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Webinar: The women of Vatican II: Sr Maureen Sullivan O.P.

For our next ACI webinar on Saturday 11 March – three days after International Women’s Day – we are proud to present Sr Maureen Sullivan, who will share her research on the women auditors who attended and contributed to the Second Vatican Council.

Among those women auditors was Australian, Rosemary Goldie, who later became the under-secretary of the Pontifical Council of the Laity in 1967.

Others included Uruguayan feminist theologian and activist, Gladys Parentelli, who represented the International Catholic Movement for Rural Youth (MIJARC) at the Council, and Marie-Louise Monnet, founder of the International Movement for the Apostolate of Independent Social Milieux (MIAMSI).

Religious sisters who were lay auditors included Sr Mary Luke Tobin, an American Loreto sister, and Mother Suzanne Guillemin, superior general of the Daughters of Charity.

Sr Maureen will speak of their stories of their hopes, struggles and achievements in a don’t miss event for all those interested not only in the role of women in the Church and world but also at the Council itself.

Sr Maureen Sullivan

Sr Maureen graduated with a PhD in theology from Fordham University in New York with a dissertation on “The Christian Humanism of Pope Paul VI: An Inquiry into its Christological Foundations.”

She taught at St Anselm’s College, New Hampshire, where she was professor of theology, and at Fordham University.

Her books include 101 Questions and Answers About Vatican II, and The Road to Vatican II: Key Changes in Theology, both published by Paulist Press.

She has also served as preaching promoter and on the vocation team of the Dominican Sisters of Hope.

READ MORE

Sr Maureen Sullivan O.P. CV

Rosemary Goldie (Wikipedia)

WEBINAR DETAILS

Saturday 11 March 2023, 1pm AEDT (Sydney-Melbourne), 10am Perth (Friday evening USA)

REGISTER VIA ZOOM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85376887586?pwd=L1hwM1A4ZmdOM29WL1BWdUxzeDFNZz09

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See clearly, judge well and decide: Léon Ollé-Laprune

This month marks the 125th anniversary of the death of French philosopher, whose work inspired the French democratic movement, Le Sillon, founded by Marc Sangnier, as well as Cardijn himself.

“Each person must apply him or herself more than ever, better than ever, to courageously and faithfully looking at the principles and the facts in order to make him or herself more than ever, better than ever, capable of seeing clearly, judging and deciding,” Ollé-Laprune wrote in the Preface to the Third Edition of his classic work “Le prix de la vie,” which translates as “The price or prize of life.”

For Léon Ollé-Laprune, who lived at a time of significant social conflict and anti-clericalism, learning to see together, to judge together and to arrive at conclusions together was a way of overcoming division and building social peace.

What a great vision for the see-judge-act method that we can still apply fruitfully today for promoting unity among people of various faiths or none and even amid ideological conflict.

Read more

Léon Ollé-Laprune: Philosopher of the see-judge-act (Cardijn Reflections)

See clearly, judge and decide with Léon Ollé-Laprune (Cardijn Reflections)

Léon Ollé-Laprune website (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

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Video: John Médaille on Cardijn’s Hour of the Working Class

American Catholic Social Teaching specialist, John Médaille, shared his reflections on the issues and questions raised by Cardijn at our February 2023 ACI webinar.

Read more

Joseph Cardijn, The hour of the working class (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Books by John Médaille

Toward a Truly Free Market: A Distributist Perspective on the Role of Government, Taxes, Health Care, Deficits, and More

The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace

John Médaille’s lectures on Catholic Social Teaching

https://www.youtube.com/@johnmedaille2461/videos

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Lay apostolate primarily witness: Pope Francis

“The apostolate of the laity is primarily that of witness!” Pope Francis told participants at a meeting organised by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

“You have come here from various countries to reflect on the shared responsibility of pastors and lay faithful in the Church,” he continued. ” The path that God is indicating to the Church is precisely that of a more intense and concrete experience of communion and journeying together.

“He asks the Church to leave behind ways of acting separately, on parallel tracks that never meet,” the pope stated. “Clergy separated from laity, consecrated persons from clergy and the faithful; the intellectual faith of certain elites separated from the faith of ordinary people; the Roman Curia from the particular Churches, bishops from priests; young people from the elderly, spouses and families disengaged from the life of the communities, charismatic movements separated from parishes, and so forth.

“This is the worst temptation at the present moment,” he warned. “The Church still has a long way to go to live as a body, as a true people united by the same faith in Christ the Saviour, enlivened by the same Spirit of holiness and directed to the same mission of proclaiming the merciful love of God our Father.”

“This last aspect is critical: a people united in mission,” he continued. ‘This is the insight that we must always cherish: the Church is the faithful holy People of God, as Lumen Gentium affirms in nos. 8 and 12. The Church is neither populist nor elitist, but the faithful holy People of God.

“We cannot learn this theoretically, but through lived experience. Only then may we seek to explain, as best we can; but if we do not live it we cannot explain it. A people united in mission, then. Synodality has its origin and ultimate purpose in mission: it is born of mission and directed to mission.

“Sharing in mission brings pastors and laypersons closer together; it builds a unity of purpose, manifests the complementarity of the differing charisms and thus awakens in all the desire to move forward together.

