merton.

For him, contemplation meant entering deeply into reality as it actually is. And reality includes:

• The wounds that haven’t healed

• The people our history books forgot

• The violence our grandparents participated in or benefited from

• The lies we’re still telling ourselves

He believed that real contemplation requires truth, and truth requires memory. So studying history becomes a spiritual practice—a way of learning to see the world the way God sees it, which means seeing all of it.

As he put it, contemplation isn’t about floating above the mess. It’s about looking straight at war, racism, colonialism—all of it—and letting it change you from the inside out.

History as Conscience

Here’s maybe the most practical thing Merton said: being historically conscious means being “the conscience” of your own time—not its cheerleader.

When everyone’s waving flags and demanding loyalty, someone who knows history can say, “Hold on—we’ve done this before, and it ended badly.” When people want simple heroes and villains, history shows you it’s always more complicated. When your nation or your church wants to claim innocence, history hands you the receipts.

Merton wrote constantly about peace and nonviolence, and he always grounded them in memory. Remember the martyrs who refused to kill, yes—but also remember Hiroshima, remember the slave ships, remember what we’re capable of when we think God is on our side.

Memory, for him, was a tool for conversion. For making peace. So as not to repeat the same mistakes our ancestors made.

Why Forgetting Makes Us Dangerous

Merton believed the biggest obstacles to peace and justice were:

• Ignorance of what actually happened

• Refusing to confront historical injustice

• Denying responsibility for the past’s ongoing effects

When people don’t know history, they become easy targets for fear and propaganda. They buy into scapegoating. They fall for what Merton called “the illusions of collective sin”—the way whole societies can convince themselves that evil is good, that violence is necessary, that “those people” deserve what they get.

Historical awareness is moral clarity. It’s the difference between wisdom and repetition.

So What Do We Do With This?

Merton isn’t asking us to become professional historians. He’s asking us to be honest. To read, to remember, to let the truth about the past shape how we live now.

That might mean:

• Actually learning what happened to Indigenous peoples, not the Thanksgiving mythology.

• Understanding how redlining and segregation created today’s wealth gap

• Recognizing that “my ancestors came here legally” ignores that the laws were racist and that people, our ancestors, often bent those rules.

• Seeing that every war gets sold with the same lies, listen to the nightly news.

It means being suspicious of anyone—politician, preacher, pundit—who tells you history doesn’t matter or that remembering old wounds is “divisive.”

Because for Merton, forgetting isn’t neutral. Forgetting is a choice. And it’s usually a choice that protects the powerful and abandons the vulnerable.

History isn’t just dates and dead people. It’s sacred ground—the place where we meet the truth about ourselves, about God, about what love and justice actually require.

And according to this monk from Kentucky, we skip that homework at our peril.

There is a line in the sand between democracy and authoritarian rule. Using the See-Judge-Act method will help us understand what is on both sides of that line and the drivers of both sides' causes.

It's important to note that a theology of democracy is not to be confused with liberation theology. While they may share some common ground, they are distinct theological approaches. Let's delve into a concise comparison to ensure clarity and understanding.

Liberation Theology:

• Emerged in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s

• Focuses on social and economic justice for the poor and oppressed

• Interprets Christian faith through the perspective of the marginalized

• Often associated with Marxist analysis of societal structures

• Emphasizes active participation in changing unjust social systems

Theology of Democracy:

• Rooted in principles of individual rights and freedoms

• Focuses on the compatibility between democratic values and religious beliefs

• Emphasizes the importance of pluralism and tolerance in society

• Supports separation of Church and state while maintaining religious influence in public life

• Often associated with Western liberal democratic traditions

The critical difference is that liberation theology is primarily concerned with the economic and social liberation of the oppressed. In contrast, a theology of democracy focuses more on political systems and individual freedoms that should drive economic and social liberation.

Let's now focus on the critical aspects of a theology of democracy, as understanding these fundamental principles is key to our enlightenment and knowledge in this field.

1. Divine sovereignty and human agency: How do we develop a theology of democracy perspectives that confronts and tries to balance the understanding of God's sovereignty with human free will and political self-determination?

2. Human dignity and equality: In studying history's religions, we see that religious teachings about the inherent worth of all individuals often align with democratic ideals of equality and universal suffrage.

3. Stewardship and responsibility: Our theology of democracy understands democratic participation as a form of stewardship, where citizens are responsible for the well-being of their communities and nations. We see Joseph Cardijn and others leading this concept by example.

4. Justice and the common good: From the beginning of recorded religious ideas, religious concepts of justice and working toward the common good have been compatible with democratic principles; we see this in the Sermon on the Mount and, most significantly, the social teachings and encyclicals.

5. Pluralism and religious freedom: A theology of democracy often addresses how different faith traditions can coexist within a democratic system while maintaining religious liberty. The key is learning and growing together for a common purpose. For Christians, this is the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.

6. Prophetic critique: Some theological approaches emphasize the role of religion in providing a moral guidance of government actions and policies. As in all prophets, when engaging the See-Judge-Act method, the ACT will cause us to speak up and speak out.

7. Subsidiarity: This principle, found in Catholic Social Teaching, suggests that matters should be handled at the most local level possible, which can align with democratic decentralization.

8. Covenant and social contract: Theologians and historians draw parallels between religious covenants and the social contract theory underlying many democratic systems.

9. Liberation theology: This approach, particularly prominent in Latin America, is often misunderstood in the United States because it sees democracy as empowering the poor and marginalized.

10. Secularism and separation of Church and state: A theology of democracy must often address the proper relationship between religious institutions and democratic governance. Religious traditions and denominations may approach these themes differently, leading to varied theologies of democracy.

Key takeaways to think about and discuss with your working groups, reading groups, and organizations:

1. The See-Judge-Act method, developed by Cardijn, is a powerful tool that encourages individuals to observe social realities, make judgments based on Christian principles, and take appropriate action. This method promotes active citizenship and critical thinking, crucial for democratic participation. It's a structured approach that guides individuals in understanding the social context, evaluating it from a moral perspective, and then taking action to address any injustices or inequalities. Please think of how this technique can improve what we do, live, and behave in the context of a theology of democracy.

2. Cardijn founded the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement to empower young workers. The YCW emphasized the dignity of work and workers' rights, which aligns with democratic ideals of equality and social justice. This movement played a significant role in promoting democratic values within the context of the Church and society. Think of ways to engage with labor unions and other worker rights movements. How is the YCW evolving in different countries, and how does it contribute to promoting democratic principles?

3. Lay Apostolate: Cardijn strongly believed in the role of lay people in the Church and society. This emphasis on the importance of non-clergy mirrors democratic principles of citizen participation. How do we get the laity to understand they are the church fully?

4. Social Engagement: Cardijn encouraged Christians to actively participate in social and political issues, consistent with democratic civic engagement ideals.

5. Human Dignity: Cardijn's teachings centered on the inherent dignity of every person, particularly workers. This principle aligns with democratic principles of equality and human rights. What drives the suppression of human dignity and why? What role do greed, power, and entitlement play?

6. Education and Empowerment: Cardijn focused on educating and empowering young workers, giving them tools to understand and engage with social and political realities. Where is the constraint, the core problem in our educational process?

It's worth noting that Cardijn's work took place in the context of Catholic Social Teaching, which was evolving to engage more directly with modern political and economic systems. His contributions influenced the Church's approach to social issues, as articulated in documents like "Gaudium et Spes" from the Second Vatican Council.

"The apostolate must not be thought of as "religion"; but a life of charity in all phases of daily behavior is the objective to be achieved." ~ Louis J Putz CSC (1909-1998)

In September 1903, after finishing his philosophy studies, Cardijn began his seminary theology studies.

What kind of a student was he? According to Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert’s biography, he was an extremely active and brilliant student, who took part in all the major debates of the time. Here is the story they tell.

Tradition and Change among the Seminarists

How did the professors and students in the major seminary take to this bold and original student? Did they wonder how he would turn out after ordination? There was in his whole temperament and behaviour something quite unusual in a young man at the beginning of the century.

At the end of 1903 when Joseph Cardijn was beginning his theology, the seminary was in full ferment. It was the time of Loisy and modernism.

New methods of exegesis, Church history and even dogma provoked lively and worried debate. Developments of activities in the press and reviews, contact with leaders of the social movement, the Flemish movement, and the Social Weeks of France, were opening up new and exciting horizons.

Students were going to listen to Father Rutten and to take part in trade union congresses. Seminarists themselves wrote in the journals and some were going through an apprenticeship of action.

Two fellow students of Cardijn noted their recollections at some length:

“A group of us decided there should be a break with the strict isolation in which theological studies were carried on. Why should we be cut off from reading the press and have no library where we could get to know the currents of thought of our times?

From that time there was a kind of conspiracy among the students. First we had to get hold of a key to the professors' fine library. Then we threw ourselves enthusiastically into the reading of the Fathers of the Church . . .

As Joseph read a great deal, he was put in charge of the theology students' library; it was his job to give out the manuals and treatises they needed for their work. This enabled him to get hold of up to date works on scripture studies and circulate them in the seminary. He took the opportunity of reading them himself and recommending them to fellow students open to the problems of exegesis.

As head of his year, he was responsible, too, for contact between students and the authorities.

This gave him the chance of getting to know all the seminarists and having them in his room for long talks.

From this developed study circles in which the keener ones discussed the works of the Fathers and problems in the theology course among themselves during the evening recreation. Young Cardijn led the discussions and soon these budding theologians grew bold enough to put up objections to their lectures, culled from the treatises of St Augustine on grace. Joseph Cardijn showed up as a disputant with a rare faculty for theological penetration.

There was nothing wrong with any of this, thought there may have been some excess of enthusiasm. But it was always inspired by right motives and kept within limits. All the same the professors were worried. Problems threatened to break the calm monotony of teaching and they would ask “what had gotten into these young students?”2 

We can see in the seminarist some of the dynamism of the years to come: Cardijn man of action, full of audacity and faith. His years in the seminary were above all years of a deepening of faith. In silence, prayer and reflection, the discoveries he had made earlier were filled out, given substance and tied in with his theology and with the demands of the Gospel.

In the seminarv all the religious formation received from that human educator, his mother, became deeply rooted in human realities. There in embryo was the man of faith, of inquiry and of action. For him there was no break or opposition between the humble family life of work at Hal and the years of intellectual and religious growth that were leading him to the priesthood. On the contrary, he was acutely conscious of the link between them.

SOURCE

Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, Cardijn, Chap. 2, Seminary (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Cardijn’s only full-length book, originally published in 1963 under the title “Laïcs en premières lignes” - literally “Lay people in the front lines” - and in English the following year as “Laymen into action.”

It was an important book appearing in between the First and Second Sessions of Vatican II. For many of Cardijn’s supporters at the Council, it became a kind of manual guiding their own advocacy and interventions.

As I have written in my own book “The Leaven in the Council,” the book caused great problems for Cardijn after his own bishop, Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens, sought changes in the text that Cardijn believed undermined his own concept of lay apostolate.

Read the story here:

Suenens vs Cardijn (The Leaven in the Council)

Given Cardijn’s own great powers of advocacy, he was finally able to succeed in having the book printed with only minor changes.

In this Cardijn Reflection, let’s re-read Cardijn’s own foreword to the book setting out his hopes and dreams for the lay apostolate.

Stefan

FOREWORD

AT THE END OF THE ROAD

I have devoted the whole of my priestly life to the lay apostolate, but I have had to wait until today—the eve of my eightieth birthday—for the opportunity of publishing something about it.

For many years I have wanted to make a searching study of the necessity of this apostolate and the way it could best be realized in practical life. The problem that this sets the young workers has attracted me since my adolescence, but I have always seen it as part of a whole vision of the laity and its needs and resources. This has always been an obsession with me. Ever since my first ventures I have become more passionately involved in it. And after so many missionary journeys in so many continents, the problem of the laity and of the formation and organization that are absolutely necessary for the future of the Church and of the world seems to me increasingly to be a universal and fundamental one. For the older I get, the more I am convinced that the importance of the lay apostolate is a decisive factor in the future of the world and the salvation of humanity. This is why I came to collect together the many notes I have written about this subject during more than fifty years of activity as a priest. They are reflections arising from everyday apostolic life which develop the theme I have never tired of repeating to the young people of the Y.C.W.: 'Each young worker, each working girl has a divine destiny and a divine mission, beginning not after death, but from today, in the conditions of their everyday life, where they are the first and immediate apostles of God in their environment and among their comrades.' This affirmation, which inspired the birth and the belief of the Y.C.W., does not belong to it alone. It is part of the very essence of Christianity and applies to the whole conception of the Christian laity.

I have often repeated that this is the whole dialectic of Christianity, which is in reality the reply to the Marxist dialectic. The thesis of this dialectic is that every man born into the world has a divine destiny and mission; he is God's apostle among his fellow-men. This fundamental truth has inspired thousands of laymen to apostolic action; it has charged their lives with truly religious meaning and sent them out to the ends of the earth. It has given birth to a whole spiritual conception of life, inspired by faith in God as creator and redeemer, which draws all men to participate in the one and only apostolate—that of Christ.

The thesis is inseparable from its historical antithesis, which is man's act of refusal to God's plan of love. This refusal is made up of ignorance, indifference and an accumulation of opposition, struggles, difficulties and obstacles which stand in the way of the realization of the divine plan and play an important part in the history of humanity.

This is why God's plan of love can only be fulfilled if the Christian dialectic develops towards its end in a continually new synthesis, always better adapted to its purpose, always spreading and expanding, until at last it is universal: the movement of the lay apostolate, willed by God, lived by the example of Christ, guided and animated by the Church, and spread among all men to the ends of the earth and the consummation of the world.

These notes are the outcome of a long spiritual journey: an idea which has been put into practice and lived.

The movement did not forge straight ahead towards its goal without wavering, nor were there clearly defined stages in the formulation of an idea developing resolutely towards its conclusion. On the contrary. The movement has often gone backwards and forwards; there have been many regressions and a thousand fresh starts and lengthy processes of trial and error—both in expression and in practical application—but it never ceases to reach out towards its great goal which is both far off and yet daily very close. The challenge is this:

How can men all men, be made aware that they have a mission on earth that God himself has entrusted to them from the very moment of the creation and the redemption, a mission the Church proclaims to them and helps them to realize? What can be done to make each person live with this unshakable conviction: 'God needs me! I am his missionary'?

