Cardijn Mass 11 November 1982
We have gathered here tonight to honour the memory of Joseph Cardijn, to thank God for his life and for the blessings we and so many others have received because of him. It is true that he is not all that well known. Little has been written about him. Yet without
doubt he is one of the most remarkable priests of this century. He has had a lasting influence on millions of peopel throughout the world. This influence has come through the movement of the Young Christian workers which he founded and through the other movements related to it – the Catholic Youth Movement, the Young Christian Students and the Christian Family Movement. Those of us gathered here, along with so many others, found a new dimension to our faith and a new and challenging meaning to our lives because we were part of this international network.
Cardijn was born near Brussels in November, 1882, almost a century ago to this day. He came from a working class family. They had moved from the land to join the labour force in the city as Belgium industrialised. Young workers encountered harsh conditions and dehumanising influences. Their labour was the means for gaining profit for those who owned the factories. Working life changed them. Growing up in the midst of this situation Joseph Cardijn was deeply disturbed by what he saw. As a young man he made a decision that was to stay with him throughout his long life. He would dedicate himself to saving young workers. He resolved to become a priest. At the bedside of his dying father in 1903 he sealed his resolution by vowing his life to the service of working youth and the working class. After his ordination in 1906 he took up this task with great energy and enthusiasm. It was not to be easy. He met with opposition from within the church and with suspicion from the workers themselves. But his vision of the worth and dignity of each working boy and girl made him more determined to help them and find a way to solve their problems. From the start he entrusted them with the responsibility. It was they who conducted the enquiries. They found out about the conditions of work and the causes. They looked at what was going on in their lives. In the groups they judged these facts in the light of the Gospel and the example of Christ. Then they began to act and find solutions. As a priest he offered support. It was his faith in their worth and his belief that they could bring about change that inspired them to begin building a movement. The YCW began to grow. There was a setback when Belgium was invaded at the start of the First World War. Cardijn was arrested for defending young workers against deportation. He used his time in prison to deepen his reflection.
In the post-war period the movement really spread and its very success became a danger. Criticisms grew from Church leaders and members of the employer class. Finally the cardinal moved and condemned the YCW. Cardijn met this tragic blow by an astonishing move. He and the youth chaplain appealed to Rome and asked to see the Pope.
Overcoming all obstacles he finally put his case to Pius XI. The Pope gave his approval, indeed he made the YCW his own. With this backing the movement extended beyond the borders of Belgium to Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and the whole world.
Years later the truly international character of the YCW was revealed at the World Rally when 32 000 young workers from 80 countries came to Rome in 1957. I was at that meeting. It was the first time I had seen Cardijn. He spoke at a magnificent gathering one night at the historic Baths of Caracalla. There he spelled out his vision of a new world through a new youth, through young workers inspired by the values of Christ and the gospel. We were caught up by his vision and by his dynamic conviction. The next year he made his first visit to New Zealand and spoke in this cathedral. That visit touched our lives and renewed our faith. He was with us when he heard of the death of Pius XII. He was concerned about what the future would hold for the movement. He need not have worried. Cardijn went on to play an important role in the Second Vatican Council. He was made a cardinal. When he died in 1967 his work lived on in the lives of those who made up the specialised movements of the laity. It lives on today, especially among the thousands of young workers in the poor countries who keep his vision alive in their struggle to build a more just and human world, despite the staggering problems that face them. Here in New Zealand too there are some groups of young workers who continue to meet and dedicate their lives to this action.
There are a few lessons we should draw from this reflection.
Firstly: Cardijn gave a new depth and understanding to the indispensable vocation of the laity. It was through their daily lives, lived in the world, that the witness to Christ would be given and the Kingdom would be built. Christians respond to God’s call in and through their earthly vocation, lived in the world in the full dimension of the social and political reality.
This was given authentication in the Vatican Council but it is often forgotten. One of the failures of the post-council church has been to allow this vision to weaken. Today so much lay energy is drawn back into the maintenance of the institutional church or directed to a sort of individual spirituality that has no social or apostolic dimension. Such a Church has no influence in the world and indeed often ends up supporting the very systems that oppress and dehumanise people.
Secondly: Among the laity Cardijn made a choice for working youth; for youth because he understood the hope of the young, their potential for sacrifice, their idealism; for workers because he knew their sufferings and their difficulties. We might note that working youth is still at risk today in our society and still marginal in the Church also.
Few Church resources are directed to their needs. The YCW can only develop if it has our support.
Thirdly: His method of education was to start with the reality. He asked people to look at their lives, to see the truth of their situation. From this they would move to reflection – to judge their situation in the light of faith, to see not only the problems but also the possibilities for love and change and new relationships. As these experiences were shared in the groups people would move to action. Faith was to be practised in life. In a sense the work bench became the altar.
How much need there is today for such an informed and committed laity. In our world, we see economic systems that push families to the edge of survival, political systems that belong to the powerful and exclude the weak, social systems that place money and material gain ahead of the needs of people. Cardijn saw the pain of his times and responded by a new vision. This vision is the call of Christ to build the Kingdom of God on earth. May our coming here tonight rekindle in us a new courage to respond to that call.
John Curnow