Every month, I receive the “Initiatives” newsletter that has been published for the past 46 years by the National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, Illinois, 60620). I cannot recall how long I have been receiving it or how I started subscribing, but I am glad I somehow got on the mailing list. Every issue has something in its pages that interests me. The following are the NCL’s four objectives:
- Prompt discussion of church-laity-world as provoked by Vatican 11 (I962-1965).
- Facilitate people and institutions in the search for a spirituality that grows out of daily occupations and professions.
- Agitate and assist parishes, schools, and agencies as they support the connection between work and Christian life.
- Maintain a center of information on the Christians in the world, specifically by publishing “Initiatives,” distributing select books, and assisting in writing and researching the Church and world.
The July 2024 issue has led me to recall some memories that I have not thought about in years. I hope readers of this column will bear with me as I stroll down memory lane.
Some of these events were so influential in my life that I am surprised I have not thought of them often in the last 40 years. Because none of them are unpleasant memories, it also surprises me that I have not frequently recalled them in recent years, nor spoken about them to new friends who know nothing about them.
In 1959, the last summer before members of my class were ordained, I took a six-week course at Catholic University in Washington on the church’s social teaching. This was a non-credit course that was offered to members of my class. Five of us were enrolled in the course, which was a game-changer for me.
I became convinced of the importance of helping lay people get involved in what we called “Catholic Action Groups.” As I tried to involve lay people in groups such as “The Christian Family Movement,” “The Young Christian Workers,” and “Young Christian Students,” I became aware that Chicago seemed to be the national center for all these groups. I decided to spend a week’s vacation in the city to learn more about what was happening at Catholic Action Groups in Chicago and elsewhere in the country. Looking back at my decision to take the summer course in Washington and to spend a week in Chicago studying Catholic Action, I believe that the Holy Spirit was involved in both decisions.
Eventually, I became a chaplain to a Young Christian Workers Group, a Young Christian Students Group, and a Christian Family Group. While I have no idea how deeply members of the groups were influenced by our meetings and discussions, I know I was deeply influenced.
What grew out of my involvement with those Catholic Action Groups was a program of parish discussion groups that I moderated with another priest. This program, I think, was one of the most fulfilling, challenging, and successful programs in which I was involved as a parish priest. At one point, there were 21 groups meeting, not at the church but in the homes of the members.
Members of the group discussed some aspects of Catholicism, and they became the best advertisement for the program. The enthusiasm of the members seemed to be infectious.
Msgr. Dan Cantwell, a Chicago priest who was very involved in Catholic Action, is quoted at length in the July 2024 edition of “Initiative.”
“The world of work, of drama, of music and science was my world and, more importantly, God’s world. Nothing that God decides to do can be beneath God. Therefore if God became fully human, God from all eternity was at ease with human joy and human striving. The church (the people of God) is not aloof from or opposed to the world. The church needs the world. The church is in the here-and-now. It is supposed to build a human world in our moment of time. … To aim toward the life to come is not to despise the present life. It is precisely when we begin to appreciate the marvelous life we now have, that we also begin to realize how much more God has in store for us.”
In all the groups, we emphasized the Catholic doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which states that we are Christ’s Body in the world. At one meeting, a teenager said, “A month ago, I had never heard of the doctrine of the Mystical Body. Now, it is the most important truth in my life.”
Statements like that assured me that the program was important.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. He presents two 15-minute talks from his lecture series on the Catholic Novel, 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday on NET-TV.