Jim Madden’s Eucharistic Blues on the Mass Exodus

Although they were sometimes perceived by priests as “Young Christian Wreckers”, the YCW in Australia was “a powerhouse for energising needed and effective Christian activities in those parishes” where it was adopted, writes, Jim Madden in his 2012 book “Eucharistic Blues: Reviewing the Mass Exodus,” published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

“Through the YCW many young people developed a genuine Christian mentality by internalising the beliefs and values of their faith,” Madden writes. “They developed their acceptance of what the Church believed and practiced because it really became what they had convinced themselves that it was what they believed and practiced.

“Their living faith and their association with the clergy made them valuable assets to have around parishes, not just for when they were members of the YCW but for the rest of their lives. Some members tried to further their apostolic endeavours through entering a seminary, monastery or convent and others became faithful spouses and caring parents in loving and fruitful Christian marriages.”

Madden also credits YCW pioneers of the implementation of the decrees and decisions of Vatican II.

YCW leaders “were conspicuous among the people who were willing to undertake many of the new ministries these decrees implied,” he says.

The movement’s doctrine was based on an image of the Church “as the Mystical Body of Christ.”

“This doctrine emphasised the communitarian nature of the Church and the responsibility of everyone to actively engage in the work of spreading the gospel message.

“It carried the message that all members were part of the crew of the good ship ‘Church’ and had a vital role to fulfil”

In particular, “the Church was not like a big bus being driven to heaven by the bishops and priests on which lay people were passengers simply paying their way.”

On the contrary, via Cardijn’s YCW method “young people would be trained to see, judge and act in a Christian manner.”

Nevertheless, a perceived “similarity to Marxist methods” made some bishops and priests “suspicious of the movement and its aims”

Other critics of the movement felt that “by considering the meaning of the gospels and their application to life, (YCW leaders) were making their own religion.”

“This implied that they were forsaking the authority of the Church in religious matters and replacing it with their own authority,” Madden notes.

“Perhaps there was even a sneaking fear that if the movement became widespread and captured the hearts and minds of the majority of young people of the day that the clergy and the hierarchy could become redundant,” he notes.

Nevertheless, “in parishes where the movement was adopted and fostered by clergy, especially younger priests, it became a powerhouse for energising needed and effective Christian activities in those parishes.”

“The primary value of the movement was in the formation of its members,” Madden concludes.

READ THE BOOK

Jim Madden, Eucharistic Blues: Reviewing the Mass Exodus, Fifty Years After Vatican II, Xlbris Corporation, 2012, Kindle Edition

Remembering liturgical pioneer Robert E. Rambusch

Robert E. Rambusch, a liturgical artist, designer and pioneer in the profession of liturgical design consultation, died May 23 at the age of 93, the National Catholic  Reporter says.

After serving in World War II, he became international secretary of the newly formed International Young Christian Students while studying  in Paris.

His work significantly influenced the shape of worship in the United States and Canada in a career that spanned more than 65 years, participating in the design and renovation of 24 cathedrals and 400 churches, NCR says.

As a liturgical design consultant, Rambusch developed an open, inclusive process in which the faith community was invited to participate in the sharing of ideas on the image of themselves and the church.

Catholic churches are some of the most difficult structures to design, Rambusch said at a seminar on art and environment for Catholic worship in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1995. The biggest problem, he said, is “to satisfy the fullness of the divinity but [also] the fullness in humanity” or the differences between Christ as God and Christ as man.

A congregation at worship is not people watching events unfold on a stage, he said. Church architects have to design to ensure the active involvement of the congregation in the celebration. “We need a lay-oriented special arrangement that supports their common [worship] as a communal kind of action together,” Rambusch said.

Rambusch worked for more than 35 years at Rambusch Decorating Company, the firm founded by his grandfather, Frode, in New York in 1898. He left in 1984 to found his own firm, Robert E. Rambusch Associates.

Rambusch studied at the Pratt Institute, the University of Toronto with Jacques Maritain, and did post-graduate work at Le Centre de L’Art Sacré in Paris with founder Fr. Marie-Alain Couturier, close associate of the artists Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger. “These studies informed his approach to sacred art and worship spaces. He embraced the principle that religious art cannot develop outside the artistic life of its time,” said his daughter Alexandra Rambusch.

In 1948, he met Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and began a lifelong association with the movement.

He is survived by his son, Rob, and daughter, Alexandra, The Tablet adds.

SOURCES

Robert E. Rambusch’s influence on the shape of worship endures (National Catholic Reporter)

READ MORE

Sharon Woolums, Robert Rambusch, 93, liturgical artist, designer (The Villager)

Michael E. De Sanctis, Childlike familiarity with Mystery: an appreciation of Bob Rambusch (National Catholic  Reporter)

Robert E. Rambusch (The Tablet)

Merton’s Correspondence with: Robert E. Rambusch; Robert Rambusch; Bob Rambusch; Rambusch, Bob (Merton Archives)

Robert E.  Rambusch, Interviewed by Sharon Woolums (New York Public Library Oral History Project)

Liturgical artwork by Robert Rambusch (HT: The Villager)
Holy card from Robert E. Rambusch's service