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.
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’s much more to the story of how and why Paul VI decided to make Cardijn a cardinal than they let on.
Suenens vs Cardijn
To understand it, let’s begin by recalling the history of Cardijn’s relations with his archbishop, Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens, which I’ve already traced in previous articles:
Suenens vs Cardijn at Vatican II
The roots of the Suenens-Cardijn conflict
and also in my book, The Leaven in the Council: Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist network at Vatican II:
Unknown to most at the time and largely forgotten today, Suenens was an inveterate critic and opponent of Cardijn, an opposition that dated back at least to the early 1950s.
He had long obliquely accused Cardijn and the YCW of allegedly preferring to “humanise” rather than “evangelise,” of emphasising the secular sphere over the spiritual, an accusation completely belied by the history of the movement.
An early supporter of the Legion of Mary, Suenens also systematically attacked the Specialised Catholic Action movements for “monopolising” Catholic Action. This was a particularly ironic accusation given that thirty years earlier critics of the early YCW had denounced the emerging YCW precisely for not (yet) being part of Catholic Action!
But there were also, I believe, unstated political reasons for Suenens’ opposition to Cardijn and the YCW. The fact is that as a young priest, Suenens had been a supporter of the extremely conservative Belgian “Catholic Party” whereas Cardijn and his network had worked to promote the emerging progressive Christian Democratic forces.
Suenens seizes the opportunity
Thus, when Pope John XXIII made him archbishop (November 1961) and cardinal (March 1962) of the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels, Suenens seized his chance, endeavouring to exclude or at least sideline Cardijn from participation in the Second Vatican Council that was about to open in October of that year.
In 1960, John XXIII had actually appointed Cardijn as a member of the Preparatory Commission on Lay Apostolate. But this did not prevent Suenens from striving to ensure that the YCW founder was not chosen as a peritus during the first session of the Council.
In addition to all of the above, in early 1963, Suenens sought to force Cardijn to make changes to the text of his about-to-be published book, Laïcs en premières lignes, an attack that Cardijn successfully resisted, in effect, forcing Suenens to back down.
The fight back
One important reason for Suenens’ backdown, I believe, was the backlash that his manoeuvres had caused, particularly among French and Latin American bishops.
Thus, French Cardijn ally, Cardinal Achille Liénart intervened at the Holy See to ensure better representation of the Specialised Catholic Action movements among the periti.
Similarly, Brazilian Bishop (later Archbishop) Helder Camara, one of Cardijn’s principal allies in Latin American, wrote to Suenens in December 1962, requesting him diplomatically to do something in recognition of Cardijn’s 80th birthday, which had taken place a month earlier. Although not explicit, Camara’s meaning must have been clear to Suenens.
The outcome was that in March 1962, Cardijn was in fact made a peritus.
Camara lobbies for Cardinal Cardijn
However, this did not satisfy Camara, who was concerned to ensure that Suenens would not have any further occasion to again deny or obstruct Cardijn.
In fact, Camara had already personally requested Pope John XXIII to make Cardijn an archbishop and cardinal so that he could participate fully in the Council.
By the end of 1962, however, John was ill with the cancer that would take his life in June 1963. Hence, there was no further consistory during his reign at which to make Cardijn a cardinal.
Undeterred, as soon as Cardinal John Baptist Montini was elected in July 1963, Camara wrote to the new pope reiterating his previous request to Pope John that he make Cardijn an archbishop and cardinal.
As we know, it’s not uncommon for popes to honour leading theologians and other eminent Church figures by making them cardinals but not necessarily bishops or archbishops.
But Camara was very clear! He wanted Paul VI to make Cardijn both archbishop and cardinal. In other words, he wanted Cardijn to be given equal standing with Suenens and, not incidentally, remove him from under the latter’s authority.
Paul VI, who had personally known and supported Cardijn for thirty years, evidently grasped the back story to this proposal.
And thus in January 1965, just a month after meeting Cardijn at the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay (now Mumbai), it was announced that the YCW founder was to be made archbishop and cardinal.
Cardijn’s reaction
Did Cardijn know of Camara’s efforts? I haven’t found any documents to indicate that he did. I tend to think it’s unlikely as Cardijn would surely have objected. Not that that would have deterred Camara!
In any event, it’s clear that Paul VI’s nomination of him as cardinal caused Cardijn great mental and spiritual turmoil, as Fiévez and Meert recorded:
His first reaction: “This is impossible. I can’t go against my vow to give my whole life to the working class!” And to some of his close friends: “The scarlet soutane and all those other Cardinal’s things go with a certain mentality and are tied up with the honours people are expected to give you. You are the one who is always right. In the end you think you are God because you are dressed in red! ..”