This mission given by God to all men finds its fullest expression in the lay apostolate. It consists in building a world according to God's will, a fraternal humanity where the humble are loved and helped by their brothers',¹ witness to the presence and the life of God, for the establishment of this kingdom of peace and glory. The following pages, then, are not an argument or a methodical account of the whole problem; nor, by any means, do I claim to lay down a finished doctrine, a hard and fast method, and a perfect apostolic style. I am not a teacher, a theologian, a canon lawyer or a writer, but a man of action, always on the move, always searching and enquiring 'Quaerite et invenietis ... Quaerite primum regnum Dei—Seek and ye shall find... Seek ye first the Kingdom of God… ' (Luke 12:22).

After fifty years, 'Seek… ' is still my motto.

In the exercise of my ministry as a priest, I have been what people call a great traveller. And the more I have travelled through towns and countries, the more clearly have I seen that the lay apostolate is the vital factor in the permanent confrontation of the Church with the needs of the present world. It is through laymen that the Church is in the world, and the more technical and unified our universe becomes, the more pressing will be the need for real lay apostles. If the world's most urgent problems are not studied and resolved in the light of the Christian dialectic I outlined earlier, we are moving towards a catastrophe for humanity and for the Church.

I have always been struck by the contacts I have had with non-Catholics, non-Christians, and people who are either a-religious or anti-religious. Each time they have brought home to me more forcefully the fact that Christian laymen, if they exercise a true, deep and vital apostolate, can and must bring a positive solution to the problems of the modern world.

I am also convinced that the lay apostolate—whether it is active in a specifically religious or specifically secular field—will never attain the development and efficiency that are absolutely necessary for the world that is coming into being if the clergy and those who educate the laity do not see, on the one hand, what is man's original, essential mission on earth and, on the other, what laymen in the Church must do to help all men discover and fulfil this mission.

The basic formation which each Christian and each individual needs will depend on the clarity of this vision. The action which must be carried out will be closely linked to this formation, and for this formation and action there must be organization and suitable institutions, both in the Church and in the secular world. Formation, action, organization, united and inseparable, producing a ferment, a leaven, in and for the mass of humanity which must be transformed, influenced and trained.

I have always felt that everything possible should be done in the Church to achieve unanimity in the conception of the mission of each man and each Christian, with all its consequences: unity and organization which call for the union of action and formation. Thus, all men and all Christians will finally become conscious of, convinced of and united for the realization of this mission.

The Second Vatican Council will discuss the place and the mission of laymen in the Church, and will seek means of promoting their indispensable apostolate, as much in the purely religious field as in the secular. Will the study of these questions be limited to the layman s task only insofar as it touches the Church, with its apostolic and educative consequences? Or will the problem be taken up in all its hum an and earthly dimensions? This second line of discussion would be bound to be immensely valuable, and should answer in particular many of the questions that non-Catholics and non-Christians are asking today. It should even interest the great international institutions, and could be a most valuable guide to the nations who are trying to find their way through the labyrinth of philosophies and ideologies. It should bring about a theology of the Catholic laity, and at the same time provide a very timely opening for all men of goodwill, who could thus discover in the lay apostolate a call to universal co-operation and solidarity.

It is in this context that this book should be read. My aim is not simply to look back on the past, but to stimulate fresh thought and study. From day to day I have experienced the marvellous work of co-operation that the lay apostolate demands, with a very great number of priests and laymen; and these pages are the outcome of all their combined efforts, on the basis of the experience of the Y.C.W. all future study too, should be carried out in common.

The lay apostolate has not yet reached maturity: far from it! Undoubtedly it has never been absent from the life of the Church, and even during the most critical periods it has achieved marvels. But the ultimate stage —that in which priests, religious, and laymen will all be convinced that religious life and apostolic life are one and the same thing—whether it is a matter of personal sanctification, or action on and with others—that stage is still far off! When its hour strikes, it will mark a glorious date in the history of the Church. And not only in the Church, but in the history of the world. 'Ut unum sint—That they may be one,' said Christ in his prayer at the Last Supper. If these words apply to the unity of all Christian confessions and even of all religions and ideologies, surely they apply also to unity between all men and to the very conception of human life itself: that all should be one in the conception of man's life, in the apostolic mission entrusted to him, and in the cooperation he should bring through his life to the work of the creation and the redemption?

For the lay apostolate can and must realize this unity, with respect to all consciences, races and cultures; in the brotherhood of mutual aid between all peoples, classes and individuals; in the union of all efforts for the promotion of the humblest and poorest and the comfort and consolation of all men.

In bringing about unity, the lay apostolate will contribute to peace on earth between all men, and to the even more radiant manifestation of the glory of God.

Justice, peace, brotherhood and the glory of God: 'on earth as it is in heaven'.

Joseph Cardijn

NOTE

1Speech of Pius XII at the World Conference of the Y.C.W. in Rome, 25 August 1957.

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, Laypeople into Action (ATF Press)

Buy the book here:

https://atfpress.com/product/laypeople-into-action/

This month marks the 90th anniversary of a famous Cardijn speech “Ite missa est” delivered during the French Catholic Church’s Social Week at Reims in July 1933.

Later, the famous Vatican II theologian, Yves Congar, would describe this as one of his favourite Cardijn speeches.

With the YCW expanding prodigiously in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Canada and beginning in other countries and continents, Cardijn wanted to take the opportunity to insist on his conception of the “real YCW.”

Not every youth group is a YCW group, even if they adopt the name!

Hence, the need to define the essentials as Cardijn does in this talk, which is based on another of his iconic trilogies: life, milieu and mass, and the need to transform each of those fields.

Here then is Cardijn’s orginal article:

Ite, Missa Est

Talk given at the Social Week of Rheims, July, 1933

The Y.C.W. is at present fashionable, everyone praises it, and soon people will feel ashamed if there is no Y.C.W. in their parish. But it is essential that we should not merely have the Y.C.W. in name; we must have a movement that is truly Y.C.W. in spirit, methods and organisation. Otherwise false hopes will be raised, and the working class and working youth will not be reconquered. The young workers will be deceived once again, and instead of returning to the Church, they will give themselves up once more to revolt and despair.

And that is why I am asking you very simply and straightforwardly to build the real Y.C.W., the only one that can solve the problem which faces us.

Remember that there is nothing freakish or artificial about the Y.C.W. One can achieve nothing with artificial organisations.

Too often the title of Catholic Action is given to any sort of grouping without spirit, without sense of conquest, without method, as if a movement became " Catholic Action " simply by having Catholics in it. In this way it is we, and not our enemies, who threaten to destroy what the Holy Father considers as the apple of his eye; and we make a caricature of what the Pope considers to be the salvation of the Church.

I. An action in real life.

In founding the Y.C.W. we are out to create a movement for the transformation of the natural, ordinary, daily, habitual working life of the young workers.

That is the primary characteristic of the Y.C.W. It is not simply a question of clubs and premises or even institutions, but of an organisation which enables working life to become first of all human, and then sanctifying and christianising.

It must enable the worker to live in the habitual and daily environment in which God has placed him in such a way that he can fully develop his family, sentimental, professional, public life, his intelligence, his will, his heart. That is where he will find the reason for which he has been placed on earth. It is this life that the Y. C. W. must first of all think out anew, which it must use to influence those who lead the same kind of life, and make the young worker an instrument and a providential witness of the truth and happiness of the Christian life as taught and propagated by the Church.

This is what we, priests and leaders, must understand first of all.

The Y.C.W. does not consist of organising meetings of young workers in which they find amusement and recreation, perform amateur theatricals or organise whist drives. That doesn't lead anywhere. It is even useless to make them penetrate the environment itself, to sell papers and make visits, if these things do not help to transform the every life of the young worker, his young life as member of a working family, of the working class. It is essential that he should be given a very high conception of his own life, so that he becomes proud of belonging to a working family and to to the working class, and realises that his personal mission and vocation is to be found in that life itself, that it is a beautiful, grand vocation, willed by God as the means through which he is to be sanctified and raised to the heights of the spiritual life and of holiness.

Each morning, the young worker should be able to offer to his Creator and Redeemer, not the lives of others, but his own life. His presence in this factory, this train, this tram, is the offering that is worth most in the sight of God.

If one has not understood that this is essential, one has not understood the Y.C.W.

And when the young worker is preparing for marriage, in his first relationships with his girl, he must understand that, here also, is a means of fulfilling his vocation, of serving God and of offering Him his life.

That is the essence of the Y.C.W. To make of the life of the worker, of the masses, a Christian, sanctified, sanctifying, apostolic life, so that his life in his family, at work, in his courting, his leisure, and, to-morrow, his life as a citizen, should become a real means of apostolate—that is what the Pope primarily means when he speaks of Catholic Action.

The Pope relies on laymen to act on other laymen and to transform lay environments. “I.aicism” is opposed by the laity, the apostolate of the laity, young and adult, who make their professional and family life in their respective environments a means of apostolate, through an organised apostolate.

The first aim must therefore be to make each militant and leader into members of a powerful organisation, through which they will transform their life consecrated to their God into a means of conquest, and, freely and proudly submissive to the Church, will assume all necessary responsibility wherever the hierarchy cannot directly penetrate. This first condition must be fulfilled; to make the life of Catholics a Catholic life, a Christian life completely Christian.

That is why in our enquiries, our meetings, our leaders' groups, we take as immediate object. I would almost say formal object, the actual life of the young workers.

It is the same problem everywhere; to know how we shall organise public life so that it may take into account the destiny of man; and that is the whole problem of Catholic Action.

We must consider real life as willed by God, in which there is nothing artificial, and try to find how that life can be made to glorify God.

That is the life which must be transformed into a true Mass, a prolongation of the priest's Mass, an offering united to that of Our Redeemer throughout space and time, so that the young workers may become conscious and voluntary members of that great mystical body which the whole of humanity must become in order to give glory to God, its Creator and Redeemer.

So long as one begins by looking for something else, and gives them lessons, lectures, sermons which do not relate to ordinary life, their real life, one will just be providing fun and games, while the essential problem remains neglected.

If I say this of our youth work, I would say the same of religion. For a vast number of Christians, religion is a private affair, something separate from daily life, whereas it should be the soul, the motor, the transformer, the supernatural force of the whole of that life.

That is the purpose of religion. The whole of life must become religious, must sing “Gloria in excelsis Deo” must be a public confession of faith, a Credo, a Preface to the glory of the Holy Trinity. The whole of life must, like the Host, be consecrated to God, so that united in its entirety with the life of Christ, “ per ipsum, in ipso, cum ipso” all honour and all glory may be given to Him who reigns for ever and ever. Thus Communion, which too often is the end of religious life, finds once again its full place. It is a new stimulant and the means of achieving complete, transforming union. And then you will be able to say “Ite.” Now you are in order, you can go out to your daily work. “Ite, Missa est.” Your task is to make your day a continuation of the Mass, in union with that which is offered by the Pope, the Bishops, and all priests, and which you are going to sanction by the whole of your life.

That is the chief purpose of the Y.C.W. Its concern is the entirety of the young workers' humble life, which demands from us all that we can give in the way of study, of care, of solicitude, of fatherly kindness, so that we may teach them its beauty, its splendour, its greatness, its divine significance.

We must study the causes which tend to ruin and corrupt this life, to rob it of its true purpose. Our Y.C.W. sections must endeavour to set up small communities, a Christian society in miniature, in germ, destined to ensure the supernatural fruitfulness of the whole of working life.

Thus the enquiries must always be concerned with the life of the young workers, a life which is inseparable from the environment in which it is lived, as inseparable as the soul is from the body.

II. An action upon environment.

The actual environment, the factory, the workshop, the office, the trains and buses, the canteens, the cloakrooms, the places of leisure, must become an educative environment instead of an immoral one; the street, the district, must become a Christian street, a Christian district.

You will never succeed in re-Christianising life without exercising an influence on the environment.

That is why all Y.C.W. activity, Y.C.W. life, Y.C.W. methodology, is always concerned with the life of the young workers in the providential environment in which God has placed them. The purpose of all our meetings is to enable them to fulfil their apostolate in that environment, to defend themselves within it against un-Christian influences.

Our headquarters, our meetings, our studies, however essential they may be, are but the beginnings, corrections on the map, in the staff meetings at which steps are taken to prevent the breaking of the Y.C.W. front, to enable this front to take the offensive, to set out for conquest, so that it may advance constantly and absorb into its ranks its very enemies. We are not out to crush them but to win them; our tactics will never include methods of combat which seek purely temporal and material ends.

We are seeking the conversion of souls. Our aim is to impart true life to all in a spirit of charity, even to our enemies, and the best way to succeed is not to start attacking the error in their minds, but to find the soul of truth which is often hidden in their doctrines, to find a point of contact which enables us to enter into their heart, into their mind, and when we begin to understand their aspirations we are astonished to find that we have discovered among them the most intrepid apostles, the boldest witnesses, and the finest confessors of truth.

But we can only succeed if we never lose sight of their real life, of the environment in which they live, and, I add this third point, the mass we are out to conquer.

III. A mass action.

We must have the courage to keep in mind, at the very beginning of our endeavours, that our final aim is to reach the masses.

That is why the very first question we have to ask ourselves is this; do the Y.C.W. leaders who form our first nucleus really belong to the masses?

However well prepared and trained they may be, we will not possess the instrument willed by the Pope for the transformation of working class environment if they are not in contact with the masses, if they do not mingle with the masses in their daily life.

I beg of you to be confident; everywhere it is possible to find in the masses lads and girls who have enough capabilities to become leaders of Catholic Action.

But then we must demand everything of them. A movement of conquest which sets out to transform the whole life of the young workers is only possible if it is directed by leaders of the highest quality.

The essential task of the chaplain is to train leaders.

The Y.C.W. is absolutely dependent on them. A section without a leader, a region without a leader, will never be the true Y.C.W.

It is not sufficient that it should have leaders who are capable of presenting demands, of making propaganda or even of penetrating into the working class; these leaders must become the real educators of their comrades, and they must achieve the supernatural transformation of their life and of the lives of others.

It is therefore absolutely necessary to keep constant contact with the masses.