“We see this illustrated in Jesus himself, who from the beginning surrounded himself with a group of disciples, men and women, and, with them, carried out his public ministry. Never alone. When he sent the Twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God, he sent them ‘two by two’.

“We see the same thing in Saint Paul, who always proclaimed the Gospel with co-workers, including laypersons and married couples. Not by himself. This has been the case at times of great renewal and missionary outreach in the Church’s history: pastors and faithful together. Not isolated individuals, but a people that evangelizes, the faithful holy People of God!

The apostolate of the laity

Training of lay people must also be “directed towards mission, not just towards theories, otherwise they will fall into ideology.”

“To avoid this, formation must be mission-oriented, not academic, limited to theoretical ideas, but practical as well. It must arise from hearing the kerygma, be nurtured by the word of God and the sacraments, help people to grow in discernment, as individuals and in community, and engage from the beginning in the apostolate and in various forms of testimony, however simple, which can lead to closeness to others.

“The apostolate of the laity is primarily that of witness! The witness of one’s own experience and history, the witness of prayer, the witness of serving those in need, the witness of closeness to the poor and the forgotten, and the witness of welcome, above all on the part of families.

“That is the right training for mission: going out towards others, learning ‘on the ground’. And at the same time, an effective means of spiritual growth.”

“From the beginning, I have said that ‘”I dream of a missionary Church’ (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 27; 32).

“It is in this perspective that we can properly approach the issue of shared responsibility on the part of laypersons in the Church,” Pope Francis explained. “The need to enhance the role of the laity is not based on some theological novelty, or due to the shortage of priests, much less a desire to make up for their neglect in the past.

“Rather, it is grounded in a correct vision of the Church, which is the People of God, of which the laity, together with the ordained ministers, are fully a part. The ordained ministers, then, are not masters, they are servants: shepherds, not masters.

“éThis means recovering an “integral ecclesiology”, like that of the first centuries, when everything was unified by membership in Christ and by supernatural communion with him and with our brothers and sisters. It means leaving behind a sociological vision that distinguishes classes and social rank, and is ultimately based on the ‘power’ assigned to each category. The emphasis needs to be placed on unity, not on separation or distinction. The layperson is more than a ‘non-cleric’ or a ‘non-religious’; he or she must be considered as a baptised person, a member of the holy People of God, for that is the sacrament which opens all doors.

“In the New Testament, the word ‘layperson’ does not appear; we hear of ‘believers’, ‘disciples’, ‘brethren’ and ‘saints’, terms applied to everyone: lay faithful and ordained ministers alike, the People of God journeying together.

In this one People of God that is the Church, the fundamental element is our belonging to Christ.

“In this unitary vision of the Church, where we are first and foremost baptised Christians, the laity live in the world and at the same time belong to the faithful People of God. The Puebla Document expressed this nicely: laypersons are men and women ‘of the Church in the heart of the world’, and men and women ‘of the world in the heart of the Church’. 

“True, the laity are called to live their mission chiefly amid the secular realities in which they are daily immersed. Yet that does not mean that they do not also have the abilities, charisms and competence to contribute to the life of the Church: in liturgical service, in catechesis and education, in the structures of governance, the administration of goods and the planning and implementation of pastoral projects, and so forth.

“For this reason, pastors need to be trained, from their time in the seminary, to work collaboratively with laypersons, so that communion, as a lived experience, will be reflected in their activity as something natural, not extraordinary and occasional.

“This experience of shared responsibility between laypersons and pastors will help to overcome dichotomies, fears and reciprocal mistrust. Now is the time for pastors and laypersons to move forward together, in every sphere of the Church’s life and in every part of the world! The lay faithful are not ‘guests’ in the Church; it is their home and they are called to care for it as such.”

“Together with their pastors, laypersons must bring Christian witness to secular life: to the worlds of work, culture, politics, art and social communications.

“We could put it this way: laity and pastors together in the Church, laypersons and pastors together in the world,” Pope Francis concluded.

Source

Pope Francis, To Participants at the Conference promoted by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (Vatican.va)

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Pope Francis addresses participants at a conference of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. (Vatican Media)

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YCW Centenary History Project

Call for Contributors 

The YCW Centenary 2025

Perspectives from Oceania

Thirteen years after Joseph Cardijn and his collaborators launched their first experimental study circles with teenage girl needleworkers in the Brussels suburb of Laeken, the Young Christian Worker Movement was founded formally in 1925. It spread quickly across the globe. The method of ‘see-judge-act’ enabled a lay apostolate that saw faith as inextricably and powerfully connected to the whole of life. By 1966 the outward and public focus of YCW formation involved 4 million young people in 100 countries with a dozen allied movements, each committed to transforming the social context through shared reflection. The method impacted 10 of the 16 major documents of the Second Vatican Council and resourced ‘liberation theologies’ globally, not least through countless ‘mundane’ actions in the daily lives of members.

To mark the centenary of the foundation of the YCW, we aim to workshop and publish an edited collection of academic contributions on the YCW in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. We are interested to hear from writers across the academic disciplines (including, but not limited to business and labour history, education, gender studies, history, law, literature, sociology, theology and religious studies) to explore the variety of the YCW movement across time and the in diverse locations of Oceania in chapters of 4,000 – 7,000 words.

