Oscar Romero – Australian Cardijn Institute

St Ambrose’s University at Davenport, Iowa, USA hosted a major conference in March to mark the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

Architect and major sponsor of the event was former US YCS leader, Tom Higgins, later a state congressman and a member of the Carter administration.

Perhaps also significant in the orientation of both the Diocese of Davenport and St Ambrose’s University is a lively Cardijn tradition exemplified by the late Monsignor Marvin Mottet, a key figure at the university as well as with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Keynote speakers included theologians Massimo Faggioli and Phyllis Zagano, Pope Francis’ biographer, Austen Ivereigh, Catholic social teaching specialist, tony Annett, as well as Cardinal Joseph Tobin.

Also present was Holy See Nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who delivered a message from Pope Francis. As Archbishop Pierre told me, his mother was one of the key leaders who worked with Marie-Louise Monnet in the foundation of the JIC (Jeunesse Indépendante Catholique), a Specialised Catholic Action movement for young people from a bourgeois background.

The conference also hosted a panel proposed by ACI on the theme “Promoting Integral Human Development; From Cardijn to Pope Francis.”

Our panel featured:

Ana Grande, who spoke about her uncle, Blessed Rutilio Grande, the Salvadoran Jesuit and see-judge-act practitioner, whose martyrdom inspired Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Elias Crim, founder of Solidarity Hall, an initiative to promote the implementation of Catholic Social teaching, who spoke on Fr Josemaria Arizmendi and the Mondragon cooperatives.

Finally, I traced the links between Cardijn’s vision and methods and those of Pope Francis.

Overall, the conference was an inspirational event and a credit to its organisers.

Stefan Gigacz

Marvin Mottet (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

Francis at 10: A papacy of possibilities (St Ambrose University)

Pope Francis conference inspires ‘stellar’ gathering at St. Ambrose University (Catholic Messenger)

Martyred El Salvador Jesuit, Rutilio Grande, who will be beatified on Sunday 23 January 2022, studied at Lumen Vitae in Brussels from 1962-64, learning the jocist see-judge-act method and perhaps (probably) meeting with Cardijn and other JOC leaders of that time. On return to El Salvador, he used these methods in his work organising his local rural parish community. It was this work that led to his assassination along with two lay companions in March 1977. His life and death also inspired Archbishop Oscar Romero, who followed him in martyrdom in 1980. Ana Maria Pineda tells his story and the lessons to be drawn from his life.

Rutilio Grande, S.J., and his two travelling companions, 15-year-old Nelson Rutilio Lemus and 72-year-old Manuel Solórzano, had been driving to the small town of El Paisnal in El Salvador to celebrate the novena for the town’s patronal feast of St. Joseph when they were gunned down on the road on March 12, 1977, in Aguilares, El Salvador, writes Ana Maria Pineda in America magazine.

Decades after the murders, the Vatican announced on 22 February, 2021, that it would recognize the three as martyrs.The news of Father Grande’s beatification was welcomed by many Salvadorans, who claim Father Grande as one of their own. Outside of El Salvador, Father Grande is primarily remembered as a close friend of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Often overlooked is the fact that at the outset of the civil war in El Salvador, Father Grande was the first priest killed. Indeed, he was the first-born of the martyrs of this new era. His prophetic stance and his solidarity with the poor of his native country led directly to his death. His influence on the church of El Salvador and those who followed him on the road to martyrdom merits profound consideration.

What precisely can be learned from how he lived his life? What might it inspire us to do with our own lives? Father Grande’s personal contributions to the poor of his beloved country, his commitment to the church and the Jesuit community, his love for the people that he generously served, his love for his many friends and family all resonate in the commitment that led to his martyrdom.

1) A life’s value is not determined by one’s net worth.

2) Holiness can be found in the everyday.

3) We all have a missionary call.

4) God transforms our wounds.

Ana Maria Pineda, 4 lessons from Rutilio Grande, priest, prophet and martyr (America magazine)

Tag: Oscar Romero

Lessons from Rutilio Grande