Bishop Remi De Roo recalls Vatican II

Young Bishop Remi De Roo

Canadian Bishop Remi De Roo, a friend and collaborator of Cardijn at Vatican II, says that the Council can be summarised in three words: "ressourcement," a French word meaning to return to the roots of something; "aggiornamento," an Italian word meaning to update something; and "development."

One of the last survivors of the Council, Bishop De Roo made the comments during a public lecture about Vatican II at St. Mark's College at the University of British Columbia Sept. 15, the Catholic Register reports.

He also said Vatican II was the first time the church asked itself "Who am I?" but he believed the council could have gone further with a more rigorous academic look at the early church.

Collegiality and synodality were themes at the forefront of the council for participants but, according to Bishop De Roo, subsidiarity – the idea that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least-centralized competent authority – was an even bigger theme at the council.

"Subsidiarity brought to the forefront that the church is not a pyramid but a circle," he said. Asked about the legacies of the council, the bishop said he had found it painful to see collegiality watered down over the years and not understood as something that applied to all members of the church.

"There are too many of us who are too ready to depend on other people to do something" he said, adding all Catholics "are equally responsible for bringing about the reign of God."

Bishop De Roo recalled that at the first session of the council, the wives of ecumenical observers were included along with their husbands and therefore able to follow council proceedings. However, Catholic women were not directly involved in the work of the council.

By the third and fourth sessions, however, Catholic women began to be included in the council in various ways. However, he said only one woman, British economist Barbara Ward, addressed the council.

"Her talk had to be rewritten into Latin and read by a priest" he said, adding "the issue of the role of women did not get treatment and it should have."

Young Fr De Roo was present at the IYCW International Congress in Montreal 1947.

Start video at 55:00 minutes

SOURCE

Vatican II was first time church asked 'Who am I?' says Canadian bishop (Catholic Register)

Bishop Remi De Roo, Testimonies

Bishop Rémi De Roo, L'apostolat des laïcs (Vatican II)

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Gustavo Gutierrez, liberation theology and the see-judge-act

"My primary preoccupation as a Christian and as a priest is to do theology, and that is not the Gospel," Peruvian Dominican and liberation theology pioneer, Gustavo Gutierrez, has said in a recent interview in Periodista Digital.

"Theology is a second act, that reflects precisely on the life of Christians in the light of the Gospel message," he explained. "That is my main preoccupation. During my whole life, I have been a priest in a parish, a chaplain to movements so, certainly, I love theology and doing theology.

"I think it is very important to stay close to pastoral work. However, in the case of my country, the pastoral is very circumscribed.

"I never taught in a Faculty of Theology, but, now, at more than 70 years of age, I started to teach in a faculty. A bit late. Earlier, I was developing pastoral work and reflection, writing a great deal.

"I love theology and I see it as an expression of hope. In my view, it is a hermeneutic of hope and will continue to be so.

"This involves the question of the signs of the times since all theology must be looked at in the context of life in the present moment. Naturally, the foundation, the basis, is the Christian message but how it should be lived today depends on the conditions," Fr Gutierrez said.

Asked to explain the see-judge-act method, he replied that it means "looking at history".

"See means seeing reality, not speculating that 'this would be good'. It is linked to the expression 'signs of the times'.

"One must discern the facts, the causes, why certain effects occur. Then comes the time to judge," he continued.

"And the final thing - in other words, the reason for seeing and judging - is to act.

"It doesn't mean writing a book about the issues. It means the fact of committing myself in the face of that fact.

"It's very simple, created as a method in Belgium and France during the 1920s. It started with the Belgian priest [Joseph] Cardijn, who years later became a cardinal.

"Judging is read the facts, based on the demands of the Gospel. Acting has a more modest tone, it asks 'what can we do?' Some people can do this, while others may do something else.  So a variety of actions are possible. That is also reality.

The Latin American Bishops Conferences (CELAM) also used the see-judge-act at their conferences in Medellín, Puebla, Santo Domingo and Aparecida. It is a methodology," he concluded.