Topics to be explored include but, again, are not limited to:

  • Foundation stories of the YCW / NCGM in different regions
  • Contextual studies by decade and era: e.g. post-Second World War, into the 1960s, post Vatican II, through Vietnam War, into the 1980s
  • Sporting competitions
  • Migration initiatives
  • Colonial and post-colonial realities
  • Biographies
  • Trajectories of members after the movement
  • Co-operatives, credit unions and housing initiatives
  • Changes in the theological climate
  • Accounts of major actions – (e.g. Springbok tour, Adelaide’s freeway campaign, Walton’s campaign, Fitzroy Legal Service, apprentices)
  • YCW Extension Workers
  • YCW Chaplains
  • Formation programmes and conceptions of leadership
  • Transnational collaborations

For an overview of original sources, biographical material and existing studies, please see:

Joseph Cardijn Digital Library: https://www.josephcardijn.com

History of the Cardijn Movements in Australia: http://history.australiancardijninstitute.org/

Trove Timeline Cardijn Movements in the Media: https://timeline.austtaliancardijninstitute.org/

Please send a short abstract of up to 250 words and a biographical statement of up to 100 words to Anthony O’Donnell odonnellanthony21@gmail.com by 15 May 2023.

Acceptance will be advised by 31 May 2023.

Presentation at a hybrid workshop 27 October 2023

Revision of manuscripts for publication by 31 March 2024.

About the project team:

Anthony O’Donnell is an adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Law, La Trobe University. He researches and publishes in labour law, labour history and social policy. His most recent books are a biography of Moss Cass and a history of Australian unemployment policy. He was a member of TYCS in the 1980s.

Stefan Gigacz is an honorary post-doctoral researcher with Yarra Theological Union within the University of Divinity and secretary of the Australian Cardijn Institute. Previously, he worked for the YCW in Australia and internationally. His doctorate, and forthcoming book, The Leaven in the Council identifies the key role of Joseph Cardijn at the Second Vatican Council.

Katharine Massam is professor of history at Pilgrim Theological College within the University of Divinity. She has published extensively on the history of Catholicism in Australia, most recently A Bridge Between: Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia, with a particular interest in the spirituality of work.. She is a member of the board of the Australian Cardijn Institute.

Download the Call for Papers here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FBlSlkadmW_gHoMVTTuf6P81Jh0CYfF6/view?usp=sharing
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Faith in our struggle: South African YCS leaders against apartheid

Former South African YCS leader, Peter Sadie, is publishing his autobiography entitled “Faith in our struggle: A memoir of hope.”

He recounts his personal story as well as that of the South African YCS in this interview with Polity magazine:

“His story vividly illustrates how he grew up from a naïve, yet loving childhood, through the fires of divorce, deaths and broken political promises fracturing trust,” write Aluta Continua in Polity.

“Can lives inspired by faith restore compassion with the poor and act again to respond to their suffering?  Could this be a time of Kairos in our country’s growth to a more ‘critical loyalty’: from the innocence of our freedom in 1994, through the wasted years of state-capture, to the resurrection of a more mature political reorder?”

READ MORE

Faith in our Struggle: A Memoir of Hope – Peter Sadie (Polity)

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Combat exploitation, restore dignity to work: Pope Francis

Addressing the Vatican Diplomatic Corps on 9 January, Pope highlighted three priority areas of concern for the year 2023: migrants, the economy and work as well as “our common home.”

“We live in a world so interconnected that, in the end, the actions of each have consequences for all,” Pope Francis said.

Here, I wish to draw attention to three areas in which this interconnection uniting today’s human family is particularly felt, and where greater solidarity is especially needed.

The first area is that of migration, which concerns entire regions of the world. Often it is an issue of individuals fleeing from war and persecution, and who face immense dangers. Then too, “every human being has the right to freedom of movement… to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there” and everyone should have the possibility of returning to his or her own country of origin.

Migration is one issue where we cannot “move ahead at random”. To understand this, we need but look at the Mediterranean, which has become a massive tomb. Those lost lives are emblematic of the shipwreck of civilization, as I noted during my trip to Malta last spring. In Europe, there is a pressing need to reinforce the regulatory framework through the approval of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, so as to put in place suitable policies for accepting, accompanying, promoting and integrating migrants. At the same time, solidarity requires that the burden of the operations needed to aid and care for the shipwrecked does not fall entirely on the people of the main landing points.

The second area concerns the economy and work. The crises of recent years have highlighted the limits of an economic system aimed more at creating profit for a few than at providing opportunities for the benefit of the many; an economy more focused on money than on the production of useful goods. This has created more fragile businesses and unjust labour markets. There is a need to restore dignity to business and to work, combating all forms of exploitation that end up treating workers as a commodity, for “without dignified work and just remuneration, young people will not truly become adults and inequality will increase”.