For this reason, they should not have to exercise their action over too great a number. For five, for ten members, a leader is needed who can look after all the aspects of their life, who can make it his concern, who can pray for them, who can transform all the achievements of the Y.C.W., all its activities, all its services, into a means of educating the young workers.

I believe that if we manage to conceive the Y.C.W. in this fashion, we can no longer say that the conquest of the working class is a dream, an Utopian fancy.

IV. A complete and organised action.

It is astonishing how difficult it is to get people to accept this absolutely indispensable condition of disciplined organisation. It is nevertheless a matter of life or death. There is no possible solution without it. Working youth and the working class will be lost if we priests cannot see that our section belongs to an organisation which goes beyond the boundaries of our parish, and that our priestly task is not only to see that the young workers are sanctified individually, but that through the whole Y.C.W. apostolate (which is, I am convinced, the best way of ensuring their personal sanctification) they may lift up their whole environment, and thus organise in powerful fashion, to the confusion of our enemies, that royal priesthood we have the ambition to raise up for the service of the Church and of civilisation. We must make them conscious once again of their active membership in the Church.

Too often we priests look upon the faithful as passive members of the Church, whereas they belong to the Church militant; it is in their midst that we shall find the best soldiers of the Church for the creation of a single front against the forces of evil.

We must give up our narrowly parochial spirit, and acquire enough breadth of vision to accept discipline, responsibilities, a share in the life and programme of our movement.

We must ask our chaplains to understand that, if this outlook became general, they would find, in their disciplined sharing in the transformation of our entire environment, the finest, most magnificent and most fruitful of their priestly labours.

They, the priests, must become the educators, the fathers., the promoters, the apostles of working youth.

They are likewise responsible for that integral Catholicism which is the characteristic note of our movement.

V. A fully Catholic Action.

For myself, I am convinced—and I come back to this idea because it seems to me to be true—that we are at the crossroads of history; religion must once again enter deeply into social life, professional life, family life, so that this life may flower out and become fully human and enable society to become Christian once again.

That will be the real revolution, true Catholic Action, the finest of all our tasks, which will not be merely a plaster on a wooden leg, but a real rebirth, a renovation, a spiritual revolution.

The only way to combat Communism is to establish a spiritual communion between souls in order to place them at the service of the Church, of Society, of Our Lord, of God.

The social problem cannot be solved by a mere redistribution of wealth. We need, far more deeply, to socialise souls so that the hearts, the spirits, the minds of men may unite in the Mystical Body of Christ, in that vast union where self is forgotten and personal interest is left behind in the search for the common good.

Our society is at present in danger of collapse. I ask you to help us to make this organisation of working youth, and, to-morrow, of the whole working class, still stronger, still more irresistible, so that, in the midst of a pagan society, there may arise a Christian society, with Christian lives, Christian families, Christian institutions. Thus will be established the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which alone can ensure to the world peace and prosperity in time and in eternity.

Joseph Cardijn

SOURCE:

Joseph Cardijn, The Church and the young worker, Speeches and writings of Canon Joseph Cardijn, (Translation, Eugene Langdale), Collection Young Worker Library No. 1, Young Christian Workers, London, 1948, 74p. at p. 19-26.

Joseph Cardijn, Ite Missa Est (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Original French Text:

Joseph Cardijn, Ite Missa Est (Bibliothèque Numérique Joseph Cardijn)

After his powerful critique of the “bankruptcy of evangelisation”, which we looked at yesterday, here is Part II of Cardijn’s report to the IYCW.

Here he is much more positive, rejoicing at the amazing development of the YCW in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, the USA and finally a stopover in England.

And without saying so explicitly he offers his response to the bankruptcy of evangelisation that he had so sharply criticised:

At a time that is so decisive for the future of the country as well as for the whole of Latin America, I felt gripped with anguish at the urgency and immensity of the problems that have been caused by the lack of housing, teaching and social security for the working masses, both in the agricultural sector and in the industrial regions. I was also struck by the need to develop a Christian social sense at all levels of society but particularly among the highest levels, and to ensure a formation and positive organisation of the proletariat, which is spreading everywhere. Purely negative anti-communism will never save the country.

And more:

I was struck by the opposition between the extreme poverty and the extreme opulence as well as between the technical progress and the backwardness of the housing, health, education and working conditions for the indigenous masses. I asked myself where the social sense was to be found as well as respect for the human person and the human family. Once again, evidently purely negative anti-communism will not be able to resolve these vital problems. It is urgent everywhere to develop social education particularly among the upper classes if we wish to repair the only too evident social injustices and social revolts.

Only genuine Catholic Action will be able to achieve this. The JOC has an immense and providential task here! Please God let it be understood and achieved!

In other words, for Cardijn, the solution to the bankruptcy of evangelisation is found in the development of Specialised Catholic Action as incarnated in the JOC.

A bold claim indeed but that’s what Cardijn believed!

Stefan Gigacz

Joseph Cardijn

First impressions of a world tour – Part II

Brazil

After leaving Dakar at 2.30 in the morning, I arrived in Recife following a seven hour flight over the ocean. Then, after a short stopover for refueling, we took off for another seven hour flight to Rio de Janeiro. Here, we experienced a long and painful disembarkation process by bus, boat and bus once again right up the city centre with all the complicated formalities of customs and the police. Finally, the friendly faces of Canon Tavora and the jocist militants appeared and I eventually reached the diocesan centre.

After a short visit to His Eminence Cardinal Camara, I was able to wash up after the long trip. Then followed a meeting at the JOC secretariat as well as a well-deserved rest and a morning of letter writing. Later we had a visit to the sumptuous city with its new skyscrapers, avenues, beach and rich villas – and alas! – three time alas! – its horrible “favelas” with shelters of corrugated iron, tarred cardboard and wood lining the flanks of the mountain where more than 300,000 workers and worker family members are piled up like animals.

During the afternoon, I flew to Sao Paulo arriving at 5.p.m. The air field was invaded by several hundred jocists from Sao Paulo with banners, cardboard boxes, flags and pennants and above all with shouts, songs and cheers. What a din and crowd! Lots of photos and film! A short visit to Cardinal Motta and two auxiliary bishops then lodging with the Holy Cross Fathers. Fr Mélanson is the assistant chaplain of the Sao Paulo JOC, which seems very alive to me and is working ardently to become an authentic JOC.

The Brazilian JOC’s first National Study Week was quite an event. Several delegates had travelled for several days to take part. There were more than 600 participants. The opening took place before His Eminence, an auxiliary bishop and a sympathetic audience.

It was a genuinely jocist event. The subjects were introduced by the young workers. Then, they met and discussed in commission groups – young men and young women grouped separately and by state or groups of states. Finally, there was a plenary gathering where the secretaries of the groups reported the findings made and the conclusions proposed. All the delegates spoke very well, sometimes too well. In any case, the whole event was very jocist! It’s a revolution for Brazil! There is untold richness and opportunity here.

The Study Week was supported by university people, both from the YCS and the bourgeois milieu, who did not fail to show their support with very moving testimonies. The Hierarchy itself insisted on multiplying its encouragement.

After the Study Week was over, the first Study Week for priests took place. Four hundred priests and seminarians took part at the cost of praiseworthy effort. Visits to coffee and sugar cane plantations as well as worker neighbourhoods and jocist sections in various cities of the province enabled a number of contacts to be made in the region.

After two weeks in Sao Paulo, I returned to Rio de Janeiro for contacts with the Hierarchy, university academics and to give talks to clergy and jocists.

From Rio, I travelled directly to Porto Alegre where the cardinals and bishops of Brazil were meeting for the Catholic Action Congress and the National Eucharistic Congress. I had the great honour of being able to address them as well as the opportunity to speak to academics and to visit several projects.

A stay of 25 days in three centres of Brazil evidently does not allow for a judgement on a whole country that is as large as Europe. Its climate varies from tropical to temperate. It has immense coffee, sugar and tropical fruit plantations. Its current population of 50 million people could quite easily triple with the industrialisation that advancing with giant steps in regions that are so rich and which will make Brazil the most industrial country in Latin America, if not the whole of the Americas.

There is a striking mix of people, which, in contrast to what happens on other continents, results in a more homogeneous and united population. At a time that is so decisive for the future of the country as well as for the whole of Latin America, I felt gripped with anguish at the urgency and immensity of the problems that have been caused by the lack of housing, teaching and social security for the working masses, both in the agricultural sector and in the industrial regions. I was also struck by the need to develop a Christian social sense at all levels of society but particularly among the highest levels, and to ensure a formation and positive organisation of the proletariat, which is spreading everywhere. Purely negative anti-communism will never save the country.

Alas, the lack of clergy and the lack of priestly vocations is painful in a continent that has never experienced schism or heresy. Only genuine Catholic Action, preparing young people for an apostolate in life, will be able to multiply the number of Christian families and ensure priestly vocations at the level needed for such an important task as that which faces Brazil at this time in its history.

* * *

Other Latin American countries

The trip to Brazil gave me an opportunity to repeat the voyage that I had made two years earlier. One day in Montevideo – with contacts full of interest with the Hierarchy, chaplains, jocists and the general public – enabled me to appreciate the serious progress achieved by the JOC.

Thanks to the same multiple contacts, after four days in Buenos Aires, I was deeply moved by the attachment, heroism and perseverance of the chaplains and militants despite the seriousness of the obstacles and sometimes painful misunderstandings.

It was in Chile that the progress of the JOC took place with the greatest assurance thanks to the support of His Eminence Cardinal Caro Rodriguez, archbishop of Santiago, and the whole hierarchy of Chile. Thanks above all to the understanding, value and devotion of the national chaplains and leaders formed by them. The first National Study Week for jocist chaplains, which took place at Santiago from 2-7 November, was remarkable in every aspect. The attention of His Eminence, His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio the auxiliary bishop of Santiago moved me deeply and inspired the most beautiful hopes for the future of the JOC. Here also growing sympathy on the part of the academic and bourgeois milieux helped create a climate taht is very favourable for jocist action.

In Lima, I unfortunately could only briefly greet His Eminence the Cardinal, the chaplains and jocist militants. Indeed,this caused great disappointment.

I was able to stay nearly a week in Quito, the homeland of Garcia Moreno. The city, which is situated at 2,800 metres elevation and is surrounded by high mountains, maintains a rather temperate climate despite its tropical location. The first national Study Week for jocist militants and the day for priests were a great success thanks also to the support from the Hierarchy, the Apostolic Nuncio and the Superiors in the Major Seminary.

Finally, after a day in Panama, I reached Nicaragua. Managua on its beautiful lake; Léon with its beautiful cathedral and its old university. This country of lakes and volcanoes with its Indian population as in Ecuador made a deep impression on me. Here I also met the young and valiant bishop of Léon, so devoted to the JOC and the whole working class, as well as the national chaplain of Costa Rica who travelled to offer me his aid and so much sympathy for the JOC. The national study days held in Léon with its tropical environment and reports presented by young workers illustrated well that the JOC was at home everywhere and that it has no homeland or borders.

* * *

A bird’s eye view such as this excludes the possibility of a personal enquiry. However, these images nevertheless remain anchored in my memory. I was struck by the opposition between the extreme poverty and the extreme opulence as well as between the technical progress and the backwardness of the housing, health, education and working conditions for the indigenous masses. I asked myself where the social sense was to be found as well as respect for the human person and the human family. Once again, evidently purely negative anti-communism will not be able to resolve these vital problems. It is urgent everywhere to develop social education particularly among the upper classes if we wish to repair the only too evident social injustices and social revolts. Only genuine Catholic Action will be able to achieve this. The JOC has an immense and providential task here! Please God let it be understood and achieved!

* * *

United States

A hop over the Sea of Mexico and there I was in New Orleans where my friends and colleagues awaited me. Then after a talk to seminarians and a flight of several hours over Texas, I arrived in Chicago. Pat Keegan, national president of the English YCW and international secretary of the JOC had arrived there several days before me. The two secretaries of the YCW and Girls YCW are now in contact with every state in this great Republic.

A series of quite intimate contacts with chaplains and leaders helped me understand the progress achieved both from the point of view of the jocist ideal as well as in the unity of the movement.

If you think of the role that the US is called to play in the world, you will understand how much this observation pleased me. This was also confirmed in New York where jocist friendships moved me both on my arrival as well as my departure. A delegation from the Canadian JOC and LOC also came to bring a moving testimoney of this well-loved sister of the Belgian JOC.

Here also the mission of the JOC was clearly urgent. Materialism, the thirst for comfort and enjoyment threaten to atrophy the sense of responsibility among young people and to kill family life. When one realises the frightening number of divorces and the family crisis that is developing in the US, one measures the imminence of the danger and the urgency of a solution. Only formation for the lay apostolate in life seems to me to be capable of preparing young people for the great and noble family, social and international responsibilities. And here too the JOC has an irreplaceable role to play.

England

A magnificant flight and splendid weather above the ocean gave me hope for a rapid arrival in Brussels after a short stop at Heathrow airport. But I had not counted on the famous impenetrable London fog. This obliged us to land in the south of England at 11a.m. and finally to reach London at 9p.m. by rail and to wait for two days in the English capital.

However, this forced stopover also enabled me to meet His Eminence Cardinal Griffin and to once again appreciate his unlimited confidence and total support for the YCW as well as to take part in a rally with the London jocist federation during the evening.

I believe that it is in England that the JOC has made the most progress since the war. It certainly owes this to the confidence and support of the Hierarchy that the movement has completely won over but also to the competency and devotion of the national chaplains and the marvellous team of propagandists that it has managed to form. If the English YCW continues its progress forward – and that is clear – it will soon be leading the International YCW.

* * *

An international responsibility

This missionary trip to Africa and the Americas has revealed to me once again the great international responsibility of the Belgian JOC. The audience with the Holy Father last May as well as the many letters from His Excellency Monsignor Montini have demonstrated the extraordinary importance that the Holy See attaches in current international circumstances to the worldwide expansion of the JOC. The latter depends to a great extent on the vitality, the influence of the Belgian JOC.

A person needs to have experienced the moving moments that I had at the landing and take off of the planes, at the receptions and meetings, in the welcome in every country and every city, including even the smallest jocist section, in the bled and in the bush, in order to understand the expectations of millions and millions of young workers with respect to the message that the Belgian and International JOC brought them. It is on site, in our sections and through our militants that we are building the International YCW.