And as Cardijn wrote in a personal note, also cited by Fiévez and Meert:
Is it the devil who torments me or the Holy Spirit rousing me? The further I go, the more I believe that grace and personal promotion are incompatible. I am in a queer state of mind, not of self doubt, but doubt about the state or function to which I am being called. Me, Archbishop and Cardinal? And this quite suddenly and against all probability?
May the Holy Spirit enlighten and strengthen me! I am just Cardijn in my own inner being, ideas, feelings, words and actions. I can’t be otherwise. That would by my destruction… and at the same time Archbishop and Cardinal? Other people’s astonishment will be nothing compared with my own. Is it possible to go beyond all this and say: It is God’s will? .. .
He further worried that becoming a cardinal would mean he needed to live in Rome, instead of close to the YCW in Brussels. As a result, he went to see Paul VI to express his fears and doubts:
The pope’s response:
You are not going to be a Cardinal to die, but to live. You will continue talking on the YCW all over the world and with a great deal more weight.
Pietralata: Rome’s poorest parish
Convinced or at least accepting of the pope’s views, Cardijn went ahead with the preparations, as Fiévez and Meert wrote:
Among other things, he had to choose a basilica which would be his titular church. “Eminence, what is your wish?” After a moment’s surprise, “Give me,” he said, “the poorest.” So inquiries had to be made and three days later he was back and from among the names offered he asked for the Church of St Michael the Archangel in Pietralata, a working class and communist district on the outskirts of Rome.
Cardijn’s choice astounded those involved:
Don Ottavio, the parish priest, was staggered when he heard; it was impossible; it wasn’t a basilica; it wasn’t even a Church! The building had never been finished for lack of funds. And, in fact, when he made his first visit to Pietralata in the pouring rain, the new Cardinal dived out of the rain into Church only to find the rain still coming in on him through through the roof. The Church could hold only two hundred and there were nine Masses every Sunday to get everybody in. But from that day on, Cardijn always referred to Pietralata as “my Parish.”
Nine months later, at a special mass for workers, the night after the mass for the poor and Pact of the Catacombs, both of which had been convened by Camara, Cardijn and other jocist Council Fathers would sign a Pietralata Appeal for the recognition of the lay apostolate and more chaplains and support for the YCW:
But that’s another story that I’ve written about here:
Pietralata: The forgotten Mass and Message
A conciliatory consecration
Meanwhile, now that Cardijn was to become an archbishop as well as cardinal, he had to choose the consecrating bishops for his episcopal ordination on Sunday 21 February 1965.
Amazingly perhaps but a diplomat as always, he chose Suenens as principal consecrator! Suenens himself must have been surprised. After all, Cardijn’s elevation to the cardinalate was already a strong rebuff to him. Nevertheless, as a leading conciliar cardinal, he could hardly refuse without attracting attention.
On the other hand, in a delicate diplomatic balancing act, Cardijn chose two other Belgian bishops, who were among his closest allies and supporters, as his co-consecrators.
The first was Bishop Emile-Joseph De Smedt of Bruges, who had become famous during Vatican II first for his remarkable episcopal letter published in English as “The priesthood of the faithful” and secondly for his Council speech denouncing “hierarchism, clericalism, episcopolatry and papolatry.”
The second was Bishop Charles Himmer of Tournai, an early JOC chaplain, who had strongly backed the YCW and other Specialised Catholic Action movements, and whom Suenens had also excluded from a role in the conciliar commission on lay apostolate.
Of course, few members of the general public knew any of this and only a few insiders who appreciated the diplomatic niceties of these choices.
Cardijn’s tears
The next day, Monday 22 February 1965, Cardijn received his official “biglietto” or document of appointment as a cardinal.
Later that week on Thursday 25 February he was to receive his red cardinal’s hat from Paul VI.
But Cardijn still hesitated.
Overwhelmed by the emotion of the occasion, he broke down in tears, as the Australian priest and YCW chaplain, the late John Maguire, later recalled in an interview I did with him in 2012. (Sound quality not great, I’m afraid. Please turn up the sound in the video below!)
As Maguire remembered it:
At the Trastevere apartment where they were staying, Cardijn came down the stairs dressed in the scarlet regalia, and he was weeping badly.