SOURCE

http://www.periodistadigital.com/religion/america/2016/02/06/gustavo-gutierrez-la-gente-ve-en-francisco-iglesia-religion-dios-jesus-papa-latinoamerica-peru.shtml

FULL INTERVIEW NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH

http://iglesiadescalza.blogspot.fr/2016/02/gustavo-gutierrez-assesses-current.html

PHOTO CREDIT

Periodista Digital

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Registrations open for Vatican 2+50 Conference, Chennai

Registrations are now open for the CCI Vatican 2 + 50 Conference to be held in Chennai, India from 5-8 December 2015. The theme of the conference is: "Vatican 2+50: A Cardijn Perspective".

Saint John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in October 1962 which concluded during the Papacy of Blessed Paul VI on the 5th December 1965. This Ecumenical Council was responsible for steering the Church successfully through the turbulent years after World War II and guided its growing role in the modern world.

In February 1965, Blessed Paul VI appointed Cardijn a Cardinal and Archbishop, enabling him to take part in the Fourth Session of Vatican II as a Council Father. Cardijn was initially a member of the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate and later an expert in the Conciliar Commission at Vatican II.

Cardinal Cardijn made 3 speeches at the Vatican II on 'Religious Freedom', 'Young People and the Developing World' and 'The World of Work'.

At a conference in Manila, The Philippines in October 2012, Cardijn Community International (CCI) launched a 3 year project with the theme "Vatican 2+50: A Cardijn Perspective" to re-examine the spirit and decisions of Vatican II in the areas of 'social teachings of the Church and lay participation'.

This International Conference is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of Vatican II. Representatives from different countries, international organisations and Church leaders are expected to attend this mega event.

The Cardijn Community International (CCI) is a movement of people working for sustainable development. CCI promotes Cardijn's spirituality, vision and SEE-JUDGE-ACT methodology.

The 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council instils a new hope in us with Pope Francis exclaiming 'Oh, how I would like a poor Church and for the poor'.

More info:

http://www.cyours.com/cci/index.html


Online Registration:

http://www.cyours.com/cci/registration.aspx

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Cardijn 'a wonderful listener'

Helen Jagoe (Photo: Catholic Weekly)

Cardijn Joseph Cardijn "was a wonderful listener" who "very seldom spoke", according to former IYCW Secretary-General Helen Jagoe.

He “never, ever lost his interest in young people” from the time he founded the Young Christian Workers (YCW) to his death in 1967, Helen Jagoe, from Bathurst Australia told the Catholic Weekly.

She joined her local YCW at 18 and quickly rose through its ranks to become national secretary in Melbourne and later general secretary of the movement’s international secretariat in Brussels.

It was there she worked closely Cardinal Cardijn, then in his twilight years but still a “gentle, happy man” and devoted champion of the spiritual well-being of young workers.

“At the very beginning he used to stand outside the factory gates, and he’d see these kids walking out,” she says. The priest had watched children disappear from his congregation as soon as they were old enough to work.

He became concerned as he saw them exit factories, their faces aged with grime and fatigue, and their faith threatened by the crass secularism of industrial culture. “They were lost immediately when they went into the workplace,” Helen says.

To counteract the dehumanising nature of the workplace, he created the See, Judge, Act method, which called on young people to look at the world around them and understand it in the light of the Gospel, then to act accordingly to improve the situation.

He spent hours with young people asking them about their working conditions and job satisfaction, and relayed those messages to bishops around the world and members of the curia.

Unconcerned about Mass attendance or membership of religious societies, he challenged young people to be “apostles in the workplace”.

At its peak the YCW was active in 90 countries, including Australia, where it offered a range of services from employment support and language classes to sporting competitions.

In 1965 Cardinal Cardijn travelled to Australia on a visit that was meaningful not just for YCW members in Australia but also “for the Church”, Helen says.

No less a figure than Pope Paul VI earlier paid tribute to him at the closing of the Second Vatican Council when he noted “the good seed planted 50 years by several generous pioneers and particularly a young Belgian priest had truly yielded a hundredfold”.

Cardinal Cardijn’s death just two years later was a great shock for all his supporters, including Helen who was then based in Brussels.

“He was planning a trip to South America when he died. He had a bit of a cold and got the flu, he was in bed, then all of a sudden we heard he’d died of pneumonia.”

Helen was one of five YCW leaders in Brussels entrusted with planning the funeral.

At the time of his death Cardinal Cardijn was internationally recognised for his work with the YCW, and supporters from around the world attended the requiem Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the Brussels suburb of Koekelberg.