The announcement of the JOC jubilee events in 1950 have sparked an enthusiasm in every country of which we hardly have any idea. All are preparing to take part in the Jubilee Congress and hope to be able to bring the homage of the International YCW to the Holy Father during the Holy Year.

May all chaplains understand this international responsibility to their militants and find there the stimulus to renew in depth the missionary spirit in each of our sections. Never have the words of Pius XI, “Jocists, you are the missionaries of the world of work” found a more urgent and more complete realisatoin. It is the providential hour of the International YCW!

Jos. CARDYN.

Source

Joseph Cardijn, Premières impressions d’une randonnée mondiale, in Notes de Pastorale Jociste 1949 T. XIV.3 p. 73-78.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/42

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Pope now Saint John XXIII.

Despite not knowing him before he became pope, Cardijn developed a very close relationship with John, who had promised to support him even more than Pius XI and Pius XII had done.

Here is Cardijn’s homage to John XXIII.

Bulletin of the International YCW

July – August 1963 No. 90

During the reign of John XXIII: A New Pentecost

In five years John XXIII, the “transition Pope” has renewed the Church and the world! “Et renovabis faciem terrae…”.

He spoke so freely of a new Pentecost!

I will never forget our first meeting.

I was in New Zealand when we learnt on the radio through the Archbishop of Christchurch of the death of Pius XII. After a session of fervent prayer in the chapel, we asked ourselves: “How will we find a worthy successor to such a great and holy Pope?”

I continued on my voyage to Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia and it was at the airport of Formosa (now Taiwan) that people told us: “We have a new Pope: John XXIII!”

– John XXIII, who is he?

– It’s Cardinal Roncalli, the Patriarch of Venice

– Roncalli… never heard of him!

A little later, I went to Rome after also visiting Japan, Korea and finishing my tour of Asian countries. The Pope received me. I wanted to kneel down and ask for his blessing… but he came to me with open arms and embraced me:

– I have known you for such a long time! I have been following you and your work. I will support the YCW as Pius XI and Pius XII, indeed even more than they did!

He stopped and looked at me:

– How old are you?

– Holy Father, I was born in 82.

– And I was born in 81!

– What month?

– November, Holy Father…

– Me too. What day? I was born on the 25, the feast of St Catherine! You see, we are young! We will work together for the salvation of the workers…

And he told me about his life, he spoke about his family, the reforms that he proposed to introduce at the Vatican in relation to the salaries of the guards, employees and families.

I saw him again in 1959:

– Very Holy Father, could I propose to the Pope an idea that has come to me? In two years, in 1961, it will be the 70^th anniversary of Rerum Novarum. The times and the problems have completely changed… And I launched into an explanation.

– Send me a written note!

How many times he thanked me for it! He did not merely want a doctrine; he lived it and he wanted the world to live it: the dignity of the most human person, the poorest, of every race and colour; the dignity of the poorest family. And with that, all the consequences and all the applications from the social and human point of view; the relations between communities, based not on force, arms and profit, but on openness, loyalty, and the most absolute solidarity; the price finally, between all and for all, guaranteed by a just authority instituted, recognised and supported by all, and not by an atomic power that would ruin the world.

To achieve this, dialogue is necessary, person to person contact, simple, open, straight, whatever our opinion, ideology or the religion of our interlocutor.

And John XXIII opened the Vatican to all, friends and adversaries. Or rather, he did not have adversaries, only misunderstanding and obscurities. And whatever the cost these needed to disappear. He did not know obstacles, he left the Vatican, visited sick friends, hospitals, handicapped asylums, poor parishes and prisons. He wanted to see, to understand, to be present.

And to achieve this, he decided that all the bishops and their advisers would meet in Rome in an Ecumenical Council where they would discuss problems, seek solutions, not secretly but we could say in the open air in front of representatives of other Churches and confessions as well a the press and international opinion.

That took five years… Five years of youth, will, courage, prayer and work! With no rest. And the world, the whole world was touched, turned upside down, more than by an atomic bomb!

John XXIII died on the second day of Pentecost. “Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and you will renew the face of the earth…”

May the Holy Spirit give to the Church and to the world a new John XXIII!

Jos. Cardijn.

(Translation Stefan Gigacz, 27 May 2012, Version 1.0)

SOURCE

Joseph Cardijn, During the reign of John XXIII: A New Pentecost (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Yesterday, we remembered Cardijn’s vow beside the deathbed of his father, Henry; to dedicate his life to the working class and especially young workers

Today, we recall how Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara was so inspired by Cardijn’s vow to propose that he proposed that Vatican II bishops follow his example.

The outcome of this was what is today known as the Pact of the Catacombs eventually signed by up to 500 conciliar bishops.

Here is Camara’s original letter to Cardijn proposing to follow his example.

Read the whole story at the Pact of the Catacombs website:

www.pactofthecatacombs.com

Rome, 17 September1965

Dear Mgr. Cardijn,

May I make a suggestion to you.

It is very important to ensure that the Council reaches workers and to bring workers closer to our brothers, the bishops.

Let us imagine the following:

– One Sunday in October or November (when there is not other canonisation or beatification ceremony)

– In your Cardinal’s parish church here in Rome,

– A concelebrated Mass with about 20 bishops gathered around the Workers’ cardinal,

– Specially devoted to Workers (and there would be adequate publicity in Rome and we will also host representatives from neighbouring countries, particularly France and Belgium),

– A concelebrated Mass in the presence of the largest possible number of Council Fathers and in which the concelebrants would take an oath prepared by yourself similar to the vow that you took at the deathbed of your father…

– A very concrete vow appropriate to the present time and appropriate to the understanding of workers…

After the Mass, there would be a fraternal meeting between workers and bishops.

If the idea seems worthwhile to you, we would need your blessing.

As far as everything else goes, your friends are here and ready to act.

Filially yours in Jesus Christ

+Helder Camara

D 28

Domus Mariae

Via Aurelia, 481

Domus Mariae

Via Aurelia, 481

SOURCE

AGR, Archives Cardijn, N° 1625

Source

Helder Camara – Cardijn 17 09 1965 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Today is the 120th anniversary of the death of Joseph Cardijn’s father, Henry, which means it’s also the 120th anniversary of Cardijn’s consecration of his life to the working class.

Strangely enough, perhaps, we don’t know many details of the life of Henricus Hieronymys (Henry Jerome) Cardijn, who was born in 1850 and died at the age of 53 in 1903.

Fortunately, however, his son Joseph recorded a few of the essentials of the humble, hard-working life of his father:

According to the birth registry, I was born on 18 November 1882 in Chaussée de Haecht, Schaerbeek, where my parents were caretakers and my father a coach driver. Following my baptism in Saint Servais church on the 16 November, they sent me to stay with a nanny at Halle in my father’s region of origin as my mother was seriously ill.

Five or six years after my birth, my parents moved back to Halle where they initially established a small grocery that they were soon obliged to close for lack of customers in order to begin managing a small coal store which at first had only a small cart for supplying customers and then later a horse-drawn cart to load coal from the station or the boat.

My father worked hard and from a very early age I helped him to unload the coal and serve customers and as soon as I knew how to read and write to prepare invoices and orders since my father did not know how to read or write.

Nevertheless, Henry must have been a social-minded Catholic. Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques tell us that it was from his father that Cardijn first learned of Pope Leo XIII’s famous 1891 encylical on the situation of the working class, Rerum Novarum:

As a small boy, nine at the time, Joseph Cardijn had heard it talked of. His illiterate father had asked him to read it aloud to him.

Despite this, Henricus (or ‘Rikus as he was known) had little understanding of Joseph’s “thirst for knowledge.”

As Cardijn later wrote:

At home, I devoured books and newspaper to the great disgust of my father who feared for my frail health and understood nothing of my passion for reading

As Cardijn also often recalled, life was a constant financial struggle for the family. This eventually took a toll on his father’s health:

Following my Solemn Communion, the question arose of placing me as an apprentice and going to work. My father was exhausted and his small business was in decline. Then, one evening, no longer able to contain myself, I jumped out of bed, descended to the kitchen and told my astonished parents of my desire to become a priest for which my father and mother both sacrificed themselves.

Despite the burden that this would cause the family, Henricus immediately gave his consent to his son’s priestly ambition:

Fiévez and Meert tell the story this way:

One evening he could keep to himself no longer and while his brothers and sister were asleep, he got out of bed and came down to the kitchen. He stood in the doorway barefoot and in his nightshirt. 

“Well, what are you up to there?” asked his father in surprise. “Are you sick? No? Then, my boy, off to bed !” 

“I can’t sleep . . .”. 

“A likely story . . .”. 

“Father, let him speak,” cut in the wife, feeling there was something here that had to be faced. 

Joseph was choked up but resolute: “I would like to be able to carry on at school. I want to be a priest and you have to study a lot for that. I want your permission not to go to work.” 

His mother’s face turned white. Her intuition had not deceived her. His father spoke: “Woman, we have already worked hard. But if we, small folk as we are, could have the joy of giving our son to God, well, we’ll work on a bit more!” 

“And you”, to the boy, “off to bed!”

Henceforth, we hear little of Henri Cardijn until the time of his death on 24 May 1903.

Once again Fiévez and Meert tell us the story:

Back in the seminary to finish his studies in philosophy, he was suddenly called home. Henri Cardijn was dying. He had laboured all his life; had worked to the end and was now dying prematurely. 

With his emotional and passionate temperament, young Joseph was bowled over by this fresh shock. 

As he knelt to receive his father’s last blessing, he felt drawn to respond to a new call from God, a call that was clear and decisive. In his innermost being he swore to consecrate his whole life as a priest to save the mass of the workers. 

For more than sixty years he would live to the full that commitment in daily fidelity by the total gift of himself.

Cardijn never forgot the debt he owed to his father and he did indeed honour his commitment to the workers for the rest of his life.

In tomorrow’s reflection we’ll look at how his vow also inspired 500 bishops at the Second Vatican Council.

Author

Stefan Gigacz

Sources

Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, Cardijn, Chapter 1: Birth (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, Cardijn, Chapter 2: Seminary (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Joseph Cardijn, Background (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Family Tree (Geneastar)

Family Tree (My Heritage)

The fate and destiny of young workers was Cardijn’s lifelong concern.

And so he also emphasised the importance of the transition of young people from school to work.

Education and the School-Leaver

(Reprinted from New Life, May-June, 1957.)

THE DESTINY OF YOUNG WORKERS

Young workers, like all others, are destined to the glorious life of heaven and to eternal happiness. This eternal destiny is the supreme end of their life, the source and the basis of all their rights and of all their duties; this is the essential truth which must enlighten and guide the whole of the earthly life of the young workers.

The development of their intelligence, the formation of their wills, training for their job or profession, the preparation and founding of a family are the means willed by Providence for their personal protection and for their social mission. In the fulfilment of their temporal destiny, the young workers should be the conscious and free collaborators of the Creator and the Redeemer. Their temporal welfare and their eternal happiness depend essentially on this.

THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF YOUNG WORKERS

Learning to know and to love this temporal and eternal destiny — that is the task of the Christian education which the young workers should receive.

The task falls first to the parents; it is the basis of their authority over their children.

Parents must he able to obtain by their work the resources necessary for this mission of education.

Parents should be aided by the school which must be the collaborator and not the substitute of families in the work of the Christian education children. A neutral school education cannot satisfy thh demand. It will he inevitably irreligious and against the family.

It is for the Church to make known to parents and teachers the demands of this Christian education and to create the necessary institutions for its accomplishment.

This Christian education does not finish with the period of school. it must be given to young workers as to all other young people during their adolescence and their youth, which are par excellence the axe of true education,

SCHOOL-LEAVERS SERVICE

The action of the Y.C.W, with those beginning work must begin it year before they leave school. At this time all the Y.CW. sections should get to know all the young people of their locality who are beginning their last year at school.

In our own schools the list can he obtained by an approach to the headmaster or teacher concerned. In other schools other means may have to be sought.

Collaboration with the teaching personnel should be a constant pre-occupation with chaplains and Y.C.W. Committees.

Teachers who take the last-year in school, if they are won and helped by the Y.C.W., can orientate all their teaching towards the life of work. Lessons and responsibilities given can be based and related to the problems which the lads and girls will soon have to        meet. Collaboration with the families of the school-leavers should be sought as much as possible, by visits to their homes and parents’ meetings.

One or two good leaders of the section should be given the responsibility of recruiting and grouping the lads or girls in the last-year at school and these meetings of the school-leavers should be quite distinct from the ordinary Y.C.W. meetings. The school-leavers’ meetings follow the programme outlined in the Pre-Y.C.W. booklets and should be simple, enthusiastic and friendly affairs, and not too long. The programme of meetings should include recreative events and activities adapted to the particular group.

They should be inspired from the start with the spirit of conquest and they can be trained in a concrete fashion, through useful tasks and real responsibilities, such as the sale of the magazine and acts of service in the neighbourhood.

Outings, games and general meetings specially for the school- leavers, build up the bonds of friendship in the group and provide the leaders with useful opportunities of contact and influence.

VISITS OF SCHOOL-LEAVERS TO PLACES OF WORK

Concrete initiation into the life of work supposes contact with the latter. Those beginning work should be able to know ahead what is a factory, a work-shop, or an office. They should have a chance of forming and expressing their impressions and building up ideas and sentiments which will stand them in good stead when they are actually working in these places later.

Moreover, in the right choice of a job or profession, the choice and taste of the boy or girl is an important element. This demands that they have at least had the chance of seeing people working in the different trades or occupations among which they will have to make their choice.

Leaders will, of course, need to accompany the school-leavers in these visits, to places of work and the groups should be fairly small, to allow for the attention of all being directed to the essentials of the visit and for discussion and questions.

Later in their group meeting their comments and remarks will give plenty of opportunity for building up a right altitude and conviction towards the life of work.

It is the task of local and regional Pre-Y.C.W. leaders to organise and prepare these visits.

ENTRY INTO WORK

Entry into work is a great event in the life of young people. To inspire all concerned parents and the rest, with the sense of this, every section should organise during the course of the year a series of school-leavers’ meetings. All the members of the section should be associated with these, for their own formation and renewal.

Details of these meetings will vary. Smaller sections may need to get together to run a joint event. Besides the actual meetings, with demonstrations and discussions between the young workers and school-leavers, there should be religious ceremonies, with instruction on the Christian meaning and supernatural value of work and a special Mass and Communion.