The third area is the care of our common home. We are continually witnessing the results of climate change and their serious effects on the lives of entire peoples, either by the devastation they produce, as in the case of Pakistan in the areas that experienced flooding, where outbreaks of disease borne by stagnant water continue to increase; or in vast areas of the Pacific Ocean, where global warming has caused great damage to fishing, which is the basis of daily life for entire populations; or in Somalia and the entire Horn of Africa, where drought is causing severe famine; and in recent days too, in the United States, where sudden and intense blizzard conditions caused numerous deaths.

Last summer, the Holy See chose to accede to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as a means of lending its moral support to the efforts of all states to cooperate, in accordance with their responsibilities and respective capabilities, in offering an effective and appropriate response to the challenges posed by climate change. It is to be hoped that the steps taken at COP27 with the adoption of the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, however limited, can raise everyone’s awareness of an urgent issue that can no longer be ignored.  Promising goals, however, were agreed upon during the recent United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) held in Montreal last month.

60th anniversary of Pacem in Terris

Pope Francis also noted that this year marks the 60th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, , which warned against the threats to peace of that time.

He concluded, adding that “building peace requires that there be no place for ‘violation of the freedom, integrity and security of other nations, no matter what may be their territorial extension or their capacity for defence’. ”  This can come about only if, in every single community, there does not prevail that culture of oppression and aggression in which our neighbour is regarded as an enemy to attack, rather than a brother or sister to welcome and embrace.

“It is a source of concern that, in many parts of the world, there is a weakening of democracy and of the breadth of freedom that it enables, albeit with all the limitations of any human system. It is women or ethnic minorities who often pay the price for this, as too do entire societies in which unrest leads to social tensions and even armed clashes,” the pope continued.

“In many areas, a sign of the weakening of democracy is heightened political and social polarization, which does not help to resolve the urgent problems of citizens,” he warned.

SOURCE

Address of his Holiness Pope Francis to the members of the diplolmatic corps accredited to the Holy See (Vatican.va)

PHOTO

January 9 2023 Audience to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps Pope Francis (Vatican Media/YouTube)

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Therese of Lisieux at 150

Therese of Lisieux

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of YCW patron saint, Therese of Lisieux, who was born on 2 January 1873.

UNESCO is commemorating her life following a proposal by France with support from Belgium and Italy made at the suggestion of the Shrine of Lisieux.

In presenting Thérèse de Lisieux to the UNESCO Executive Council on 25 March 2021, the French government wrote:

“Thérèse of Lisieux was a nun who died at the age of 24 and is best known for her posthumous publications, including Histoire d’une âme. This celebration will contribute to bringing greater visibility and justice to women who have promoted the values of peace through their actions.

Given the fame of Thérèse of Lisieux in the Catholic community (the city of Lisieux being the second most popular place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes), the celebration of her birthday can be an opportunity to highlight the role of women within religions in the fight against poverty and the promotion of inclusion, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 161.

It can also reinforce UNESCO’s message on the importance of culture (poems and written plays) in promoting universal values and as a vehicle for inter-religious dialogue.”

YCW patron saint

It was Pope Pius XI who proposed Therese as patron saint for the YCW and indeed for all Catholic Action movements during a YCW pilgrimage to Rome in 1929.

Cardijn recorded the event as follows:

By giving us the souvenir medal of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the pope wanted to tell us that he had specially chosen her since she is the patroness of missionaries and that he regards us missionaries, the missionaries of the interior, the missionaries of work, and he emphasised that he considered our mission of the interior as important as the missions of the exterior.

What praise and what a responsibility!

We swore before the Pope to re-Christianise workplaces and to win back all our companions to Jesus Christ and the Church.

READ MORE

Therese of Lisieux (Wikipedia)

Therese of Lisieux, a woman of culture, education and peace (Shrine of Lisieux)

Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

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Synod Submissions

Synod 2021-24

The Continental Stage of preparation for the forthcoming Synod on Synodality 2023-24 is drawing to a close.

Two Australian Cardijn-inspired groups made submissions to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, namely the Cardijn Community Rockingham group and the Australian Christian Workers movement.

CARDIJN COMMUNITY ROCKINGHAM, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

  1. EXPERIENCES OF CHURCH

We note that young workers face great challenges at work and in their lives: Casualised labour makes it difficult to plan financially, depriving them of a rhythm to their lives Schools, including Catholic schools fail to prepare young people for their working lives This is true not just for young workers but also adults facing great living expenses while their free time has been whittled away. Church youth ministries and parishes in general do not address these issues. Movements such as the Young Christian Workers (YCW) no longer exist or lack support from the Church.

  1. CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS

Vatican II spoke about the need for the Church to renew its approach “ad intra” but also “ad extra,” i.e. in its approach to the world. Indeed, Gaudium et Spes emphasised that the Church is IN the world. Pope Francis himself has emphasised the need for workers to feel at home in the Church. https://australiancardijninstitute.org/workers-must-be-at-home-in-the-church-pope-francis/ Yet, paradoxically, the post-Vatican II period has witnessed the decline of the lay apostolate movements such as the YCW and YCS which helped form lay people for their role in the world, in their families, workplaces and communities. Catholic educational institutions do not systematically teach the lay apostolate Today there are few young priests available to act as chaplains for these movements. Youth ministers also lack understanding of movements like the YCW and YCS.