Though his death at 84 was a shock, “we didn’t miss him, because we knew his legacy so well”, Helen says.

“He was never there as a leader, he was always in the background.

“We went on living his message.”

Almost 50 years later, the movement still exists in Australia, but Helen believes a reform is needed to better appeal to the “frenetic lifestyle” of young people today.

“They never seem to stop to reflect because life doesn’t allow them to,” she says.

“It needs to be re-founded by young people for young people with young people, using the method but perhaps not the name – people today don’t recognise themselves as workers.”

Helen is hopeful the first step towards the canonisation of Cardinal Cardijn will trigger “a renewed interest in what he did - not the man but in his method”.

SOURCE

Sainthood process starts for cardinal of the workers (Catholic Weekly)

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Betty Villa recalls Cardijn's role at Vatican II

Former International YCW vice-president, Berty Villa, from the Philippines shared her memories of working with Cardinal Joseph Cardijn during Vatican II in this video presentation.

Betty prepared this testimony for the Vatican 2+50: A Cardijn Perspective conference in Manila from 10-14 October 2012.

Full report at: www.vatican2plus50.com

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Aus bishop recalls Cardijn role at Vatican II

Bishop Pat Power with Devett O'Brien

Bishop Pat Power, recently retired auxiliary of Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese, has recalled "the influence on Vatican II of Joseph Cardijn".

Writing in CathNews, Bishop Power was recounting his experience in Rome for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening the Second Vatican Council.

"A week earlier, I had prayed at the tomb of Pope John XXIII in St Peter’s Basilica and was moved to tears as I contemplated the great contribution he and the Second Vatican Council had made to the life of the Church and its impact on the contemporary world," Bishop Power wrote.

"Prior to the Mass, I had a chance meeting with Australian, Devett O’Brien, Secretary General of the International Young Christian Students movement.

"That meeting reminded me of the influence on Vatican II of Joseph Cardijn, founder of the Young Christian Workers. The YCW method of See, Judge and Act is very much in harmony with John XXIII’s call for us all to “read the signs of the times”.

"As I left Rome, I felt privileged to have experienced an historic moment of grace on 11 October 2012 and I had hope in my heart for a new flowering of Vatican II which would more clearly enable the Church to show its best self in witnessing to the love of God and showing the face of Jesus to a world hungering for meaning," Bishop Power concluded.

SOURCE

Bishop Pat Power's historic moment of grace (CathBlog)

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A 'New Pentecost' in the 50th yr of opening of Vatican II

The International Team of CCI wishes all Cardijn alumni and the members of Cardijn Community a spirit filled ‘New Pentecost’.

New Pentecost is very special to CCI.

New Pentecost was promoted by CCI as a follow up to its successful Conference on Vatican II + 40 in 2002 in Bangkok to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II in 1962.

Pope John XXIII proposed the prayer “O Holy Spirit, renew your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost” for Vatican II. He wished the Vatican II to open the way to a New Pentecost in the Church.

This year CCI is commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II by launching a 3 year project re-examining the spirit and decisions of the Council in the areas of social teachings and lay participation in the light of Cardinal Cardijn’s contribution.

The project will be launched on the 11^th October this year in Manila with a 3 day Conference on ‘Vatican 2 + 50: A Cardijn Perspective’.

An ‘Inquiry’ to collate the perceptions of the laity will be launched as a preparation to the Conference.

On this special day, we beseech the Holy Spirit to guide us in our search to build a ‘sustainable Church’ in the light of the vision and spirituality promoted by Cardijn.

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From Easter to New Pentecost

Cardijn with Patrick Keegan at Vatican II

Easter greetings to all CCI members and friends.

There is so much to celebrate this year, beginning with the centenary of Cardijn beginning work in the parish of Our Lady of Laeken.

This year also marks the centenary of the foundation of the first YCW group, an event celebrated by the IYCW.

And it also the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council at which Cardijn played such an important yet largely hidden role.

CCI will commemorate this important event by launching a three year program to study Cardijn's role at the Council and the Church's social commitment to lay apostolate.

We will hold an opening conference on the theme "Vatican 2+ 50: A Cardijn Perspective"  from 11-14 October 2012 to be held at the Pius XII Center in Manila, Philippines.

Join us for this important event.