—JOSEPH CARDIJN.

Source

Joseph Cardijn, Education and the school-leaver, in The Catholic Action Chaplain 1957 Vol. 2 N° 3A, p. 14 – 16.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/61

Photo

Paul Efe / Pexels

This is Cardijn’s closing address to the delegates of the First IYCW World Council in Rome in 1957.

After ten glorious days of sharing which he likens to what the apostles experienced with Jesus on Mount Tabor, it’s time to come down and return to work!

MGR. CARDIJN— CLOSING ADDRESS

For ten days we have lived with the Lord on Tabor and with the Holy Spirit in the Cenacle.

We have seen the Y.C.W. transfigured—its apotheosis. This is not the true Y.C.W. We could say like the apostles on Tabor: “Let us build three tabernacles.” No, we must leave here, go down from Tabor, go out from the Cenacle to the masses who suffer, who have not the means of human livelihood, who cannot read or write, who know not their human dignity nor their Christian destiny. That is the only true Y.C.W. It begins today.

We believe in the possibility of saving the last of the young workers and working girls, whatever their colour or race, civilisation or continent. They are the sons of God and we must save them.

When I was a student nearly sixty years ago, we loved to declare the verses of l’Aiglon, Edmond Rostand’s new piece which had just appeared. There was a particular scene in the second act at the castle of Schoenbrun where Aiglon, guarded by the old marshals of Napoleon’s army, asked them why they had betrayed the emperor. And one of them, not knowing what to answer, made the excuse: “In the end we were too tired!” Then suddenly, a lacqey, an old soldier of the emperor’s guard, dressed up as a servant to wait on Aiglon, unable to restrain himself cried with a voice of thunder: “And what of us! we small ones, the unknown ones of the ranks, we who marched foot-rotten, wounded, dirty and sick” (there follows a long tirade on the ills suffered by the simple soldiers of Napoleon). “Maybe we were not tired?” And the scene finishes with these words of Aiglon:

“Dans le livre aux sublimes chapitres,

Majescules, c’est vous qui composez les titres,

Et c’est sur vous toujours que

s’arretent les yeux. Mais les mille petites lettres . . .

ce sont eux. Et vous ne seriez rien sans l’armee humble et noire,

Qui faut pour composer une page d’histoire!”

In the Y.C.W. army, which has just written this beautiful page in the Church’s history, there are thousands of unknown humble leaders and members who are the real, the only Y.C.W., the movement which is transforming the working youth of the world, the movement to which we must remain faithful.

Go into the field of the Lord where millions of young workers arc waiting for you. Let none of them be able to say like the workers in the parable:

“No man has hired us.” Let there be no Y.C.W. unemployment! No missionary unemployment! We must take the good news to all and that will be the proof of our love for the Church, for the Pope and for working youth. We shall say to them all: “We bring you good news; we bring you Joy, Security, Confidence. The Lord is born, the new working youth in whom the Lord lives, is born; do you see it coming to birth in all the countries of the world?”

I thank all those who have contributed to this joy in this Domus Mariae. I thank Patrick Keegan and Margaret Fievez who for twelve years have prepared this day. I thank Romeo Maione and Maria Meersmans and look forward to their work with still more confidence than in the past. I thank Rene Salanne and all the old leaders of the International Bureau.

Go forward! The Church sends you, the Pope sends you, the working youth of the world awaits you.

Joseph Cardijn

Source

Joseph Cardijn, Closing Address, in New Life, 1957, Vol. 13 N° 6, November – December 1957, p. 230 – 231.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/62

In this talk from 1959, Cardijn summarises the work of the YCW drawing once again on his famous Three Truths trilogy.

The Mission of Working Youth

Speech of Monsignor Cardijn to the Teenager Boys Study Week (British) at Dunkerque, Monday, 27th July, 1959.

INTRODUCTION

I regret keeping you waiting—I lost my way. I have just addressed 450 school leavers (girls) in one district of Belgium. Yesterday, I spoke to an International Camp for working youth, representing Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Holland, Peruvia and Portugal; all these young people are spending a fortnight in tents, studying the problem of working youth. In September, I set off on a visit to all the countries of South America and next year will see me in Africa. Monsignor Cardijn, at 76, addressed three meetings this day, travelling about 250km by car to do it.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUTH

You, young workers, must save the world; no Priest, no Bishop, no Pope, not Christ himself will save the world without you. You are the essential collaborators. When you are in the office, the workshop, the factory, you have there a mission. This is the revolution—the answer to communism. Workers may live for the dance, the cigarette, the girl, the drink but, they are not machines, they are not animals, they are the image of God. If I go to Mass every day and do not understand this first truth —I am not a Catholic—I cannot save the world. If you do not realise your vocation, Christ cannot take your place. You are mandated by the Pope, by the Bishops, to help all the working boys of the world, for they are the Sons of God.

The second truth presents the reality—most of them living to satisfy their instincts. They do not believe in their dignity. They are not to blame because their conditions are in contradiction with the truth.

HOW I STARTED A SECTION

Sixty-four years ago I discovered the reality. I am now 76. At fourteen I was to go into the factory, but I went into the Seminary. When I came back I found those lads and they had been more intelligent and more pious than I—corrupted. They had all lost their faith, I did not because I was in the Seminary. They said now: “The Priest is the friend of capitalists, the rich—we do not speak with Priests.”

I said to myself, “this cannot go on, I will consecrate my life to change this, I will destroy this contradiction. We must educate these working lads and girls to be the missionaries of their fellows.”

First, I made my own investigations in Belgium and England. I visited the factory; I had a look at Manchester, Liverpool, London. Forty years ago, what did I see? Unemployment, low wages, no holidays, Sunday work, no unemployment benefit—like Asia to-day.

We must see the real situation—we must begin where we are. I began in my parish with one boy: “Are you alone?” I said. “No, I have my mates.” “Then bring some of them.” Slowly we spread. I had my first team.

Everyone said: “It is impossible to unite young workers in a movement; they are not intelligent enough —they haven’t enough faith.” I replied, “We shall make more sections and then we shall have a movement to unite and sustain them. We will form a regional movement and then a national movement. We shall unite the nations; the workers are united because they are brothers. They must be respected in mind and body. They must share in the greatest mission of the Church.

Now I am glad to see you here, devoting your holiday to studying the problem of the workers. Every day, you must become better leaders. You are mandated to help all the working boys of the world. You must not only be pre-occupied with good conditions in Great Britain. So much of the world speaks English, you have a responsibility—a thousand million young workers. I have seen boys and girls who live, eat and sleep in the streets— unrespected in body (no Doctor, nurse or hospital), where most of the children were still-born because their mothers were undernourished. How can they believe? The young workers prefer to dance and to satisfy their desires.

This is the great mission of the Y.C.W.—a movement of the Church, mandated by the Pope to help all the working boys and girls of the world—all. We cannot do it alone—we must recruit. We must more and more seek others, attract others; we are not allowed to be selfish. We shall save millions. We can save the Church—we can fail the Church.

If you do not realise your mission, you will be unhappy, you will not be a Christian—you must make your own resolutions.

J. CARDIJN

Source

Joseph Cardijn, The mission of working youth, in New Life, 1959 Vol. 15 N° 5, September – October 1959, p. 158 – 160.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/63

Today, we present a historic document from the IYCW dated 1 March 1962 in which the International Secretariat wrote to national movements asking them to study the issue of the length of the Eucharistic fast.

For many years already, the Belgian JOC had been campaigning for a reduction in the length of this fast so that young workers would not be forced to go to work without breakfast.

Now the IYCW was encouraging its member movements to contact their bishops and even write to the Vatican II Preparatory Commission on Sacraments.

As we all know now, this campaign in which the YCW was not alone was ultimately very successful.

And we also note poignantly that one of the signatories of the letter was IYCW vice-president Betty Villa from the Philippines who died just a few days ago on 13 May 2023 at the age of 96.

RIP and thanks for everything, Betty.

March 1st, 1962

TO ALL MEMBERS AND ASPIRANT-MEMBERS TO ALL ASSOCIATE ORGANIZATIONS

TO ALL EXTENSION WORKERS

Dear President, Dear Chaplain,

Dear Friend,

On a number of occasions, during trips or meetings, we have noted that in numerous countries the present discipline governing the Eucharistic Fast keeps many workers away from Communion.

There is no doubt that the Ecumenical Council, which opens October 11th, will make a thorough study of this aspect of the canon law of the Church, with the thought of allowing all men easier access to the Sacraments.

May we suggest, therefore, that you study without delay, just what form this problem takes amongst the young workers of your country, particularly those who, through Catholic Action, have come to discover the meaning of the Eucharist and who wish to partake of it more frequently.

If you believe that a reduction in the duration of the Eucharistic Fast would be advantageous, we ask that you speak of it to your local Hierarchy, and that you write a letter to the Preparatory Pontifical Commission on the Discipline of the Sacraments.

As a model, we are attaching the text of the request submitted by the YCW of Belgium.

We believe that a reduction in the duration of the Eucharistic Fast would be of benefit to the workers of the world.

Yours fraternally in Christ,

Permanent Committee of the International YCW

Denyse Gauthier

Assistant

Secretary General

Betty Villa Vice-President

Norbert Balle Secretary General

Joseph Cardijn General Chaplain

M. Uylenbroeck Assistant

General Chaplain

Bartolo Perez

President

Source

Reducing the length of the Eucharistic fast (Cardijn@Vatican II Blog)

Returning to Belgium in 1948 after a tour of Latin America and parts of Africa, Cardijn could not contain his shock at the “anguishing problem” he had witnessed.

The Church had allied itself or at least failed to separate itself from a series of evils that he summarised as follows:

the occupying power of the colonists and the Europeans;

the scandalous profits of the colonists and the great exploiters alongside the shameful misery of the indigenous masses;

the ignorance of the indigenous languages by nearly all Europeans;

the several hundred thousand Europeans in the face of millions of Muslims and indigenous peoples;

the inadequacy of the efforts deployed in the fields of education, housing, water services, etc. as well as many other factors explaining this watertight partition of two juxtaposed worlds.

This, he warned, had led to what he did not hesitate to call out as “the bankruptcy of evangelisation.”

Often, mostly in fact, Cardijn was extremely diplomatic. Not on this occasion!

Stefan Gigacz

A letter from Fr CARDYN

First impressions of a world tour – Part I

The missionary problem

Almost like a disturbing film, my far too short tour of the continents unveiled to me the immense missionary problem that the Church, the Hierarchy as well as the laity are all facing with increasing acuity and inescapable urgency: 350 million Muslims – Arabs, blacks, Hindus – 30 million pagan fetishists as well as hundreds of millions of Christians who fail to live out their Christianity.

And this global missionary problem is complicated by all the human problems that embody it, namely problems of colonisation, races, industrialisation, tentacle-like cities alongside immense desert regions, towns and bush; problems of language, idiom, customs and civilisation; family, women’s social and cultural problems; problems that stoke opposition and hatred; impenetrable barriers in the face of solidarity, exchanges; aspirations that increasingly tend to break down separation and distance and unify humanity as part of an inseparable community.

And everywhere and above all else there is the problem of the masses, the indigenous and proletarian masses, hundreds of millions of wage-earners that the world economy is multiplying in every race and on every continent and who, alas, are condemned to misery and exploitation as well to live in unworthy conditions, in ignorance and insecurity, to feel like “the wretched of the earth” and eventually form a breeding ground for disturbance and revolts.

Even less than ever the Church and Christianity must not be confused with a race or a class, with an economic, political or nationalist interest. More than ever the universal mission of Christ “Ite et docete omnes gentes… evangelizare pauperibus misit me” seems to me to be the only solution to the unity and peace of the world. And everywhere, in the face of an urgent lack of clergy, we repeat the Master’s prayer: “Rogate Dominum ut mittat operarios in messem suam.”

Alongside certain painful misunderstandings and shorcomings, how happy we are to find an increasingly numerous and more active elite everywhere and an extraordinary missionary spirit, which today more than at any other time of our history, is spreading throughout the Churrch, and which above all difficulties is sparking generosity and heroism that arouses admiration and makes tangible the incommensurable love of the Divine Master.

North Africa

After leaving Brussels at 8p.m.1, I arrived in Algiers at four o’clock in the morning. It was not without emotion that I set foot for the first time in this old land of North Africa, so illustrious for its saints, martyrs and doctors: St Cyprian, St Perpetua, St Monica, St Augustine and so many others.

A secretary of the archdiocese and three jocist militants were waiting for me as I descended from the plane. After mass and a brief rest, we had dinner with the venerable Archbishop Leynaud, so young at heart and full of attention, as well as with the auxiliary bishop, the vicar general and the superior of the seminary.

The next day there was a visit and dinner at the Square House, the headquarters of the White Fathers in Africa, where, as well as the superior generals, I was happy to meet his Excellency, Archbishop Mercier, the new Apostolic Vicar of the Sahara.

Meanwhile, there were also contacts with jocist leaders and militants as well as the MPF family movement, visits to the city, the port and to indigenous neighbourhoods.

A day later, there was a trip to Constantine through the mountains and desert regions, with visions of camel troops, little donkeys, sheep and cattle, which was followed in the evening by a reception with the forty day students who came for the Study Session.

Constantine, which with its rocky escarpment managed to resist the most famous sieges, is like a relic of Phoenician, Roman, Christian and Arabic civilisations, and with its deep gorges, its souks, mosques, retains an imperishable attraction of curiosity.2

There were also visits, interviews and meetings as well as talks with young Bishop Duval, the miltants as and former jocists.

From there, we travelled to Bone via Bled and Philippeville with a visit to the famous cathedral of Hippone, barely started diggings at the former seat of St Augustine as well as meetings and talks. So many emotions, particularly during the too fleeting contact with the most glorious centres of the Church, now sadly still almost buried beneath the sands.

From there, we moved to Tunis, Carthage and Sousse! Here again, we had several great encounters and moving meetings with Archbishop Gounod of Tunis, another veteran of North Africa, his auxiliary, Bishop Perrin, and so many priests, White Fathers, religious and seminarians as well as militants, former jocists, a few MPF families. There was also a visit to the rich museum of the White Fathers in Carthage, ancient basilicas and Carthaginian and Roman ruins, Arab souks, and, alas pitiful “slums” not to mention encounters with interminable processions of Bedouins and nomads with their camels, little donkeys, veiled women with dresses and bright jewels as well as with so many kids whose eyes sparkled with intelligence.