  1. PRIORITIES AND CALLS TO ACTION

The Church in Australia and around the world needs to rediscover the vocation of the laity – the lay apostolate as articulated at Vatican II in Lumen Gentium §31, Gaudium et Spes §43 and in the Decree on Lay Apostolate, Apostolicam Actuositatem. Movements such as the YCW and YCS – and/or new lay apostolate movements must be fostered by the Church. Lay apostolate formation must become a priority, including formation for priests, catechists and pastoral workers. This issue needs to be addressed in the First Session of the Synodal Assembly in 2023.

SUMMARY

  1. Ordinary workers, especially young workers and school leavers face many problems that the (Catholic) education system does not prepare them for working life.
  2. Prior to Vatican II, particularly since Pope Leo’s encylical Rerum Novarum, the Church had a strong awareness of these issues and programs and movements existed to reach out to workers and young workers, including the YCW
  3. Despite the strong teaching of Vatican II, this outreach and these movements have declined or even disappeared in many parts of Australia over the last 50 years. Yet the problems have not disappeared, and in many cases have worsened (casual labour, etc)
  4. The Church therefore needs to renew its mission to workers in general and young workers in particular
  5. It also needs to recall and renew its understanding of the Vatican II teaching on lay apostolate and the role, mission and vocation of lay people acting as a leaven to transform the world, beginning from their own lives, families, workplaces and communities
  6. Priests, catechists, pastoral workers and others need formation in these areas in order to promote the lay apostolate
  7. Catholic educational institutions need to introduce courses to train people in these areas.

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN WORKERS MOVEMENT

The need for a Christian Worker Movement in Australia.

After the 2nd world war the Australian economy expanded rapidly in many industries and there was full employment. The trade union movement developed and represented approximately 54% of all workers. The cultural background of workers was predominantly English and European.

The trade union movement at this time was highly successful and improved the lives of workers in wage growth, health and safety, holiday pay, compensation, hours of work. Catholic men and women participated in and some helped lead this movement.

Over the past 3 decades the Australian economy has continued to expand and the population has more than trebled, mostly through migration, most migrants coming from India, China, Asia and the Middle East. The trade union movement now represents approximately 14% of all workers. Research conducted by the Australian Trade Union Movement {ACTU} has identified that 60% of workers are now experiencing wage theft.

Workers across all industries are being exploited including many catholic workers.

Based on Catholic social teaching, beginning with the encyclical Rerum Novarum,

§45: that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well balanced wage-earner.

§49 The most important of all are workers unions.

We recommend that the Australian Catholic Church advise all members of this teaching and recommend followers to join a union as the best way to obtain justice in the work place.

For years, state and federal governments have exploited their staff.  Demands that workers perform unpaid overtime are at epidemic proportions.  It never ceases to amaze me. You buy a dozen eggs from the shop, and you expect and get 12. You buy a case of beer, and you expect and get 48 cans you buy a kilo of sausages and that what you get. But employers universally believe they can buy 38 hours labour and expect (and get) 40 – 50 hours. Government employers are great believers in the myth of time off. Do this overtime and you can have some time off later.  It never happens. Even if the boss tells you to take time off, no one does your work whilst you are away, so you need to work twice as hard when you come back just to catch up which leads to more unpaid overtime. The casualisation of the government workforce is as rampant as it is in the private sector.

SOURCE

A response to the Synod Continental Stage (Synodal Reflections)

Synod 2021-24 (Vatican)

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Vale Richard Buchhorn

Richard Buchhorn

Richard Buchhorn, or Dick as he was known to many, had a nose for injustice, hence the title of his memoir Cry Stinking Fish. He wrote: “And those who say to you: why bother us with this? Sing out, men with strong noses must cry stinking fish.”

Dick didn’t simply cry stinking fish. He sought, firstly, to understand the basis of any injustice, then to communicate this to others whom he hoped might join him in action to eliminate the stink.

Born and raised in Glen Innes, upon leaving school Dick attended the University of New South Wales and graduated as a mining engineer. He also became aware of, and was influenced by, the Young Christian Worker movement (YCW), an international organisation of the Catholic Church. In later life he gave full credit to the lasting influence the YCW had on his life and personal philosophy. He decided to train for the priesthood, first in Australia and then in Rome, where he was ordained in 1960.

Returning to Australia, he was appointed to the Tamworth parish. As YCW chaplain, he learned that many junior bank officials endured poor conditions and were underpaid. Under his leadership, the YCW’s local campaign was taken up by other branches, and banks were forced to improve wages and conditions. Their next campaign spread state-wide, resulting in much improved training for young apprentices following legislation enacted by the NSW parliament. During these actions Dick met, for the first but not last time, supportive unionists.

Dick was the catalyst. When he was around, things happened quickly.

In late 1969 Dick was moved to Narrabri where he made friends with a couple who shared his opposition to Australia’s involvement in the war in Vietnam. He suggested that, instead of travelling to Sydney for the May 1970 Moratorium, they might organise one in Narrabri. They got a few more people together and the Moratorium went ahead in the town’s main street. Posters were displayed, leaflets and flowers were distributed, and an open forum that same afternoon was attended by some fifty people.

