Once again, this year’s list of “jocist” people anniversaries reveals an extraordinary range of movement leaders and chaplains who lived lives – and sometimes died – lives of incredible commitment and sacrifice.
Their witness is our legacy. And it’s truly an amazing and humbling heritage with which we have been entrusted.
Recently, Pope Francis proposed that dioceses around the world should commemorate their local saints, blesseds, venerables and servants of God.
Let’s start by recognising and remembering those from our own movements.
As always, this is a highly incomplete list. I am sure there are many more whose lives we need to document and remember.
Please let me know of other names to add.
Deaths of Tonnet, Garcet, Callo and more
So many World War II movement martyrs, particularly and even more tragically during the final months of the war!
French jocist leader, Marcel Callo, has already been beatified. But let’s also remember that Cardijn himself wanted Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet to be beatified.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/115
Here below is a list of just a few of those whose 80th anniversaries fall during the first half of 2025.
January 1945: Death of Marcel Touquay, French JOC leader, who died at Peenemunde.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/136
12 January 1945: Death of French Jesuit, Victor Dillard, at Dachau Concentration Camp.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/264
19 January 1945: Death of Paul Garcet in the Dachau Concentration Camp.
http://paulgarcet.josephcardijn.com/
2 February 1945: Death of Fernand Tonnet also at Dachau.
http://fernandtonnet.josephcardijn.com/
8 February 1945: Death of French JOC leader, Eugène Lemoine, who died in the Zöschen Concentration Camp.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/133
18 February 1945: Death of René Rouzet, French JOC leader, at the Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camp.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/134
19 March 1945: Death of Blessed Marcel Callo, French JOC leader, who died at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/131
6 May 1945: Death of French JOC leader, Marcel Carrier, who died while being evacuated from Flossenburg Concentration Camp.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/132
12 June 1945: Death of René Giraudet, French JOC chaplain, who volunteered to work in Germany.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/293
Pepe Palacio, first martyr of the IYCW
13 December 1975: Death of José Serapio Palacio, Argentine and IYCW leader, later first lay international collaborator of the IYCW.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/146
Birth centenaries and anniversaries
3 January 1945: Birth of Daniel Esquivel Antero, Argentinian JOC leader originally from Paraguay, who “disappeared” in 1977.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/149
7 January 1895: Birth of Marie-Dominique Chenu OP, close collaborator of Cardijn and the early JOC.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/231
25 January 1905: Birth of Cardinal Maurice Roy, JOC chaplain, later bishop and cardinal, and author of Pope Paul VI’s Letter to Cardinal Roy in 1971.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/420
29 January 1900: Birth of Jean Rodhain, French JOC chaplain, founder of Sécours catholique (Caritas France)
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/409
30 January 1900: Birth of Yves de Montcheuil SJ, French JOC and JEC chaplain, executed by the Gestapo in 1944.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/368
31 January 1945: Death of André Vallée, French JOC leader, who died at Mauthausen.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/137
7 March 1925: Birth of François Houtart, JOC chaplain in Belgium, collaborator with Cardijn in the development of the JOC in Latin America, and author of the first draft of the eventual Introduction to the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/321
22 April 1915: Birth of Fr Jose Maria Arizmendiarrietta, Specialised Catholic Action chaplain and founder of the Mondragon worker cooperatives
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/213
9 November 1915: Birth of Archbishop Denis Hurley, omi, South African archbishop who promoted YCW.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/319
1925: Birth of Romeo Maione, first elected international president of the IYCW, who died on 12 May 2015.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/142
1925: Birth of Caroline Pezzullo, US YCW leader and representative at the United Nations.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/3073
1905: Birth of Yvonne Girard, early pioneer of the French JOCF.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/3066
1945: Birth of Tito de Alencar Lima, Brazilian Dominican, who died in 1974.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/2690
Other death anniversaries
9 January 1955: Death of Albert Quirion, Canadian JAC chaplain, killed by a hitchhiker.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/400
28 January 2000: Death of Spanish JOC national chaplain, later a bishop and Vatican II Father, Mauro Rubio Repullés.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/424
8 April 2015: Death of Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, Québec JOC and JECF chaplain.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/449
5 June 2000: Death of YCW pioneer and lay co-founder of the IYCW, Marguerite Fiévez.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/125
4 August 2000: Death of Archbishop Marcos Gregorio McGrath CSC, promoter of the YCW and president of the Signs of the Times Commission at Vatican II.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/358
1965: Death of Henri Roy, omi, founder of the Canadian (Québec JOC.
https://www.josephcardijn.com/en/item/418
Stefan Gigacz