Pat (Keegan) rushed up to him, asking “What’s wrong, Joseph? What’s wrong?”
And Cardijn just said: “What I’m wearing today would feed a man and his wife and four or five kids for a year! I want to ring Montini and tell him I’m not going to go ahead with it.”
Of course the group there, who were all YCW, said to him: “It’s not for you, it’s for the YCW and the understanding that it gives in the Church.”
So Cardijn went ahead with it.
A cardinal for the YCW
In fact, the words of the YCW leaders were precisely those that Paul VI had used himself at a special audience the day before on Wednesday 24 February.
Once again, Fiévez and Meert had the story:
The Pope invited Cardijn to speak. He brought to it all the vigour and seriousness of his earliest days—Europe no longer occupying his thoughts, his eyes on Africa, Asia and South America. Cardijn knew where the crisis of civilisation and Christianity was to be lived out today.
“It was not because you represent an historical see or a national episcopate, it was for the YCW that I have made you Cardinal!’ said the Pope simply. Once the ceremonies were over, precise and methodical as ever, Cardijn worked out his programme and way of life:
“The Pope has said publicly that he hopes my being made a Cardinal will be the occasion of a new departure for the YCW and a stimulus of its apostolic action among all the young workers of the world.
Certainly, this was Cardijn’s great hope.
Paul VI’s vision for Cardijn and the YCW
In concluding, I think it’s also worthwhile to reflect briefly what Paul VI actually had in mind for Cardijn in making him archbishop and cardinal. I believe this went far beyond honouring Cardijn and giving him equal standing with Suenens at the Council.
Back in the 1940s, as Substitute at the Vatican Secretariat of State, the then Mgr Montini had worked closely with the French bishops to develop what eventually became the “Territorial Prelature of the Mission de France,” a novel ecclesial structure meant to train and oversee a new generation of priests who would work with the poor and working class.
Twenty years later, drawing on this experience, a group of bishops close to the Specialised Catholic Action movements, including Liénart and Montini before he became pope, proposed to extend the Mission de France concept via the establishment of “personal prelatures” to provide a framework for the work of the Specialised Catholic Action movements, including the YCW.
This desire was eventually expressed in the conciliar Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, §10:
Where a real apostolic spirit requires it, not only should a better distribution of priests be brought about but there should also be favored such particular pastoral works as are necessary in any region or nation anywhere on earth. To accomplish this purpose there should be set up international seminaries, special personal dioceses or prelatures (vicariates), and so forth, by means of which, according to their particular statutes and always saving the right of bishops, priests may be trained and incardinated for the good of the whole Church.
After the Council, Paul VI concretised this further in §4 of his Apostolic Letter, Ecclesiae Sanctae, on 6 August 1966:
Moreover, to carry on special pastoral or missionary work for various regions or social groups which are in need of special assistance, prelatures composed of priests from the secular clergy equipped with special training can be usefully established by the Apostolic See. These prelatures are under the government of their own prelate and possess their own statutes.
It will be in the competence of this prelate to establish and direct a national or international seminary in which students are suitably instructed. The same prelate has the right to incardinate the same students and to promote them to sacred orders under the title of service for the prelature.
The prelate must make provision for the spiritual life of those whom he has ordained according to the above title, and for the continual perfecting of their special training and their special ministry making agreements with the local Ordinaries to whom the priests are sent. He must likewise provide for their proper support, a matter which must be provided for through the same agreements, matter from the resources which belong to the prelature itself or from other suitable resources. In like manner he must provide for those who on account of poor health or for other causes must leave the task assisted to them.
Laymen, whether single or married, may also dedicate themselves with their professional skill to the service of these works and projects after making an agreement with the prelature.
Is this not exactly what Paul VI had in mind when he told Cardijn that “it was for the YCW that I made you a cardinal”? Indeed, the fact that Paul VI also appointed Cardijn to the post-conciliar commission on reforming the Code of Canon Law seems to imply that the pope wished to further institutionalise this arrangement.
Sadly, Cardijn, who died less than a year later on 24 July 1967, did not live long enough to achieve this.
On this 60th anniversary of Cardijn’s appointment as an archbishop and cardinal perhaps it’s time to again pick up these long forgotten threads.
Stefan Gigacz
READ MORE
Marguerite Fiévez and Jacques Meert, Cardijn, Chap. 14, The workers’ cardinal (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Stefan Gigacz, The Leaven in the Council: Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist network at Vatican II
Bishop Emile-Joseph De Smedt (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Bishop Charles-Marie Himmer (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)