Then, we returned to Algiers for more talks with the clergy and the general public under the presidency of the indefatigable archbishop.

From there, we travelled to Bel-Abbes, the centre of the Foreign Legion with its highly flourishing jocist groups, to the Study Session at Mercier-Lacombe; then to Oran, where, under the presidency of Bishop Lacaste there were more talks to the clergy and militants.

Finally, we had short stays in Rabat and Casablanca3. Rabat, the capital of Morocco, the city of Lyautey, a genuinely imperial residence, still stained alas by its poor medina and its “slums.” Casablanca is destined to soon become the most industrial and most populous city in North Africa but the contrast between the European city and the indigenous neighbourhoods is as sad as in any Algerian, Tunisian or Moroccan city.

Bishop Lefèvre, a former jocist chaplain, the new bishop of Rabat and Morocco, spent himself tirelessly to host me with all his affection and to preside over meetings with so many clergy, seminarians and lay people.

An anguishing problem

Evidently, it’s not possible to offer judgment after such a quick visit. But one remains confounded before the immensity of a missionary problem that people hardly suspect.

This impenetrable world of Muslims quickly turns into an obsession: the veiled women, the closed families, the proud Arabs, dressed in turbans or chechias, in their white or coloured burnous; groups seated alongside the objects they are selling; old people and ragged beggars; Muslims praying in the mosques, the fields, the streets and trams; ragged yet sparkling kids; souks so crammed with people, their shops, workshops, tissues and jewellery which is sometimes so artistic; with morals as well as a mentality and conception of life so opposed to ours and which has demonstrated itself to be so impermeable to the Christian apostolate for centuries.

In addition to this religious fanaticism, there are many political, economic and cultural causes for this bankruptcy of evangelisation: the Church and Christianity assimilated to the occupying power of the colonists and the Europeans; the scandalous profits of the colonists and the great exploiters alongside the shameful misery of the indigenous masses; the ignorance of the indigenous languages by nearly all Europeans; the several hundred thousand Europeans in the face of millions of Muslims and indigenous peoples; the inadequacy of the efforts deployed in the fields of education, housing, water services, etc. as well as many other factors explaining this watertight partition of two juxtaposed worlds.

And this juxtaposition seems untenable. Industrialisation is advancing in giant steps and carying along the indigenous and Muslim masses, who proliferate in the face of falling birthrate of the occupier, all this creates a situation that does not appear to be viable and which depends on military force that is extremely ephemeral.

The only solution

“Humanise in order to Christianise” appears to be the primary condition for all effective and lasting evangelisation.

It is here that Catholic Action, the lay worker apostolate and the JOC in particular, take their irreplaceable and primordial place for the solution of the missionary, indigenous and Muslim problem.

Cohabitation in the same neighbourhoods, working together on the same chain and in the same establishments raises common problems, multiplies opportunities for contact, mutual aid and joint efforts, as well as offering opportunities for living, direct, irrecusable witness that will end up by causing prejudices and misunderstandings to disappear.

Long term work is the only thing that will enable us to overcome oppositions and misunderstandings that have lasted centuries. This work of approaching and collaborating at the human level, which operates at the top among intellectuals and leaders as well as developing from below among the deepest layers of the people, will foster a vision of longstanding problems in a more sympathetic and confident atmosphere.

Alas, many missteps, neglects, political, social and economic injustices multiply the defiance and hatred.

But there are so many magnificent examples of fraternal collaboration, heroic sacrifice for this penetration of the charity of Christ among the milieux which seem the most closed. How to fail to pay homage to those colleagues, propagandists – young men and women workers – who have sacrificed everything for this missionary apostolate? To those teams of militants, young couples, who with an unheard of faith and disinterest so often give us the example of a missionary spirit and heart, open to every audacity and initiative?

How many times at every stop on my trip, at study weeks, personal meetings, etc., I felt moved and upset by the facts, tracts and examples that made me feel ashamed and led me to repeat the words of the Master: “Blessed be, my Father, because you have revealed these marvels to the small and the humble whereas you have hidden them from the proud and powerful.”

Certainly the problem is a long way from being resolved. However, it will be. This will evidently require formation that is forever deeper and more appropriate to the leaders and militants.

The Muslim world is a world of believers and only a deep and absolute faith will enable the dissolution of criticisms that an officious mentality and a Christianity that is too little lived out have so often accumulated.

The penetration of the worlds of women’s and the family, which seems to be possible by lay women militants, will require sustained aid and support.

And in order to coordinate these efforts, that scattering seems to have condemned to sterility, the establishment of a jocist front in North Africa that will combine initiatives and realisations on site in an intimate union and collaboration appears to be the only effective solution to the Muslim problem which is similar throughout all the regions of North Africa.

West Africa

After leaving Casablanca at 4p.m., I arrived at Dakar towards midnight. The Holy Spirit Fathers were waiting for me at the airfield. They welcomed and hosted me and took me around with an affection and attention for which I will always have an emotional and grateful memory. During the months of September and October, Dakar is a furnace, where the boiling water vapour penetrates you and your clothes. The humidity and moistness are very tiring. Nevertheless, although I sweated profusely in Dakar, I also left part of my heart there.

The highly endearing black population is sweet and good natured.4 The women wear their large multicoloured dresses; they have glittering hairstyles and clinking jewels. Their children are comfortably attached to their backs, as they elegantly carry vases, packets, or even a pair of shoes or other object on their heads. Young people are well-built, polite and clean; kids are louder than anywhere.

And there are such crowds at the busiest and most varied markets, with groups squatting along the roadside placidly awaiting the time of arrival. Above all, what a welcome, what fervour in the little huts among the fields of millet, peanuts and bushes, near Thère, in the bled and the bush. There is a childish joy that expresses itself in shouts, gestures and songs under the eyes of the missionary fathers who love them and in whom they confide.

The visit to the island of Gorée,5 which became famous during the slave trade and which was for long centuries the bridgehead and the port of entry into West Africa, was also highly interesting.

Dakar, the capital of French West Africa, seems destined by its geographical position to have great international significance and by that very fact a great influence. Although the housing crisis does not seem to be as serious as in North Africa, it must nevertheless be very difficultl. The Muslim problem, although unsolvable until now, does not seem as highly charged with fanatacism. The black, European and Syrian populations appear to be closer to one another.

However, here too, how urgent and inescapable the missionary problem is! The great cities attract the indigenous masses of all the states of West Africa. People and races mingle and interpenetrate. A few thousand Europeans find themselves facing millions of indigenous people of whom more than half are Muslims. It is enough to raise the issue to understand how important it will be to find a solution.

And once again, the task of Catholic Action, particularly the JOC and JOCF, seems to me to be immense and irreplaceable.

These thousands of young people, attracted by the city and by industrial work, find themselves facing life problems that are unsolvable without apostolic action, organised by young people with a spirit and methods for missionary achievements. What influence and prestige could such a movement acquire?

Certainly, developing formation and perseverance of the leaders is difficult among such changeable young people. However, how necessary and ineluctable for effective long term action.

Here too, the coordination of efforts in view of a powerful action requires understanding and unity among the various bishops and the various religious superiors; but how such understanding and coordination would strengthen the prestige and influence of the Church at one of its strategic points which will be decisive in its penetration to the depths of the African continent.

Jos. CARDYN.6

Notes

1On the plane from Brussels to Paris there was a jocist air hostess from the JOC section at Ste Marie at Schaerbeek. I was very proud that the JOC had penetrated the aviation industry. She should be interviewed for “Joie et Travail.”

2Population of 150,000 inhabitants, mostly Arabs, Jews and a few Europeans.

I met two Belgian priests there: Fr. Charlier, seminary professor from the Charleroi region and Fr Callewaert, a former curate who formed Hillaire Willot et Paemans in Brussels. He is parish priest around 100km from here.

3 This city will soon host a million workers. Huge factories, parks, gardens, banks, big shops and all around incredible poverty among the indigenous people. Terrible.

4At the mass I was served by a little black guy, barefoot, wearing a red soutane and with a ring on his finger! Deep piety! After lunch they gave me a bit of quinine.

5Gorée Island about half an hour by boat from the city, famous for the slave trade, a very movemented history: taken and re-taken by the Portuguese, the English, the French, etc. It was a great slave market. There are still slaves! A very picturesque people: sailors, soldiers, children, women with their child on their backs, their possessions on their heads, their multicoloured dresses as well as Europeans in shorts!

6 On 1 October, Fr Cardijn wrote to us from Rio de Janeiro. This morning, we left very late at 2.45a.m. from the Dakar air field. I arrived in Recife at nearly 11a.m., i.e. after nearly seven hours of flight. There, we had a short stop for formalities before another seven hour flight to Rio. And finally I am here at the Cardinal’s palace!

Source

Joseph Cardijn, Premières impressions d’une randonnée mondiale, in Notes de Pastorale Jociste, 1948-49, T. XIV p. 36-42.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/41

In this short 1942 article, Cardijn explains what he calls “the Christian conception of work.”

THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF WORK

Militant ouvrier, publishes an article by Canon Cardijn devoted to the Christian notion of work.

The “eternal, universal, sacred, divine value of human work,” writes the author, “is the foundation, the unshakeable and indispensable basis of all rights and all duties, all application and all regimes, no matter what kind of human work is involved in time and in space.” Then he continues as follows:

Work is destined to meet the needs of all people; it must not serve the greatest enrichment possible of one person or another. It exists to satisfy human needs, adapted to the time and place of each one in order that man may pursue his temporal and eternal destiny.

This divine and Christian conception of work differs from other conceptions.

1. The liberal conception: Work is a form of merchandise and its only value is that of profit, an economic value influenced by the law of supply and demand, determined by free competition. Work has no moral value. The logical outcome of this conception is the capitalist dictatorship.

2. The socialist conception: Work is the unique source of material wealth; wealth is thus due uniquely to work; hence the class struggle between workers and capitalists. It ends with the dictatorship of the proletariat.

3. The communist conception: Here each man loses his personal vocation because all work must serve the enrichment of the community.

4. The nationalist conception: Work is the means of enriching and strengthening the nation. The worker is a soldier who, through his work, arms his country against his neighbour.

All these systems have forgotten the divine, social, family and personal value of work.

Let no-one say that the Christian conception is a beautiful ideal…but a utopia… No, this conception is the only realistic one; it alone exalts, protects and provides a basis for human work in all these aspects.

It alone illustrates the human aspect of work, the difference of human work from the activity of an animal, a machine, a slave; it alone preserves human dignity, the educational character, the spiritual character of work. It alone responds to true human needs.

The Christian conception of work enables one to place in order the various kinds of human labour. It distinguishes:

1. Priestly work: The priest is a worker in the direct service of souls; his work is the most divine form of labour. Not only does he increase the divine wealth in the world but he is the representative, the depositary, the official representative of God. He is posted to the production of spiritual and eternal wealth.

2. Government work: In a world where public authority is disdained, it is necessary to again honour this work. It is the work of the public authorities that enables all people to work in order and security. It is a labour full of richness but also heavy with responsibilities.

3. Family work: This aims for the conservation, the spread and the education of the human race. It presupposes household, procreative and educational work.

4. Professional work: This may involve administration, management or implementation. Its objective is to provide the objects necessary for life, its preservation and its development.

One may distinguish manual work, which produces products; intellectual work, which seeks the truth; technical work, which aims to discover new work processes. Artistic work which in summary expresses the need for beauty.

There are necessary links between all these kinds of work: The Church here sums up the law of these relations under the double heading of justice and charity.

Outside the Christian conception of work, there is no way to determine the exact value of work. There is no way to distinguish good work from bad work.

One cannot determine what kind of work turns people away from their destiny. Only the Christian conception allows us to determine the limits of work: one does not live to work nor to have the greatest wealth possible but one works to live. This alone enables us to determine all the conditions of work.

The mission of the YCW is to give the working class this essential conception of work, without which liberation of the working class will not be possible.

The YCW must be the school which enables young workers to seek, discover and apply this doctrine.

Source

Joseph Cardijn, La conception chrétienne du travail, in La Croix, mercredi 30 décembre 1942, p. 2

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k444758s/f2.zoom.r=cardijn.langFR

Link

Joseph Cardijn, The Christian conception of work (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Photo

Gangs of men on relief work during the Depression, 1930s / Sam Hood / State Library of NSW

Talking about the “working class” has gone out of fashion.

In part, it’s no doubt due to the decline of factories employing thousands of workers in one place.

It’s perhaps also a consequence of the end of the defeat of communism and the end of the Cold War more than 30 years ago.

But Cardijn always spoke about the working class. What did he mean by it? Why was it important to him?

Let’s see how he explained it in this 1947 to French YCW chaplains.

Stefan Gigacz

The Working-Class Problem in the World To-day

Address to the Y.C.W. Chaplains of France, September, 1947

How must we consider the working-class problem in the world to-day? No one can understand the Y.C.W., no one can build the Y.C.W., without seeing the movement in the light of this general and essential problem.

One hundred and fifty years ago, a new economic system was brought into existence by the discovery of modern machinery and the growth of Capitalism, under the inspiration of materialistic “liberalism.” It was inevitable that there should be an increase in the number of “wage-earners,” of those workers who labour for a wage during the whole of their lives, who each morning leave their home, their wife and children, to go and work outside. The inevitable development of mechanised work, with its incredible progress, demanded an ever-increasing number of labourers. Millions of men and women, young and old, would every day of their lives, leave their home, often a slum, to work by day, by night, on Sundays, in an environment of work which had inevitable repercussions on their personal, family and social life.

This system, which at first developed in Western Europe, is now spreading over the whole world. In the colonies, in the three Americas, in Australasia, in Asia, everywhere millions upon millions of workers leap several centuries in a few years. From one day to another they find themselves in the grip of industrialism.

We must face this problem fairly and squarely; masses of workers, working families of every race, of every colour, of every tongue, live under a system that has become international. Conditions of work in one continent have their repercussions in all the others; a strike or unemployment in one part of the world reacts upon the rest.

