(Extract from Dimanche: Belgium Newspaper, Sunday 3 November 2019)
From Brussels to Rome: The dossier on Joseph Cardijn
has been presented to Rome to ask that the beatification of Joseph Cardijn be examined. What follows is a short examination of what lies behind this dossier.
“The conditions at work and wages paid are deplorable. Employers exert total power”.
One could believe that these comments could be about a contemporary situation which we would be reporting on in this Newspaper. In fact, the description relates to the period of Joseph Cardijn at the beginning of the 20th century. The proponent of this cause Guy Tourdeur (Secretary of ACV the Christian Trades Union in Belgium) states “Nowadays, would Cardijn find his place as an activist in his unrelenting support of the working class and defender of the elusive values of truth, kindness, and solidarity?” It is important that the message in support of someone during the course of beatification is rooted in the current reality. Cardinal Joseph Cardijn has influenced large numbers of young workers via the YCW (Young Christian Workers) that was founded in 1925. His method of See-Judge-Act continues to be applied in many groups of reflection and those institutes of formation.
The process is under way to add the name of Joseph Leon Cardijn on the list of the blessed Belgian Saints. In the case of this deceased Belgium Cardinal, a foundation has been created to designate someone who will defend the cause of Cardijn. The objective of this process is to judge the life and virtues of this servant of God, by examining the testimonies that have been collected. Guy Tourdeur recounts that on the 16 January 2014 “During the installation of the court a short biography of Cardijn was presented and a file produced with the reasons for conducting this process and why this has taken time. A list of eyewitnesses has been established in order for the tribunal to choose which witnesses to call.” The process at the Belgium level has been able to assemble 44 written testimonies as well as hearing from 52 witnesses coming from all the dioceses of Belgium. The Court was therefore obliged to set itself up in different places. Some theologians have examined the documents “of” and “about” Mgr. Cardijn and they have reported that there was no divergence concerning the doctrine of the Church. The completed dossier has been closed, sealed in the presence of an Archbishop and taken to the Apostolic Nunciature of Brussels and addressed to the Congregation for the cause of Saints.
In the case of Mgr. Cardijn the request for his beatification originated in India. Guy Tourdeur summarises the history of this dossier. “At the time of his death (1967) it wasn’t envisaged to launch a process of beatification. The second Vatican Council reduced the number of saints from the calendar as they were celebrated as commemorative monuments. Consequently, there was very little interest in Belgium Saints and certainly no new names were forthcoming. A sudden change occurred when voices were raised in India in 2013 to launch a process for the beatification of Cardijn. From India, from Australia and numerous other places people organised themselves to raise interest in the recognition of the Blessed Cardinal Cardijn.
The process of beatification has been launched in Belgium by the Archbishop of Maline-Bruxelles, but Joseph Cardijn’s influence extends beyond the frontiers of the Kingdom.
A group of Synod Fathers renews the “Pact of the Catacombs” Following in the footsteps of some of the Council Fathers in 1965; a group of participants in the Synod on the Amazon goes to the Catacombs of Domitilla to reaffirm the preferential option for the poor.
By Vatican News: On 16 November 1965, just a few days before the closing of the Second Vatican Council, forty-two Council Fathers celebrated Mass in the Catacombs of Domitilla, to ask God for the grace “to be faithful to the spirit of Jesus” in the service of the poor. After the celebration of the liturgy they signed the “Catacombs’ Pact of the Poor and Servant Church”. Later, more than 500 Council Fathers added their names to the pact. Following in the footsteps of the Council Fathers, tracing out new paths more than 50 years later, the legacy of those Council Fathers was taken up by a group of participants in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which is focused on the theme “New paths for the Church and for an integral ecology”. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the General relator for the Synod, presided at Mass in the catacombs, after which the Synod Fathers present signed a new “Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home: For a Church with an Amazonian face; poor and servant; prophetic and Samaritan”.
