February 2025
Pope slams child labour - AI at work - YCW martyrs - Cardijn a cardinal - New YCS bishop
Martyrs of the YCW
Dear Friends,
Last month, we recalled the martyrdom of Paul Garcet. This month, we remember Fernand Tonnet (above), first president of the JOC in Belgium, who died on 2 February 1945, also in the Dachau Concentration Camp.
In addition, we share news of the discovery of the body of Paraguayan JOC leader, Daniel Esquivel Anter, who disappeared in Argentina in 1977. His twin sister, Genoveva, who has worked tirelessly since then to learn the truth of what happened is now arranging for his reburial in his home parish.
On a happier note, this month is also the 60th anniversary of Cardijn's becoming a cardinal in February 1965. Stefan Gigacz recalls the intrigues and tears that accompanied that honour.
In another hard hitting article, we again note Pope Francis' forceful appeal to ensure that we do not become accomplices in child labour through our consumer choices and lifestyle. And a new Vatican article reflects on the impact on workers of artificial intelligence.
We share an important article from Venezuelan theologian, Rafael Luciani, reflecting on the role of lay people as subjects in a synodal church.
We congratulate former Burkina Faso JEC leader, Fr David Koudougou, as the new bishop of Tenkodogo.
From France, we learn of a new novel telling the story of a young woman worker, who falls in love with a local JOC leader.
As usual, Pat Branson offers another thoughtful Gospel reflection while Richard Pütz compares Cardijn with another martyr, the German Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The Centre International Cardijn Team
Murdered YCW leader, Daniel Esquivel, to be re-buried at last
After a search lasting nearly fifty years, Genoveva Esquivel, 80, managed to locate the remains of her brother, Daniel Esquivel, a Paraguayan catechist and JOC leader kidnapped and killed by security forces of the Argentina dictatorship in 1977.
Daniel Esquivel was kidnapped in Argentina on 2 February 1977. Ever since then, Genoveva tirelessly visited police stations, government offices, and parishes, and traveled through several provinces looking for clues to the fate of her brother.
His body will be reburied in his home parish in Paraguay on 23 March 2025. Genoveva is raising funds for this purpose.
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Murdered YCW leader to be re-buried at last
AI should promote not replace labour: Vatican
The Holy See has published a new document, Antiqua et Vetera reflecting on issues arising from the spread of artificial intelligence or AI.
"As in many other fields, AI is driving fundamental transformations across many professions, with a range of effects," it says. "On the one hand, it has the potential to enhance expertise and productivity, create new jobs, enable workers to focus on more innovative tasks, and open new horizons for creativity and innovation.
On the other hand, "it frequently forces workers to adapt to the speed and demands of machines rather than machines being designed to support those who work," the document warns.
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AI should promote not replace labour: Vatican
Enquiry: Don't be complicit in child labor: Pope Francis
We must be aware of how we eat and dress in order to avoid becoming complicit in child labor, Pope Francis stated in his General Audience on 15 January 2025.
“Even today in the world, hundreds of millions of minors, despite not being of the minimum age to undergo the obligations of adulthood, are forced to work,” Pope Francis said in his second catechesis on children, “and many of them are exposed to particularly dangerous work; not to mention the boys and girls who are slaves to trafficking for prostitution or pornography, and forced marriages.”
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Enquiry: Don’t be complicit in child labor
Theology: Lay people as subjects in the Church
The Church is at a crucial moment that demands a conversion of mentalities and a reform of structures in order to achieve synodalization , writes Rafael Luciani of Boston College.
This transformation cannot be merely formal or procedural; it must challenge the legacies of an institutional clericalism that has conditioned the participation of all in the Church. In this context, it is essential to review the relational modes and current ecclesial leadership, promoting a change that recognizes the laity as full subjects in the life and mission of the Church. Querida Amazonia speaks of the need to build “a distinctly lay ecclesial culture” ( n. 94).
However, the full recognition of the laity as subjects is still a pending issue. The participation of all the baptized in the common priesthood offers an essential hermeneutical framework for thinking about ecclesial dynamics based on differentiated co-responsibility. Until now, progress has been partial, limited to concepts of "collaboration" or "cooperation" that do not do justice to the fundamental baptismal equality of all the faithful. The insistence on the Christocentrism of the ordained ministry has led to an underestimation of baptism, relegating the laity to a subsidiary role.