In 1983, Dick resigned from the priesthood but continued to live at Boggabilla. He and a most remarkable Murri, Lilla Watson, entered into a permanent relationship and in time moved into their home in West End, Brisbane. Reflecting on this period of his life, Richard Buchhorn described how important it was, in terms of his own liberation, to be welcomed so warmly into the Murri community, within which he gained a more profound appreciation of Murri values and their way of life. It was his hope, he wrote, that whitefellas might: “…do the right thing: respect the law, the culture, of the people into whose country we have come, and chosen to live: to learn who we are, and to enter into an appropriate relation with this land and its people”.

He is survived by Lilla, and the last words are hers.

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

FULL ARTICLE

Terry Fox, Activist priest stood against Vietnam war, apartheid … and fixed washing machines (Sydney Morning Herald)

DOWNLOAD

Richard Buchhorn, Cry Stinking Fish

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Bob Wilkinson’s ‘New visions of priesting’

Driven by his conviction that the Catholic Church needs a new social movement led by young people and centred on “humanity and its common home, earth”, Adelaide priest Fr Bob Wilkinson has documented his involvement in the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement founded by Belgian priest Joseph Cardijn.

New Visions of Priesting, an interview with Bob Wilkinson, published by ATF Press, looks at the different ministries Fr Bob has had in his almost 70 years of being a priest, the common element of which has been working with lay people as they participate in the life of the Church.

The book was launched in September after editor Hilary Regan conducted a series of interviews with Fr Bob as part of the Cardijn Studies journal.

Some of the 89-year-old priest’s reflections, influenced by his background in sociology, reflect on what could be called the glory days of the 50s and 60s, a time when “being Catholic was like being Australian, for better or for worse”.

“You lived in that Catholic world, it was so strong,” he said in an interview with The Southern Cross.

“We weren’t a persecuted minority but we were still energised by overtones that we had been (persecuted) and that we were coming to the top.

“There was a great sense of solidarity, we’d reached the middle class through the Catholic schooling system and we were taking our place socially.”

But the former editor of The Southern Cross insists the book wasn’t motivated by nostalgia for the past, rather by the “precious lessons” to be learnt from the YCW, Young Catholic Students and other lay movements to which he was chaplain over many years.

In fact, he is all too aware of the realities of today, claiming the drop in church attendances dates back to the 70s but is only being faced up to by clergy and leaders now as the churchgoers on Sunday become the “departing end of the Church as we know it”.

Most importantly, he is concerned about the absence of young people.

“Denying the fact of youth abandoning Mass would seem wilfully negligent. ‘Absent from Mass’ is not everything in a person’s spirituality. Most young people still consider themselves spiritual, rather than religious. But having less than five per cent Catholic young at Mass calls for thinking beyond individuals. A social perspective is essential.”

Fr Bob acknowledges the temptation to despair but his mantra of “it’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness” helps him to see it as another “revival” moment in the life of the Church.

“My main point of the book, what encourages and preoccupies me, is the urgency of a global youth movement around ecology, the whole Catholic contribution to ecology and ecology’s contribution to the Church,” he said.

“I really think it’s on the scale of Catholic education, what Catholic schools were at the time of Mary MacKillop.

“A global youth movement to help save the planet is the crucial thing facing everybody.”

Fr Wilkinson at home in North Plympton.

He stresses that it’s more than being ‘green’.

“At the centre of every green issue is the human issue and I think that’s where the Church is vital,” he explained.

“I think the great model for this is the Good Samaritan…the priests and the Levite on the way to the temple missed a half-dead man…I think we’ve got a half-dead planet and we are called to be the Good Samaritan.

While the global YCW movement had its roots in the neglected working class of Europe, Fr Bob said this became more of a symbol than a key element of the “vigorous youth movement” in Australia.

“What YCW communicated most was Cardijn’s truth of faith that every person is special to God, with a contribution to give,” he said.

“Shining the light on people’s lives was the key thing – work, home and leisure. The young factory workers were a precious resource, a treasure of society and Church, not a problem. Like the 19 out of 20 young people not going to church in Australia.

“The Church has been presented to young people as an inward-looking organisation that does some outside good.

“The fact is that our destiny is inseparable to the destiny of those around us. This hasn’t been stressed enough. Once you see that the struggle is for humanity and our common home, questions of the Church will sort themselves out.”

This inextricable connection with the world mirrors his own “progress in the priesthood”.

“I used to see the work of the priest as helping Catholics to live their lives to get to heaven, to put it crudely,” he said.

“The rest of the world was thought of as a quarry to make Catholics out of. I very much now see the Church as standing with the world and having a vital contribution to make.

“The role of the priest is to animate people to take their part in that struggle.

“Cardijn didn’t start from massive action, he always started with ‘who are you and how are you’ at the factory gate, that interest in the life of people.”

Other topics covered in the book include the fallout from the Church’s position on birth control, the impact of Vatican II on the laity, the Vietnam War and Basic Ecclesial Communities.

While it is not a biography, there are fascinating insights into Fr Bob’s early life growing up in foster care after his parents broke up, meeting his father for the first time just hours before his death.

New Visions of Priesting, an interview with Bob Wilkinson is available from ATF Press (www.atfpress.com) for $24.95.

