Catholic Action is not
only lawful and necessary—but indispensable.
Pope Pius XI, Why
Catholic Action, p. 15
In the early 20th century
the Catholic Church believed that it was facing a crisis; a crisis
because of the rise of secularism which said that religious faith and
ordinary life should be separate. It was seen as a new form of
paganism which led to the rise of a number of evils such as the
exploitation of workers, the rise of race and class hatred, an attack
on Christian ideas and ideals and a decline in personal and
collective moral values.
The response of the
Church to the perceived problem is highlighted by such things as the
Papal social justice encyclical, Rerum Novarum, in 1892 and the
writings of the Popes — Pius X, Benedict XV and especially Pius XI,
who wrote the encyclical, Ube Arcano — Present day evils: causes
and remedies, in 1922. Pius XI said in this encyclical that all evil
comes from within the person and that the main problem was that
people were separated from God and Christ and that God had been
eliminated from the education of youth. His remedy was to restore the
'brotherhood of man' and public and private morals toy establishing
the reign of Christ in the minds and souls of individuals and in
civil society. This was to be done by various organisations including
Catholic Action.
The nature of Catholic
Action
[The underlying logic of
Catholic Action was that the Church could make two responses to the
situation of living in this new pagan environment. One was to
withdraw from the situation and lead a separate existence from the
rest of the world or, as the early Christians did, to face the
situation head on. The first was not a solution because the Church
could see that the laity was part of that world. However, the Church
also saw that it would be hard for individuals working alone and in
isolation to make any impact. What was needed was an organised common
effort by all the Church, both clergy and laity, if anything was to
be achieved.
The Church reasoned that
there were three main areas which needed to be addressed if finy
progress was to be made. The ideas of the people, their way of life
and the institutions
The
Australian experience
These same differences
were also a factor in Australia, with different approaches taken by
Melbourne and Sydney. Sydney opted for the Italian model of lay
movements organised and run by the clergy where the lay members would
be at the will and direction of the parish priest for all parochial
activities and not act on their own initiatives. The Melbourne
diocese and the Melbourne-located Secretariat of Catholic Action
opted for the Belgium/ wrench model because the Secretariat
considered it more suitable for Australian conditions because
Australia was not a Catholic country like Italy. Therefore all the
organisations set up by the Australian National Secretariat of
Catholic Action (ANSCA) followed the Belgium/French model and adopted
the Cardijn techniques and method of operation.
Specialised
Catholic Action groups didn't have a formal official place in the
Australian Church until 1937 when the Secretariat for Catholic Action
was established. This is not to say that Catholic Action did not have
any presence in the Australian Church until then. Some Catholic
clergy and laity were interested in Catholic Action from the outset
and various individuals, groups and organisations concerned
themselves with how best it could be incorporated into Catholic life.
Only one will be discussed here and that is the Campion Society. The
original director of the ANSCA, Mr Frank Maher, and his assistant Mr
B. A. Santamaria had been involved in the Campion groups and the
society was very involved in the lead up work to the establishment of
the Secretariat. The Campion Society was a group that consisted
mainly of university graduates and students concerned with developing
members' understanding of the intellectual and spiritual concerns of
the day and contributing to the life of the Church. The Melbourne
Campion Group began in 1931 and Frank Maher was one of its founding
members.
In
1937, the Plenary Council of Bishops approved the formation of an
official Catholic Action organisation. An Episcopal Committee of
Catholic Action (ECCA) was set up and given the power to appoint a
secretariat. The committee consisted of Archbishop Daniel Mannix of
Melbourne (president), Archbishop Justin Simonds of Hobart
(secretary)] Bishop Edmund Gleeson of Maitland and Archbishop Norman
Gilroy of Sydney (though Archbishop Gilroy played virtually no part
in its operation from the outset).
In November 1937 ECCA
established ANSCA. It began operation in January 1938 undei the
leadership of Frank Maher. Mr Maher said that the role of the
secretariat was to be an advisory one, not a directing or controlling
one. It was to be funded by annual quotas levied on each diocese in
Australia and New Zealand. The Sydney archdiocese did nor co-operate
with ANSCA and set up its own Diocesan Secretariat of the Lay
Apostolate. In 1944 ECCA was expanded to include the episcopal
chairman of each specialised movement.
The first specialised
movement formed was the National Catholic Rural Movement (NCRM) in
1939. In May 1941 ECCA gave official authorisation to the
establishment of a number of specialised national movements. Each
movement was to have a part-time lay secretary and was to be
responsible to a member of the hierarchy who was to be called the
Episcopal Chairman. By 1943 there were five official national
specialised Catholic Action organisations, four of which grew rapidly
and were very successful and one which failed. They were:
The National
Catholic Rural Movement (NCRM) — for people in rural
areas.Episcopal Chairman was Bishop Hensche of Wagga Wagga. The NCRM
had 250 groups by 1944.
The Young Christian
Students (YCS) — for senior secondary and college students.
Episcopal Chairman was Archbishop Beovich of Adelaide. The YCS1 was
established in 120 secondary schools by 1944.