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Rafael Luciani, El reconocimiento del laicado como sujeto en la Iglesia (Recognition of the laity as a subject in the Church) (Spanish)
Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet, a vision for the YCW
This month marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Fernand Tonnet, lay co-founder of the YCW.
Like his lifelong comrade and YCW co-founder, Paul Garcet, who had preceded him in death two weeks earlier, Tonnet died a gruesome death caused by typhus at the Dachau Concentration Camp, where he had been confined for eighteen months.
As Cardijn commented: “The martyr’s crown remains the most beautiful crown, and it is immortal.”
Nevertheless, I am sure that both Tonnet and Garcet would prefer to be remembered for the movement to which they devoted their lives rather than the suffering they later endured, writes Stefan Gigacz
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Stefan Gigacz, Fernand Tonnet, a vision for the JOC (Cardijn Research)
Fernand Tonnet website (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Paul Garcet website (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
History: Cardijn, a cardinal: Intrigue, anguish and tears
Sixty years ago this month on 22 February 1965, despite his personal anguish about the honour, Cardijn accepted his red hat as a cardinal from Pope Paul VI just days after his consecration as an archbishop, writes Stefan Gigacz.
In their biography of Cardijn, Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert blandly record the latter ceremony as follows:
On Sunday, 21st February, the old man of eighty-two was consecrated Archbishop by his compatriot Cardinal Suenens.
But there was much more to the story of how and why Paul VI decided to make Cardijn a cardinal than they let on.
The late John Maguire, a former Australian priest, who was in Rome for the red hat ceremony also recalled Cardijn's tears on that occasion.
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Stefan Gigacz, Cardijn, a cardinal: Intrigues and tears (Cardijn Research)
People: New YCS bishop in Burkina Faso
Pope Francis has appointed former YCS leader, Father David Koudougou, as bishop of the Diocese of Tenkodogo in Burkina Faso.
“Today marks great news for the Burkina Faso YCS community and the Church of Burkina Faso: the appointment of Monsignor David KOUDOUGOU as bishop of the diocese of Tenkodogo,” the Burkina Faso JEC (YCS) says on its Facebook page.
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New YCS bishop in Burkina Faso (Cardijn Community International Africa)
Book: Anna Sojka: New novel about a young textile worker and the JOC
French writer, Jean-François Roussel from Lille has published a new novel featuring a young textile worker, Anna Sojka, who falls in love with a militant of the local JOC.
Entitled Anna Sojka, fille des mines dans le textile and published by Les Editions du Nord/Avril, the novel is set during the early 1960s when the mines of Nord/Pas-de-Calais coalfield region were gradually closing down while the local women travelled by bus each day to work in the textile factories of Lille.
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Anna Sojka: A novel about a young textile worker and the JOC
Gospel: But you, who do you say I am?
I recall learning about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in RE, probably in secondary school, writes Pat Branson. And as I think about the manifestations of these works in the world around me, I am taken back to a letter written by Cardinal Joseph Cardijn (1882-1967), possibly in the 1960s.
The Cardinal was reflecting on a journey he made to England, not long after his ordination in 1906. He described that visit as possibly the best retreat he made in the early years of his priesthood.
What struck me about his letter was the contrast he drew between the Catholic clergy he ate with in Salford and the Protestant dock workers and union leaders, whose faith he described as “devout.” Their lives were characterized by “faith in action.”
Pat Branson, But who do you say I am? (Gospel Enquiries)
Reflection: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Cardijn and the paradox
There are interesting and often head-scratching comparisons between people in history, writes Richard Pütz. As a cultural historian, I always look to the situation in time, when people say or write something that inspires me or motivates me to take action. We call this the "Sitz Im Leben."
Joseph Cardijn and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two of those people for whom we need to always remember the situation in time, the culture they were immersed in, the medium they used, and the message they conveyed.
Bonhoeffer, in his prison letters, specifically from his July 16, 1944 letter to Eberhard Bethge, is all about the message.
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Richard Pütz, Bonhoeffer ~ Cardijn and the Paradox (Cardijn Reflections)
News briefs & social media
IYCS and IMCS leaders meet
Venezuela JOC launches animal breeding initiative
Editorial Note: The purpose of the Centre International Cardijn Newsletter is to share information and promote discussion. Citing or linking to articles does not imply any endorsement of the authors' views.
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