SOURCE

Jenny Brinkworth, Time for another global youth movemehttps://thesoutherncross.org.au/news/2022/12/15/time-for-another-global-youth-movement/nt (Southern Cross)

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Bob Wilkinson, New Visions of Priesting (ATF Press)

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Workers must be at home in the Church: Pope Francis

In an address to the Italian Christian Workers Movement on its 50th anniversary, Pope Francis emphasised the Church’s commitment to the world of labour and the need for workers to feel at home within the Church.

“Fifty years are also a time to look realistically at one’s own history, made up of so much gratuitousness and also of hard work in Christian witness. It is important not to indulge in self-celebratory forms, but to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit in the folds of your history, not so much in the striking events, but rather in the humble and everyday ones. This anniversary could help you walk in two directions: a work of purification and a new sowing. Both: purify and sow.

“Purification is always necessary, always, for all of us and in all human experiences. We are sinners and need mercy like the air we breathe. The willingness to convert, to allow oneself to be purified, to change one’s life, to change one’s style, is a sign of courage, of strength, not of weakness; stubbornness is a sign of weakness.

“It is a question of welcoming the newness of the Spirit without placing obstacles: allowing young people to find space, that the spirit of gratuitousness be guarded and shared, that the initiative of the beginnings not be lost by preferring reassuring choices that do not help to experience the newness of the times .

“You are a movement born in the aftermath of Vatican II and you can tell the fruitfulness of that ecclesial and social season. I encourage you to rediscover the impetus of your beginnings, clearly visible in the enthusiasm with which you live the ecclesial bond in the territories and in the gratuitousness of service to the needs of workers.

“The Council has called us to read the signs of the times – and above all it has given us the example -; therefore, aware of the social changes, you can ask yourself: how can we be faithful to the service of workers today? How to live the commitment to ecological conversion and peacemaking? How to animate Italian society in the economic, political and working fields, contributing to discernment with the criteria of integral ecology and fraternity?

“Here are the reasons for a new sowing that awaits you. While celebrating, we look forward. Indeed, this is not only a time to reap fruit: it is also a time to sow again. The difficult season we are experiencing requires it. The pandemic and the war have made the social climate darker and more pessimistic. This calls you to be sowers of hope. Starting with yourself, with your associative fabric: may your doors be open; that young people feel not only guests, but protagonists, with their ability to imagine a different society.

“I would also like to offer you a specific commitment on the subject of work. You are a movement of workers, and you can help bring their concerns within the Christian community. It is important that workers are at home in parishes, associations, groups and movements; that their problems are taken seriously; that their call for solidarity can be heard. In fact, the work goes through a transformation phase that must be accompanied.

“Social inequalities, forms of slavery and exploitation, family poverty due to lack of work or poorly paid work are realities that must be listened to in our ecclesial environments. They are more or less forms of exploitation: we call things by name. I urge you to keep your mind and heart open to workers, especially the poor and defenceless; to give voice to the voiceless; not to worry so much about your members, but to be leaven in the social fabric of the country, leaven of justice and solidarity.

“The encyclical Fratelli tutti recalls that ‘thanks be to God so many aggregations and organizations of civil society help to compensate for the weaknesses of the international community, its lack of coordination in complex situations, its lack of attention to fundamental human rights and very critical situations of some groups. Thus the principle of subsidiarity acquires concrete expression, which guarantees the participation and action of communities and organizations of a lower level, which complement the action of the State in a complementary way’ (§ 175).

“This ongoing third world war makes us aware that renewal comes from below, where relationships are lived with solidarity and trust. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the courage of new beginnings of reconciliation and fraternity.”

SOURCE

Discorso del Santo Padre Al Movimento Cristiani Lavorati (Vatican.va)

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Jean Boulier’s “I was a Red Priest” and the Holocaust

BOOK REVIEW:

In 1977 Father Jean Boulier (1894-1980), a French priest, wrote an autobiography, J’étais un prêtre rouge. Like his American Catholic contemporary, Dorothy Day (1897-1980), he was on the left. And like Day, who is being made a “saint” by Rome, Fr Boulier is in a similar process, but it is Israel (Yad Vashem) that is considering conferring its equivalent honor, “Righteous among the Nations.”

As part of honoring Fr Boulier, an English translation of his autobiography, I was a Red Priest, is now being published. As a red priest, his book described his dealings with the French Communist Party (PCF), priest workers, Eastern Europe, the post-war peace movement, Vatican II, Jesuits, Thomism, liberation theology, liturgy, ecumenism, mysticism and the church hierarchy. His thinking and actions paralleled those of his American counterpart Day, as did the reaction of the civil and religious authorities.

It was his politics in World War II, however, which were on the side of the Jews and against the Nazi and Vichy government that both endeared him to Israel and pushed him permanently into the communist camp. As his book summarised, in 1938 he was appointed to be the pastor of Sainte-Devote Parish in Monaco. In June 1940, France fell to the Nazis and the independent principality of Monaco followed France.

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Toby Terrar, An Autobiography of A Red Priest During World War II (Social Policy)

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Jean Boulier, I was a red priest (CW Publishers)

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Book & Webinar: Bill Armstrong: “Everything and Nothing: Life and development work”

Former YCW leader, Bill Armstrong, will speak about his experience with the movement and in the international development field in our next ACI webinar on Tuesday 13 December.