The Young Christian
Workers (YCW) — for young working men. Episcopal Chairman was
Archbishop Mannix and then Archbishop Simonds of Hobart from May
1943. The YCW existed in 13 dioceses by 1944.
The National
Catholic Girls Movement (NCGM) — for young working women-
Episcopal Chairman was Bishop Gleeson of Maitland. The NCGM existed
11 dioceses by 1944.
The National
Christian Workers Movement (NCWM) — for adult working B Episcopal
Chairman was Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne. The NCWM was
established in the Melbourne diocese but failed to take root and
never develop into a fully functioning national movement.
The task facing the
Secretariat in 1938 was enormous. It had to establish the specialised
Catholic Action organisations from scratch in almost virgin territory
with very few experienced people. However, there was a small core of
priests and lay people who, though not necessarily having direct
experience in specialised Catholic Action organisations, did have an
understanding of Catholic Action. It was this group, together with
the secretariat, that pioneered those first specialised Catholic
Action movements. In the case of the YCW (Boys) it was Father Lombard
from Melbourne who was the major contributor and in the case of the
NCGM it was the Ladies of the Grail. Negotiations regarding the input
and role of the Ladies of the Grail in setting up a national girls
movement began in 1938.
Though the Secretariat
had the responsibility of setting up the national movements it needed
the co-operation of the various diocesan bishops. Each diocesan
bishop had the right to decide whether or not he would participate
and co-operate with the Secretariat's plans and what form the
organisation would take in his diocese. Therefore one of the first
steps the Secretariat took was to approach the bishops of each
diocese and ask them to appoint a co-ordinator of Catholic Action for
their diocese. The director of the Brisbane Secretariat of Catholic
Action was Mr J.P. Kelly, a solicitor. Establishing the specialised
movements took a great deal of organisation, tact and delicate
negotiations, especially in dioceses where there were already
organisations existing in the relevant spheres of influence. This was
especially so for the NCGM as it was to be a national federation to
which the new and existing girls youth groups would be affiliated.
These negotiations took place over quite long periods of time and, in
the case of the Brisbane NCGM. were not fully resolved until the
beginning of 1945.
A major achievement of
the Secretariat was the direct training of priests and lay people
through its organisation of National Summer Schools for lay people
and seminarians. Another major achievement was the publication and
dissemination of general works on Catholic Action and specialised
texts relevant to the training and formation of chaplains and leaders
in the techniques of Catholic Action. The organisational support and
encouragement they gave the movements as well as the help in the
development of the early programs and leaders bulletins were
invaluable. Their work ensured that highly trained and committed
groups of leaders and chaplains were formed with an understanding of
the principles and techniques of Catholic Action and the abilities to
put them into practice.
In the late 1940s and
early 1950s, as the specialised movements became more established,
the interests of the Secretariat and the individual specialised
movements began to diverge. The divergence mainly centred around the
nature of the relationship that should exist between the Catholic
Action movements and the Secretariat as well as the concern felt,
especially by the YCW and to a lesser extent the YCS and NCGM, that
the Secretariat was devoting too much of its time and resources to a
non-Catholic Action organisation, the Catholic Social Studies
Movement (CSSM), and activities that were outside the scope of
Catholic Action. This divergence of views came to a head in 1953 and
ECCA had tomake a
decision on the future of the Secretariat and its association with
the (MÍ Action
organisations. This led to the disbanding of the Secretariat in March
1954. As result the CSSM continued to operate as an independent
Catholic organisation and four Catholic Action organisations (YCW,
YCS, NCGM and NCRM) became autonomous under
the direction of its own individual episcopal chairman who reported
directly to thç annual
meetings of the hierarchy (see note 2 at the end of this chapter).
Notes
1. The Legion of Mary
was the most persistent Catholic girls organisation. On two
occasions ii made representations to ECCA to be mandated as an
official Catholic Action organisation and i was
refused.
Nevertheless,
the archbishop of Perth declared the Legion of Mary to be official
Catholic Action When the NCGM was being set up in Perth, Father H.
Lalor wanted all leaders in the NCGM to belong to and be trained in
Praesidia of the Legion. The national executive of the NCGM made it
clear that this was not acceptable as the
Legion of Mary was not one of the official Catholic Action
Organisations.
It should be noted that
when the term 'Catholic Action' is used today it does not mean 19
organisations are mandated as official Catholic Action organisations
or that the laity are participate in the work of the hierarchy. Since
Vatican II there has been a development in the understanding of the
role of the laity in the Church and it is recognised that the laity
has its own apostolate which is derived from their baptism.
2. There has been much
written about the role of the CSMM about which C. Jory said,
On 19 September 1945 an
Extraordinary Meeting of the Hierarchy granted this body a mandate
(now accepted as having been un-Canonical) to function as an
official, although non-Catholic Action Church 'lay apostolate
'organisation. In this way the Movement gained the best of two
worlds; it enjoyed all the prestige, facilities, and episcopal
support of Catholic Action; but it was impeded by none of the
Canonical regulations which so tightly defined and restricted the
operations of official Catholic Action associations.
For
a general overview of this topic, readers could read Chapter 11,
Religion and Politics in 1 section Australians since 1939, in The
Centenary History of Australia. For more detailed view readers may
find the following useful:
Henderson
G., Mr Santamaría and
the Bishops (Hale & Iremonger, 1983) Santamaría
B.A., Santamaría:
a memoir (Oxford University Press, 1997)