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Remembering Cardijn's role at Vatican II

“'Vatican II canonised Cardijn,' I remember late Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little saying as he regaled us with his story of meeting the YCW founder while studying in Rome," writes Stefan Gigacz.

"What's more there was a whole generation of Australian bishops and priests, who told similar stories, starting with his predecessor Archbishop Justin Simonds, and including Brisbane Archbishop Frank Rush, Adelaide's James Gleeson, Perth's Redmond Prindiville and many others.

"Archbishop Little's message stayed with me, and was later reinforced by a biography of Cardijn by his co-workers, Marguerite Fievez and Jacques Meert, that detailed his role at the Council in promoting the specific task of the laity as the building up of the world.

"So in 1995, when I began doing research on the origins of the International Young Christian Workers movement, I looked forward to the publication of the first volume of a major History of Vatican II.

"But after forking out over $100 for Volume I, I reached for the index – only to be deflated to find not a single mention of Cardijn."

Read the full article here:

The saint at Vatican II (CathNews)

CCI is this year launching its 50th anniversary of Vatican II program with a conference "Vatican 2 + 50: A Cardijn Perspective" to be held in Manila, Philippines from 11-14 October 2012.

Click here for details: www.vatican2plus50.com

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Vatican 2 + 50: A Cardijn Perspective

To mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, CCI will hold a conference on the theme "Vatican 2 + 50: A Cardijn Perspective" to be held at the Pius XII Centre, Manila from 11-14 October 2012.

The aim of the conference will be to launch a three year project by CCI to study the spirit and teachings of Vatican II and their implementation, particularly in relating to Catholic social teaching and the lay apostolate.

This will be done from the perspective of the spirituality and methodology of the late Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, founder of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement as well as a Council Father at Vatican II.

In the lead up to the conference, CCI will also launch a preparatory enquiry to begin the process of evaluating how far the spirit and teachings of Vatican II with regard to social teachings and lay participation have been promoted, understood and implemented.

Preparation for the event will also focus in particular on the two conciliar documents: Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution On the Church In the Modern World, and
Apostolicam Actuositatem, Decree On the Apostolate of the Laity.

Joseph Cardijn took part in the Council first as a consultant to the Commission on Lay Apostolate from 1962-65 and later as a Council Father in the Fourth Session of the Council after he was made a bishop and cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

"Cardijn gave three speeches on the floor of the Council on the themes: Religious Freedom, Young People and the Developing World, and Workers in the World," noted CCI President Stefan Gigacz. "He also prepared two more speeches on the Lay Apostolate and the Life and Ministry of the Priest that he was unable to deliver orally."

"We hope also to work on these six themes that Cardijn emphasised over the next three years of our project," Mr Gigacz added.

More details of the conference will be posted here and on our dedicated website: www.vatican2plus50.com

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Vatican 2 + 50

CCI has launched a new website for its Vatican 2 +50  program to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and to study the contribution of Cardijn to the Council.

Focusing on the theme "Social Commitment of the Church," the three year campaign will launch in October 2015 and will conclude in 2015. It follows on from the successful Vatican 2 +40 program sponsored by CCI in 2002.

The three year programme will focus on increased lay participation in the Church, encouraging social actions and a clear cut policy on social commitment of the Church.

Various events, conferences and campaigns spread over in different countries around the world will be organised during the 3 year period to study the ground reality, evaluate the decisions of Vatican II and to call for the attention of the Church.

Read more details at: www.vatican2plus50.com

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Cardijn and Rerum Novarum

This month we remember not only the 120th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's landmark encyclical on the condition of the workers, Rerum Novarum, but also its successor encyclicals, which together have helped build the foundations of Catholic social thought and teaching.

Today, Rerum Novarum is well recognised as the first of the Catholic Church's social encyclicals. For the first time, the Church formally recognised the right of workers to organise in trade unions. The encyclical also laid out the elements of a just wage that would orient workers' demands for many decades into the future.

Published in 1891 at the height of the European Industrial Revolution, Rerum Novarum was also a key formative document in the life of the young Joseph Cardijn who was later to found the Young Christian Workers movement. Aged nine years, he read the encyclical aloud to his illiterate father.

It was a document that would have a decisive impact on his whole life as an advocate for the workers, particularly young workers.

Later, in 1931, when Pope Pius XI, published the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno to mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, he made specific reference to Cardijn's emerging YCW movement.