He will also introduce a new book on his life, “Everything and Nothing: Life and Development Work” by Peter Britton.

“Peter Britton’s telling of the story of Bill Armstrong and his passionate belief in ‘not about us without us’ is a central part of his personal philosophy, a phrase, which, paradoxically, does not appear in the book,” writes Patrick Kilby in a review of the biography in Development in Practice magazine.

“It certainly comes through, though, as well as it being about good development practice.

“My interest in this story is in the 1960s and 1970s when Bill played a major role in two institutions that grounded a lot of development practice and participatory development philosophy: Action for World Development (AWD) and Australian Volunteers Abroad (AVA).

“Both, in their own way, challenged the paternalist and colonial views of global development at the time. This was a period of intense critique of colonialism and global development: including Franz Fanon (1965), among many others. In terms of development practice, Arnstein (1969), in her highly critical assessment of urban planning for African American communities in Chicago, and the work of Freire (1970), and Illich (1971), on radical approaches to adult education, were major sources of inspiration at the time, and for Bill, it was also the work of Cardijn (1965/2018) and the Young Christian Worker movement.

“All of these writings pointed to a different way of seeing the Global South and ways of engaging together.”

FULL REVIEW

Patrick Kilby, Development in Practice. Volume 32, 2022 – Issue 8

WEBINAR DETAILS

Bill Armstrong: “Everything and Nothing: Life and Development Work”

Tuesday 13 December, 7pm AEDT

ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeuspzIpHdaW5K6Fwim0ebRbOJkxypAk

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The Life and Development Work of Bill Armstrong by Peter Britton
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Jocist Women Leaders Seminar, Leuven

Featuring speakers from Belgium, France, the UK, Uruguay, Australia and the US and hosted by the Catholic Documentation Centre (KADOC) and the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), the Jocist Women Leaders Seminar took place at Leuven, Belgium on 27-28 October 2022.

Reflecting the range of papers presented, the theme of the workshop was “To make daily life vast and beautiful: Jocist Women Leaders.”

Women leaders highlighted included Marguerite Fiévez, a key figure in the development of the International YCW and a close collaborator of Cardijn, trade union pioneer, Victoire Cappe, and Malaysian YCW leader, Irene Fernandez.

The workshop understood the term “jocist” in its broad sense, including not just those from a JOC (YCW) background but from the various lay apostolate/Specialised Catholic Action movements, including the YCS (JEC), JIC (Young professionals), JAC (young farmers) and others.

It is planned to publish select papers in an academic journal.

In another major initiative, an online biographical dictionary of jocist women leaders will be developed.

Immense thanks to the various project sponsors: American Academy of Religion; University of Divinity, Melbourne; King’s College, London; KADOC – KU Leuven; Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies; Dondeynefonds, KU Leuven; LACIIR  (Latin American and the Caribbean  Interdisciplinary Initiative on  Religion),  Florida International University, Miami, Fl, USA; Australian Cardijn Institute, Australia.

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Seminar Papers (Jocist Women Leaders Project)

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RIP Peter Maher

This month we remember Sydney priest, Fr Peter Maher, who died of cancer on 8 November 2022.

I first met Peter at a Cardijn Conference held at the old Manly seminary in Sydney in 1987 and he remained a convinced Cardijn priest for the rest of his life.

“The Cardijn method of see judge and act is essential to a deep listening, a competent dialogue and a compassionate and just course of action,” he once said. “This means all involved need to carefully listen to the experience of those normally excluded or silenced, study the biblical, social and theological perspectives and discern action in favour of the experience of the erased and silenced.

“Just as the Syrophoenician woman became Jesus’ teacher, the outsider and excluded stories inform the process of dialogue, reflection and action.”

Together with Minh Nguyen and others, he rebuilt ACMICA, the Australian affiliate of the Pax Romana International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ICMICA) during the early 2000s.

In this role, he played a major role in organising a series of New Pentecost events hosting international speakers, including World Social Forum (WSF) co-founder, Chico Whitaker, from Brazil, Malaysian Jesuit Fr Jojo Fung, an expert in Indigenous spiritualities, as well as interreligious dialogue experts, Edmund Chia and Gemma Cruz.

For many years, he worked as a student chaplain at the University of Technology, Sydney, just up the road from his own parish of St Joseph at Newtown.

There he developed profound ministries with the LGBTQI+ community as well as with Rachel’s Vineyard for women who had suffered from abortion.

I was privileged to enjoy his hospitality at the local presbytery on more than one occasion, learning also to appreciate a growing variety of Australian craft whiskies!

Many others knew Peter better and experienced his humanity far more deeply than I did.

We all mourn his passing. Condolences to all his family and friends.

Stefan Gigacz

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RIP, Peter Maher, vigorous priest, Sydney, longtime editor of The Swag (Misacor)

“Impishly uncomplicated, lightly subversive”: remembering Father Peter Maher (John T. Squires)

FUNERAL VIDEO

https://www.funeralvideo.com.au/p/2022/11/fr-peter-desmond-maher

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