We must look positively at all the problems that are facing this mass of millions of human beings. To-morrow more than half the human race, more than one thousand million men working under this system, will be asking themselves these questions: What is the meaning of my work? What is its value? Am I just a piece of machinery? What is my wage worth? What is my relationship to the anonymous direction of my firm? What is this law of competition that decides everything? Is it inevitable that according to economic hazards I may be condemned to unemployment or disablement; that I may, with my children, be condemned to a life of insecurity?

The mass of the workers are faced by all these problems. They must be enabled to give a positive answer that will bring into their lives a sense of working-class pride, honour and responsibility. “What are the effects of my work? of my wage? of conditions of work on my family? What is a working-class family? Is it like a middle-class family, or something different? What do husband and wife undertake in marriage? What are their responsibilities towards their children—towards their future? What are the effects of the present system on the family life of the worker? What is our place in society? Is it true to say that we are excommunicated from the social and cultural community? Are we really Godless? Has the Church, has the parish really a place for us? Who are we? Where are we going? What must we do?”

The fundamental problem is not the existence of Communism, it is the existence of this system of work and life which is daily becoming a world system, affecting millions of men, women and working-class families, who are influenced by this system in the essentials of their physical, intellectual, cultural, professional, social, family, moral and spiritual life.

Go to Africa, go to Australia, to South America, which is being utterly transformed at the present time; go to Asia or to Japan, everywhere you will find the same problem; millions of men who all at once and for the whole of their lives become wage-earners, proletarians.

The Church and the Problem of the Workers.

In facing this world fact of proletarisation, we must remember another: all these men have an immortal soul, an eternal destiny. The life of that soul, the achievement of that destiny is the most fundamental right of every human person and therefore of every worker. This life and this destiny must not merely be ensured after death; it is to be begun now here below.

Religion would be the opium of the people, Marx would be right, if the Church said to the working masses: “You will be happy after death.” No— “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” On earth! From the moment of their conception, from the start of their earthly life, which has an eternal import, which is the preparation of eternity, which is eternity in gestation, establishing here below the reign of God in faith, to foe fulfilled one day in the beatific vision.

These millions of men, these workers are marked here – below with the Divine seal. They have a right to the recognition of their dignity on account of their divine origin, on account of their divine destiny. And they have the right to ask the Church: “What must we believe concerning our life, what is the meaning of our work, of the conditions of our work; what is the meaning of our family life, so that here below we may achieve our destiny of love, our destiny of beauty, our destiny of greatness? “

To achieve its destiny the working class needs the Church; it needs her doctrine, her life, her authority, her influence. But the Church herself needs the workers. Without the working class, the Church would no longer be the Church of Jesus Christ. We must fully realise this; a Church of the rich, a Church of capitalists, a Church of the powerful could not be the Church of Christ. The touchstone is; “When you did it to one of the least of my brethren here, you did it to Me” Christ has identified Himself with the poorest: I am the poorest, the most forgotten; I am the weakest little child, the poorest of the young workers.

The working class does not only need a doctrine; it also requires a movement, an organisation. To expect the working class to work out its salvation with a doctrine alone is an impossible suggestion, and it would be ridiculous to think it possible. A doctrine must not just become incarnate in individuals, it must also become incarnate in institutions. This is an indispensable condition at the present time; and furthermore, these institutions must be to the scale of the world, since the problems of the working class have to be faced to the scale of the world.

Furthermore, the working class needs leaders who will promote this doctrine of life, the incarnation of this doctrine of life, the victory of this doctrine of life in the working class, through working class institutions, through the workers’ movement.

Without those three elements; doctrine, institutions, leaders, the working class cannot live the divine life to which it is entitled.

When I met the Holy Father for the first time after the Liberation, he expressed to me all his anxiety: ” The greatest danger to the Church to-day is that the working masses know nothing, absolutely nothing, of the social doctrine of the Church.” The greatest danger is not Communism: that is but a consequence. The greatest danger is the ignorance of the working mass which needs this truth, which needs the incarnation of this truth, which needs apostles of this truth.

How can you explain this mystery; fifty-six years after Rerum Novarum, so many years after Quadragesimo Anno, after Divini Redemptoris, the working class of the world knows nothing, absolutely nothing, of the social doctrine of the Church? There lies the problem of the workers, the problem that the Church must solve positively if she is to fulfil her redemptive mission.

The Problem of the Young Workers.

It is in the light of this problem, in the perspective of this problem of the working class of the world, that we must situate the problem of working youth. We are not inventing anything, we are not devising something peculiar or fanciful. We are not concerned with the young workers merely to have them around us. Our task is to concern ourselves with them in the perspective of a problem of life on which depends the temporal and eternal future of millions of men, a problem which grows daily in depth and extent.

It is in the light of that problem that we must situate the problem of working youth. Each year, twenty million young people leave for the first time their family, their parish (where there is one), their school, to begin their working life away from their family, their school, their parish. And not for one or several years, but for their whole life.

These young people are at the decisive age of life, the age of education; the age when the boy becomes a man, the age when all the problems of life appear before a lad’s intelligence, before his conscience and his heart, when these problems have to be solved personally and freely by the lad himself; the age between school and marriage.

These adolescents are faced with the choice of a profession, a choice of vast importance in their working life. They must find means of learning this profession, not only its technicalities, but also its sense of professional duty, of professional pride. At the outset of their working life they must become aware of professional and Trade Union problems, they will be in danger of accidents, of occupational diseases, of overwork, of immorality in the environment of work.

There are in the world over two hundred million young workers of every race and colour who, from the time they leave school, must prepare for marriage under certain conditions of life; who must prepare themselves for the family life which will determine their happiness, the happiness of their wife, their children, the happiness of the working class. A working class without family life is like a herd of cattle.

All these young people are faced likewise with the problem of leisure and culture, of health and holidays. To-morrow they will be citizens with social and civic responsibilities; these are of the utmost importance, since we areliving at present in truly revolutionary times, when the basis of all things is put into question, and the most contradictory solutions are put forward.

These young people are to be found in all the countries of the world. It was most striking at Montreal¹; the delegates from all countries, the delegates from China, India, Australia, all say the same thing. The problem we know in our own country faces millions of young people on the threshold of life, with their youth’s ideal, their youthful ardour and freshness.

Before these problems, the young lad asks himself: “What am I? Am I a machine, a beast of burden? Is my work a punishment, a curse? And my boss, and the foreman, and my wage? And the girls, my companions at work; are they just toys to play with? And what is love? At my age I feel its need. Is it just a passion, a lust? Is it simply a selfish quest? Or is it something holy, something sacred, of infinite value for each man and for the whole of humanity? What does it mean to court a girl, to become engaged and to prepare for marriage?” All are faced with these problems. They are not the problems of exceptions, of a chosen few, but the problems of the mass, of the whole mass without any exception.

Consider then all the difficulties that arise as-the aftermath of war; a sense of frustration, an escapist outlook; young people who have no hope for the future, who dope themselves with ‘fun’ at the dance halls and the pictures, who ‘couldn’t care less,’ who are unwilling to accept responsibilities; and there you have the problem.

When fifty years ago I entered the junior seminary, my schoolmates went out to work. They were intelligent, decent, God-fearing. When I came back for my holidays they were coarse, corrupted and lapsed from the Church-—whilst I was becoming a priest. I started to make enquiries, it became the the obsession of my life. How did it come about that young lads brought up by Christian parents in Christian schools should be lost in a few months?

The only solution.

To achieve a fine destiny, to face the demands of life, young workers above all need education. They must discover the problems of their life in their family, in the district, at work, in their journeyings, in their leisure. They must judge and weigh up these problems in the light of their Christian vocation, of the beauty of their life, of their responsibilities. They must have the will to win their comrades to this view of life.

United together they will form a workers’ movement of young workers, lads and girls, which undertakes to be responsible for the entire working-class problem—but it must be by young workers and for young workers.

They will create services of every kind, for without these education is ineffective and emancipation impossible. They will build a permanent, powerful, conquering organisation; a real institution which will lead to conquest, organised education and services, and undertake the representation of working youth before all the social authorities.

The Y.C.W. must train working-class leaders for every establishment, every district, every institution in which the interests of the workers are involved. In a number of countries of the world to-day many of the workers’ leaders are Communists. Christian leaders are lacking because they were not trained, because, at the decisive period of their lives, from fourteen to twenty-five,’ nothing was done for them.

The children of the middle-classes are not neglected at fourteen. If they were neglected they would get nowhere, in spite of their money. The working class has to-day come of age. It is becoming the greatest force in the world, it will determine the civilisation of to-morrow. It will need many competent leaders. It is from the age of fourteen to twenty-five that they must be trained. Afterwards it will be too late.

Basic Action.

On the international level the Y.C.W. already enjoys considerable influence, especially with the great world organisations like the I.L.O., U.N.E.S.C.O., U.N.O.

In countries where it has already existed for several years, the national organisation could easily be nothing else but a facade, a deception. In Belgium, for example, with our vast ‘Centrale,’ we could pretend outwardly to considerable influence, we could deceive the Government, public opinion, the Communists.

We could also deceive working youth itself, because the essential strength of the movement is not at the top but at the basis, in the life of the district, the parish, the factory, the environment of work. It is there that they are trained to see, to judge and to act. It is there that they are in contact with the masses; it is from thence that must arise the militants and leaders for the building-up of the movement.

The militants, working in team-fashion in real, daily life, in direct contact with the masses, build up the Y.C.W. in each country, thus creating the real Y.C.W. International, ensuring the liberation of youth and of the working class.

The Y.C.W. is a pyramid. Its strength comes from the solidity of its basis; it would be catastrophic to place it on its apex.

The Y.C.W. front is made up throughout the world by the local sections leading the offensive. They consitute not only a national, but an international chain of which no link can be broken.

I began the movement in a parish. For thirteen years I worked quietly, training that first local nucleus, with young working lads and girls.

Later on, other Brussels parishes started up. Then slowly, the movement spread throughout French-speaking Belgium and the whole country. Then it went beyond the frontiers. To-day, in countries where the movement is being launched, the start must be made at the basis, by the building up of real local sections.

The Chaplains.

The problem of the international Y.C.W. is in the hands of the local clergy, in the hands of our local chaplains who are, on the spot, the chaplains of the international liberation of the youth and the working class of the world. That is what we must understand and make others understand.

The chaplain must enable the young workers to discover the problem; how many are leaving school in the parish? How many are beginning work? What happens to them at work? Who are their companions, what are they like? What are your responsibilities? These responsibilities are magnificent, and you are capable of fulfilling them.

What can I do to-day, and to-morrow? Not the creation of a Y.G.W. International in the air, but showing these lads and girls their definite responsibilities in this world-setting. It will fill them with excitement, they will live an epic story, they will become enthusiastic in spite of difficulties, crises, failures.

Our study-circles, our meetings, do nothing else. Together they undertake responsibility for everything by the revision of life, the revision of influence, but always in relation to their life, their daily life, in the district, with their comrades, with their parents, with the sick, in the environment of work. And naturally, since practice makes perfect, they will become working-class leaders through the fulfilment of responsibilities.

In one big industrial firm, where strong Communist influences are at work, there are about 10,000 workers, and only 50 are affiliated to the Y.C.W. But they have such an influence over their non-Christian workmates that, at the last election of the Works Council, when the workers were given the opportunity of freely electing their own representatives, twelve Y.C.W. were chosen out of a total of twenty delegates.

That is what I mean by the Y.C.W. It is an apprenticeship in responsibility, for the workers’ problems and the workers’ apostolate. The chaplain’s task is to supernaturalise all this, to Christianise it, to bring about in it the incarnation of Christ.

I have too much respect for the proletariat, I have too much ambition for it, to be content with a sort of ‘laicised’ religion, a sub-religion for the working class. Religion means the life of Christ in us, the influence of Christ within.

The chaplain must bring about this discovery. He may take time over it, but that must be his final aim. His task is a priestly one, he must give these sacred, these divine things which link each working lad and girl to the Divine Plan, to this life of Christ, to this life in Christ.

Within these Catholic, missionary perspectives we rediscover the whole of working life, the whole of social life, leisure, culture, courtship, marriage, love, all the problems of the working class and of working youth. I cannot give a general formula; every priest must seek for himself. One cannot do with Europeans what one does with Chinamen; but it must be done with them and by them, and one cannot do it without them. There lies the problem!

After years of efforts there is a danger of escapism, for all of us, for me as well as for you. Maybe we tried for three or four years and it didn’t succeed. Or else we thought we had succeeded, we had thirty or forty lads with a Y.C.W. label and in fact we were mistaken. . . .

The most generous are in danger of wanting to substitute a priestly apostolate for a workers’ apostolate. But however much a priest may try, he will never be a worker, he can never be anything better than an ersatz worker precisely because he is a priest. The Church needs a working-class laity which is a hundred per cent, worker, taking over working-class responsibilities which the priest has renounced. The laity is responsible for the whole of that life of uncertainty, of insecurity, which the priest can never get to know thoroughly, because at any moment he is able to withdraw. But the worker is committed for life.

Another danger lies in directing the young workers towards an escape from working-class realities. Of course, they prefer to go camping, to dance, to go scouting, to roam the countryside, to sing . . . but is that going to give the working class its leadership, a workers’ movement?

And there is another danger still, the practice of a kind of pietism; one can become contented with spiritual things for their own sake, with devotion for devotion’s sake, without seeing its necessary incarnation in personal and social life, without putting the leaven in the paste. This means separating our people from reality. Perhaps we shall have workers with a fine piety, with an exemplary eucharistic life, but what will be their influence over working-class problems, what will be their influence in the environment of work?

All the Clergy Together.

The problems of the post-war period are to be found everywhere. I have travelled in America, in England, in Germany, in Austria, in Italy. Everywhere one meets the same problems and the same difficulties.

Woe to the local chaplain who would try to face all these problems alone! He is lost, as the isolated young worker is lost. We must work in team-fashion. It is all the more necessary at the beginning of this decisive phase of the international Y.C.W. We need teams of chaplains who tell one another the conquests made by the militants, who share their difficulties and their experiences, who build up that priestly and apostolic friendship, that priestly mutual aid in facing the greatest problem of modern times, the problem of the working class laity.

The greater part of the clergy does not see clearly enough the problem of the salvation of the working class. On the parochial front it is not just a question of the parish church and the parish organisation; it is the problem of all the souls, all the flock, in an apostolic and missionary spirit.