“The ranks of the workers themselves are already giving happy and promising signs of a social reconstruction,” Pope Pius XI wrote. “To Our soul's great joy, We see in these ranks also the massed companies of young workers, who are receiving the counsel of Divine Grace with willing ears and striving with marvelous zeal to gain their comrades for Christ.” (Paragraph 140)

Thirty years later, Cardijn would suggest to Pope John XXIII that he also write an encyclical to mark the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

“It is time the Church talked about work again,” Cardijn told Pope John during a private audience in March 1960. “The issue is not the same now in 1960 as it was in the time of Leo XIII or Pius XI.”

“No-one could have foreseen then its present dimensions, its universality, its technological aspect, its influence on every race and on young people generally. An encyclical dealing with the world of work today would have an impact even greater than Rerum Novarum or Quadragesimo.”

“But it needs to be a positive encyclical, open to the collaboration necessary,” Cardijn told the Pope, warning him gently against a document that would simply condemn various evils.

“Write your ideas and send them to me,” the Pope told Cardijn.

The result just over a year later on 15 May 1961 was the encyclical Mater et Magistra.

This was the encyclical that would formally endorse the “see, judge, act” method as part of Catholic social teaching.

“There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice,” Pope John wrote (Paragraph 236).

“First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act.”

Later this teaching would also be taken up by Vatican II, notably in Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

For this reason, the Cardijn Community International plans to promote a three year campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of Vatican II from 2012-2015.

In a world where the industrial revolution has reached every continent to become a truly global phenomenon, let us recall Cardijn's own contribution to the Church's social thought and practice.

- Cardijn Community International, 17 May 2011

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Pope John’s secretary recalls Vatican II pillars

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Time Magazine cover"][/caption]

Recalling the announcement of Vatican II by Pope John XXIII, Bishop Loris Capovilla, who was the pontiff’s personal secretary, has outlined what he calls “the four pillars” of the Council.

“We know today more than ever who we are and where we are going (Lumen Gentium), what language we should speak and what message we should convey (Dei verbum), how much and how hard we should pray (Sacrosanctum concilium), what attitude we should adopt towards the problems and tragedies of contemporary humanity (Gaudium et spes),” Bishop Capovilla, 95, said on the 52nd anniversary of the announcement of the Council, CNA reports.

“These are the four pillars that sustain the building of renewed pastoral ministry and encourage us to listen to God’s voice, to speak to God as his children, and that oblige us to dialogue with all the components of the human family,” he concluded.

Bishop Loris Capovilla also described how the media announced the Council before Pope John had a chance to inform the cardinals, according to an article published Jan. 25 by L’Osservatore Romano.

He noted that the then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Domenico Tardini, wrote the following on his calendar for Jan. 20, 1959: “Important audience. Yesterday afternoon His Holiness spent time in reflection and set in stone the agenda for his pontificate. He came up with three ideas: a Roman Synod, an Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) and an update of the Code of Canon Law. He wants to announce these three things next Sunday to the cardinals after the ceremony for the feast of St. Paul.”

Bishop Capovilla said on that Sunday, Jan. 25, 1959, the Pope got up and prayed, but after celebrating Mass, “He remained kneeling longer than usual.”

He then went to the ceremony for the feast of St Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The ceremony ran longer than scheduled, and before he could announce the convening of Vatican II, the press embargo on the announcement expired. The council was then “broadcast by the media before the Pope could communicate it to the cardinals,” the article said.

The Pope still addressed the Roman Curia, “with trembling and a bit of excitement,” about his plans to hold “a twofold celebration: a diocesan synod for the city and an ecumenical council for the universal Church.”

Bishop Capovilla said the council was given three clear directives: to promote interior renewal among Catholics, to raise awareness among Christians of the reality of the Church and of the tasks she is charged with carrying out, and to call on bishops, with their priests and the laity, to assume responsibility for the salvation of all mankind.

The bishop said that 52 years after announcing the council and 46 years after its conclusion in 1965, four Popes have continually emphasized that it was “an event willed by God” and led by “an old man who rejuvenated the Church” at a time when many thought John XXIII was going to be a “transitional Pope.”

“If Vatican II has not yet achieved its goals, this means that our conversion is a task yet to be fulfilled,” he added.
SOURCE

Personal secretary of John XXIII recounts Vatican II announcement (Catholic News Agency)

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