Chilean Archbishop Bernardino Piñera, former JOC chaplain, who translated for Cardijn and accompanied him on his travels across Latin American during the late 1940s.
François Houtart was a Belgian sociologist, who helped develop the JOC in Latin America during the 1940s and 1950s. He also accompanied a young Polish priest, Karol Wojtyla, who wanted to visit factories and mines in Belgium and learn about the JOC and the worker movement during his summer holidays in the late 1940s. As an expert at Vatican II, François wrote the first draft of what became the introductory section of Gaudium et Spes on the situation of people in the world.
François recalls (in French) the roles played by several Jocist bishops in the Signs of the Times Sub-Commission responsible for the drafting of the section on world reality of the future Gaudium et Spes (then known as Schema XIII).
John Maguire was a YCW chaplain in Brisbane, who was studying in Rome during Vatican II. On the recommendation of Pat Keegan, first lay auditor to address the Council, Pope Paul VI appointed John as “ecclesiastical assistant” to the lay auditors. And he was with Cardijn on the day the YCW founder received his red cardinal’s hat.
John Maguire recalls Patrick Keegan’s work to prepare his address to the Council.
The conservative Cardinal Ruffini came up to Pat after his talk, thanking him for not “destroying us.”
John was present at the Council during the infamous “Black Week” of Vatican II in 1964 when there were many fears that it would not achieve its outcomes. Here John recounts the story of Ramon Sugranyes de Franch, co-founder of Pax Romana ICMICA, who wept as Paul VI distributed communion to him, only to be personally reassured by the pope.
John was studying in Rome when John XXIII gave his opening speech to the Council. Here he recalls the reaction of one of his professors, who believed the pope had fallen into heresy.