Cardinal Hummes: the Synod is a conciliar fruit. In his homily, Cardinal Hummes recalled that the Catacombs were ancient cemeteries where Christians buried their martyrs: "This", he said, "is truly holy ground". This place, he added, reminds us of the early times of the Church: Difficult times, marked by persecution but also by much faith. The Church, Cardinal Hummes said, "must always return to its roots here and in Jerusalem". The Synod, the Cardinal then affirmed, is a fruit of the Second Vatican Council. New ways are being sought to carry out the mission of proclaiming the Word. The great evils of the world, he then stressed, are due to the money that feeds corruption, conflict, lies. The Church, Cardinal Hummes concluded, must always be "praying".
The Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home: In the document signed on Sunday, the participants of the Synod on the Amazon recall that they share the joy of living among many indigenous peoples, inhabitants of river banks, migrants and suburban communities. With them, they experienced “the power of the Gospel that works in the smallest”. “The encounter with these peoples”, the document says, “challenges us and invites us to a simpler life of sharing and gratuitousness”. The signatories of the document commit themselves to “renewing the preferential option for the poor”, to abandoning “every type of colonist mentality and posture” and to proclaiming “the liberating novelty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. They also undertake to recognise “the ecclesial ministries already existing in the communities” and to seek “new paths of pastoral action”. Other commitments in the "Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home" include pledges "to walk ecumenically with other Christian communities" and "to assume before the avalanche of consumerism a happily sober lifestyle". The signatory fathers also promise to recognise "the ecclesial ministries that already exist in the communities" and to seek "new paths of pastoral action".
"Aware of our frailty, of our poverty and smallness in the face of such great and serious challenges", the signers state, "we commit ourselves to the prayer of the Church".
The Jocist (YCW) Bishops who signed the Pact of the Catacombs
Stefan Gigacz, Extract from Stefan’s website www.stefangigacz.com
The original 1965 Pact of the Catacombs developed from Helder Camara's desire for a number of bishops to take a vow to devote themselves to the poor and the working class was modelled on Cardijn's own consecration to the working class at his father's deathbed in 1903.
It is therefore no surprise to find a strong jocist (YCW) influence in the text of the Pact itself, notably in its concluding sentences, which explicitly refers to the jocist "review of life" (or "see-judge-act" method):
We commit ourselves to sharing our lives in pastoral charity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, priests, religious, and laity, so that our ministry constitutes a true service. Accordingly, we will make an effort to “review our lives” with them; we will seek collaborators in ministry so that we can be animators according to the Spirit rather than dominators according to the world; we will try be make ourselves as humanly present and welcoming as possible; and we will show ourselves to be open to all, no matter what their beliefs.
Nor is it a surprise then to find that more than half of the 34 identified signatories of the 1965 Pact of the Catacombs were "jocist" bishops ("jocist" from JOC, i.e. the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne or Young Christian Workers YCW movement). By "jocist" bishops I mean those bishops, who either had
a) gained personal experience as local, diocesan or national chaplains of the JOC and/or its Specialised Catholic Action counterparts (JEC, JAC, JUC and corresponding adult movements);
b) taught and promoted the lay apostolate, jocist methods (the "see-judge-act") and Specialised Catholic Action in seminaries, universities and through their writings;
c) promoted Specialised Catholic Action as understood by Cardijn in their role as bishops;
d) developed close personal links with Cardijn and/or other movement leaders.
It is said that 42 bishops originally signed the Pact of the Catacombs and the names of 34 of these are known. An English version can be found on:
https://www.we-are-church.org/413/index.php/library/church-democracy/97-the-catacomb-pact-against-pomp-and-ceremony-in-the-church
You can find a spreadsheet listing all 222 jocist bishops at Vatican II whom I have identified here: http://www.stefangigacz.com/vatican-2-bishops-linked-to-cardijn
Looking at the list, it's highly significant that it is headed by Charles-Marie Himmer, who was a leading promoter of the JOC and its counterparts as a young priest in the Diocese of Namur and later as bishop of Tournai, the mining and industrial region in the south of Belgium: A key ally of Cardijn, late in his life he said, "I have long practiced the see-judge-act”.
Stefan Gigacz, Posted 22nd October 2019