The Y.C.W. chaplain must meet with the understanding, the fraternal and enthusiastic assistance of his colleagues, of the Parish Priest, of the Dean. If they do not understand, if they are not concerned, then no solution is possible. Woe to the Church if on account of the clergy she is absent, she abdicates, she allows her enemies, the ‘children of darkness’— and they are many—to play their game!

I beg you not to believe in a solution by violence. At present two extreme camps face one another in growing opposition. If these two camps brought about another world war, with the modern weapons at their disposal, with all the fury they are trying to excite, we would be faced with the greatest catastrophe in history. Not a half, but three-quarters of the human race would be lost and, on whatever side victory could be claimed, the true solution would be retarded by a hundred years.

To-day, more than ever, the world needs a mediator between God and humanity, and a mediator between men, to prevent them hating one another, killing one another. Christ alone is that Mediator, that Redeemer, that Saviour, that Liberator. There can be no other.

Read once again the encyclical against Nazism, in which Pius XI denounces those who would substitute a man or a system to the only Mediator. Our task is to give that Mediator to the world, to the working class, to working youth. The love of Christ must beat in the heart of the masses. That is working-class Catholic Action; that is the Y.C.W.

In the hands of the clergy: Without you, the mandatories of Christ, there can be no solution. The clergy can, with Christ, through the laity, save the working class, the working class of the world.

Joseph Cardijn

Source

Joseph Cardijn, The Church and the young worker, Speeches and writings of Canon Joseph Cardijn, Collection Young Worker Library No. 1, Young Christian Workers, London, 1948, 74p. at p. 63-74.

Link

https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/39

Note

1The International Y.C.W. Study Week held at Montreal in the summer of 1947.

Photo

Stefan Gigacz, May Day March, Lille, France, 1 May 2023

Today we present Cardijn’s preface to a book by another Jocist chaplain, Fr Jean Cardolle, entitled “My Jocist prayer in my daily life.”

In this preface, we see how important Cardijn regarded prayer in bringing about what he called the “genuine Jocist revolution.”

Prayer teaches the YCW leader to transform his or her life, Cardijn explains.

And the YCW also produced many beautiful prayer cards to assist young workers to develop that prayer life.

Stefan Gigacz

Jocist prayer

My dear militant,

You’re made of the stuff of an apostle and you have the temperament of winners. You like your jocist work. You are not afraid of chores, visits, services to be rendered, meetings to be prepared, rallies to be organised. You have the soul of a leader. You know how to speak, act, you dare to commit yourself. You’re proud to be a jocist. You love the YCW You know how much good it has done you. You know its history. You understand how much the mass of working-class youth needs to be won over, conquered and formed by the YCW

When I see you and hear you, how happy and proud I am of you!

At the same time, I also hope that you will be able to develop and deepen all the riches and all the promises that are within you! How I wish that you could discover and experience more deeply in yourself the strength and the value of genuine jocist “life,” that life which transforms a soul, which renews a heart, which decides its will… for this interior, spiritual, supernatural and divine life!

Indeed, jocist action is not a purely human, purely temporal and external action. The jocist revolution is not simply social, economic and political.

As long as we haven’t understood, discovered and experienced this, we have not understood the genuine YCW, genuine YCW action, the genuine JOCIST revolution. And to understand this the jocist militant must learn to “pray,” not to recite a prayer with his or her lips, aloud, repeating words and formulas as a parrot might do, but to stop before God, to come into contact with Him, to speak to Him with one’s heart, with one’s soul, with one’s intelligence… interiorly, spiritually, without words or formulas… by thoughts, feelings, impulses and aspirations which take hold of his or her entire being and whole person.

It is this interior silence, this interior way of praying which must teach him or her to transform little by little his or her whole day, whole work, whole life into a prayer, to pray not only with a rosary and a prayer book, but to pray with his or her hammer, pick or work tools, to pray not only in a chapel and in a church, but to pray in the street, on a construction site, in a factory, an office, a mine.. .to pray everywhere and always.

And it is this inner life which must make him or her understand the true value, the divine value of his or her whole daily life, work life, family life, life today and in the future..

Dear militant, this little book will help you; by revealing to you the beauty, the richness of your jocist prayer, it will reveal to you the greatness and the value of your daily life, so simple, so humble as a modest young worker… but with a greatness and value that exceeds everything our imagination and our ambition. could conceive… the life of God in the life of every young worker…

And you,

dear group leaders,

dear chaplains of the Pre-YCW,

study, meditate on this little book to make yourselves capable of explaining and commenting on “jocist prayer” to aspirants and apprentices.

Ah! How we need to be able to live out the jocist prayer ourselves, to overflow with it, and communicate its meaning to our young comrades, to reveal to them the value and the importance of their jocist life, to inspire them with pride and enthusiasm for the jocist crusade in which they will participate and above all, to initiate them into the value, the beauty of the divine life to which Christ calls young workers in their daily, secular and ordinary life.

* * *

It is with joy that I recommend this little book to all jocists and to all those who want to understand the real YCW.

May it associate them more intimately with the great jocist revolution, with this divine crusade, through prayer, by prayer, by union with God in their daily life.

And may their gratitude be shown by a pious and fervent thought for  the authors of this brochure and for

Your Chaplain General

J. CARDIJN.

Source:

Joseph Cardijn, Preface, p. 5-8, in, J. Cardolle – P. Lefebvre, My Jocist prayer in my daily life, Eighteen meditations on Jocist prayer, Jocist Editions, Brussels, 1941, 64.

Joseph Cardijn, My jocist prayer in my daily life (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Soon after her death, Cardijn celebrated a mass in her memory at the Church of St Michael and St Gudule in central Brussels.

No doubt he was particularly moved by the fact that she was a young worker.

Source

Photo

Madelgarius / Wikipedia / CC BY SA 4.0

Te Deum for Gabrielle Petit

« Inter coetera potentiae tuae miracula etiam in sexu fragili victoriam martyrii contulisti »^[1]

« One of the miracles in which divine power shines the brightest is the victory of martyrdom won by a young woman. »

She was 22 and an orphan. She lived simply from her humble shop assistant’s salary. She drew on the principles of righteousness and honesty proclaimed by the precepts of her religion. Love sang a hymn of hope in heart. She was engaged to be married. None of us knew her. Indeed, a young girl who respects herself usually has little history.

Then the great war broke out, sowing ruin but also awakening heroism. The young shop assistant transformed herself into an ambulance worker, caring for the wounded, both friends and foes. But such devotion did not suffice for her. She needed to make even further sacrifice.

She led her fiancé to the front then returned to her occupied nation to undertake a task punishable by death. Despite her gender and her youth, she was reported, arrested and condemned to be shot.

She refused to sign a petition for mercy. Then, on the eve of her execution, she said: “If they try to place a band over my eyes before shooting me, I will tear it off and tell them: ‘See how a young Belgian woman understands the way to die’.”

The story was indeed very short.

One spring morning, her virginal soul flew from her frail chest, holed by bullets, towards the place where martyred virgins chant their hymns at the side of the Immaculate Lamb.

Returning late, tired and meditative on the evening of the day that I read the pink poster, I came across some scruffy young women chatting in the arms of some cheeky soldiers, calling out dirty words to me. And I thought of the young shop assistant and envied her fate.

Brothers, there are blessed moments in life where the truth bursts forth dazzlingly, irrestibly and irrefutably.

We see this in the stories of those privileged beings within whom the enigma of life and destiny is resolved with a gesture so magnificent that it conquers every soul and rejoices every heart.

Greater than Iphigenia^[2] and the daughter of Jephthah^[3], like the Maid of Orleans^[4], bringing victory through her own ordeal; understanding that a great cause requires the most sublime renunciation.

Discovering in the conscience of a young girl a means more powerful than any strategem or invention. A conviction that the final word of Love is immolation. That sacrifice itself is more eloquent than any caress. That beyond any gesture and beyond the idea that inspires it, there is something invincible at work.

The soul incarnated in this young girl. The soul, image of God, which braved death to be reborn to eternal live. The soul that transforms the eternal shell into a seed thrown to ground in the autumn of life to flower again in the spring of immortality. The soul, a phoenix reborn from its ashes.

And yet, this soul of our soul, this heart of our heart, this Faith, Love and Grace also makes us participants in divine nature, and communicates eternal happiness to us, provided only that we remain faithful.

That is what this young woman understood. That is what she teaches us, what she in a blessed hour taught our Homeland, devastated everywhere but still resisting.

It is an invincible Homeland because its weakness is founded on the force of its law. A Homeland conquering the world by its gesture of immolation.

A Homeland that neither you nor I nor our children knows or understands. We do not enough love because we do not participate enough in the greatness of the sacrifice of this young woman, immolating herself freely, voluntarily to prevent time from running out and to keep the wound open.

Brothers, let us strive to be worthy of experiencing these moments, let us strive to be worthy of becoming true children of our Homeland, brothers and sisters of this poor child. Let us not incur the criticism of our Divine Saviour to his compatriots:

“They would have an excuse if they had not seen. Are they not blind and deaf? Because when was there ever a time more fruitful in miracles?”

The miracle of a king, who has such confidence in his people that he himself takes on heroism as a duty. The miracle of a people who respond to the confidence of their king by maintaining their heroism for two years.

The miracle of this young woman who joins herself to the heroism of this king and this people, and who raises up its weakness by renouncing the most legitimate joys in order to immolate herself for their common salvation.

Brothers, have faith more than ever in victory of the soul over death, in the victory of the Faith that makes the small strong and confounds the powerful, and in the victory of the Homeland, which draws its strength from weakness.

As Montalembert said, “When a man is forced to fight against a woman, provided that woman is not the least of creatures, she can brave him with impunity.”

She says to him: “Strike, but you dishonour yourself and you will not defeat me.”

Like a poor, weak woman, O Belgium, O my beloved mother, you said: “Strike, but you dishonour yourself and you will not win.”

Let us pray, Brothers, for those who do not believe, let us pray for those who slip into doubt and defiance, let us pray for those who do not believe enough. Let us pray for those who have died in glory and let us pray for those who are going to die.

O Christ, dead on the Cross, because of their weakness

Rendering from your breast a painful sigh;

When their hour comes, remember your own

O you, who know how to die!^[5]

Let us pray for our Homeland that, soon, crowned with glory, it will be able to reward all such heroism and commemorate all such oblations as it should.

Let it be so.

Joseph Cardijn

Probably April 1916

Te Deum à la Cathédrale St Michel et Gudule

Cardijn’s homily at the ceremony commemorating the execution of of Gabrielle Petit

Archives Cardijn 106

[1] Prayers for saints, Pro virgine, Old Roman Missal: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=vE89AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA306&lpg=PA306&dq=Inter+coetera+potentiae+tuae+miracula+etiam+in+sexu+fragili+victoriam+martyrii+contulisti&source=bl&ots=hWQYMfGSPp&sig=AUbYpfB26rmODl_LvYHidpxcYI8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijhdLAsaLbAhUFoJQKHZniB5sQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=Inter%20coetera%20potentiae%20tuae%20miracula%20etiam%20in%20sexu%20fragili%20victoriam%20martyrii%20contulisti&f=false 

[2] Sacrificed daughter of King Agamemnon in Greek mythology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia

[3]Jephthah was an Old Testament Jewish judge, whose own daughter was sacrificed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jephthah#Sacrifice_of_daughter 

[4] Joan of Arc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc 

[5] Citation from Alphonse de Lamartine, Le Crucifix.

O Christ, mort en Croix, que leur faiblesse obtienne

De rendre sur ton sein, un douloureux soupir;

Quand leur heure viendra, souviens-toi de la tienne

O toi, qui sais mourir !

Biography of Gabrielle Petit

Born on 20 February, 1893 at Tournai and shot dead on 1 April, 1916 at Schaerbeek, Gabrielle Petit, full name Gabrielle Aline Eugénie Marie Ghislaine Petit, was a Belgian nurse and resistance fighter who spied for the Allies during the First World War .

She was the daughter of Jules Charles Marie Petit, notary clerk and Aline Irma Victorine Eugénie Ghislaine Sgard. Her mother died while she was a child and her father abandoned her and her sister to the convent of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart at Mons . Shortly after, they were picked up by an uncle who entrusted them to the convent of the Sisters of the Child Jesus in Brugelette. At the age of 17, she returned to her father’s home but ended up moving to Brussels where her sister found her a job as governess.

She was 21 when German troops invaded Belgium in 1914. As a result, she had to postpone her marriage. While her fiancé, Maurice Gobert, signed up for military service, Gabrielle joined the Belgian Red Cross as a nurse. Wounded during an early battle, Govert was taken prisoner, but escaped almost immediately and hid in occupied territory. While convalescing, he sought to join the Belgian army entrenched behind the Yser river. However, he was forced to travel via the neutral Netherlands, England and, finally, the north of France. Gabrielle accompanied and supports him on the way.

While in Allied territory, following a short training course in espionage, she was offered a mission, which she accepted. Returning to Brussels at the end of July 1915, she collected information and transmitted the positions and the movements of the enemy troops in the sector of Maubeuge and Lille to Allied staff. She also distributed clandestine newspapers including La Libre Belgique as well as sending letters to interned soldiers and assisted Dutch soldiers to cross the French border. Her pseudonym for the Allies was Mlle Legrand.

When she fell under suspicion from the German secret police she was arrested, questioned then released for lack of evidence and continued her missions until she was again arrested on 20 January, 1916 . On 2 February, she was transferred to the prison of Saint-Gilles . On 3 March, she was sentenced to death by a German military tribunal and was shot on 1 April at the National Firing Range. At that moment, she called out: “Long live the King!” Long live the…” but did not have time to finish her sentence.

A Te Deum was celebrated in her honour in the collegiate church of Saints-Michel-et-Gudule in Brussels. The event was announced via postcards and drew a large crowd. Father Cardijn, the future founder of the YCW, celebrated the mass.

When the war was over, the remains of Gabrielle Petit were exhumed. A state funeral was held in May 1919 in the presence of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium , who placed the cross of the Order of Leopold on the coffin in a moment of great popular emotion. She now lies in Schaerbeek Cemetery.

Source

Gabrielle Petit (résistante) (Wikipedia.fr)