May 2026
Catholic institutions and unions - John Courtney Murry on religious liberty - Cardijn on Catholic Social Teaching - Palestine YCS chaplain expelled - IYCS reunion
Friends,
This month we begin with Richard Pütz’s reflection on the importance of Catholic institutions respecting the rights of workers to unionize. And we recall the vital work in this field being done by the Catholic Labor Network.
We share news of Belgian scholar Sam Kuijken’s successful defense of his doctoral dissertation on the role of the International YCW in crafting Catholic internationalism.
From Palestine, we report the expulsion by the Israeli government of Fr Louis Salman, chaplain to the Catholic youth movement, including the YCS.
Stephen McNulty writes in America magazine of the role of Jesuit John Courtney Murray in the drafting of the Vatican II Declaration on Religious Liberty. Fr Murray was also a key player in the development of the Pax Romana movement in the US.
As Pope Leo prepares to release his first social encyclical, Stefan Gigacz recalls Cardijn’s own emphasis on promoting and teaching Catholic social doctrine.
Follow upcoming events, including Pizza, Beer and conversation on the role of the laity, the Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the St Frances Xavier Cabrini route and the 80th YCS anniversary reunion!
The Cardijn Associates USA Team
Practice what you preach: Catholic institutions and trade unions
It’s uncomfortable when a Catholic hospital administrator discourages unionization while a local bishop endorses labor dignity, writes Richard Pütz. This contradiction can be resolved. Catholic institutions shouldn’t just accept worker organizing—they should welcome it as true to their identity.
Catholic social teaching does not speak in vague generalities on this point. Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, names the right to organize as a basic human right — one that must be exercised “without risk of reprisal.”
It does not say workers may organise if management permits it. It says this right belongs to workers as persons.
READ MORE
Preach What You Practice: Why Catholic Institutions Must Welcome the Union (Cardijn Reflections)
PhD: The International YCW and the rise of International Catholic Organizations
Sam Kuijken’s dissertation at KU Leuven reconstructs the history of Catholic internationalism through one of its most dynamic and contentious embodiments: the Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne internationale.
It builds on existing scholarship while challenging prevailing assumptions about the motivations, geography, and chronology of Catholic international engagement. Rather than treating Catholic internationalism as a derivative of anti‑communism or Cold War politics, the study uses it as a lens to reassess these familiar narratives.
The dissertation also advances a deliberately decentered approach, counterbalancing the European focus of institutional histories by integrating Asian, African, and Latin American experiences.
READ MORE
Crafting Catholic Internationalism: The Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne and the Rise of International Catholic Organizations (1920-1960) (KU Leuven, Research)
PHOTO
Natalia Núñez-Bargueño (Facebook)
John Courtney Murray & religious freedom at Vatican II
Perhaps no other Vatican II document reveals a more significant American contribution to Vatican II than Dignitatis humanae, the Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty, writes Stephen McNulty.
Its key architect was none other than John Courtney Murray, the American Jesuit and academic who devoted his career to finding a synthesis between Catholicism and democracy, a public intellectual who’d become a household name by the time of his death in 1967.
For the Church, Dignitatis humanae represented a radical change: a little more than a century after Pius IX’s infamous Syllabus of Errors (1864), which unilaterally condemned, among other things, liberalism and freedom of religion, Dignitatis humanae issued a full-throated defense of religious free exercise.
READ MORE
Leo Looks to the Council (Commonweal)
Palestine YCS chaplain expelled by Israel
Father Louis Salman, a Jordanian priest who served as parish priest in Beit Sahour, a majority Palestinian Christian town near Bethlehem and was also chaplain for the Palestinian Christian youth movement, including the Young Catholic Students (YCS), has been forced to leave the country, Independent Catholic News reports.
Following an unusually long and intensive security interrogation by Israeli authorities, Israel refused to renew his visa and ordered him to leave before 11 May.
In a poignant farewell, Father Louis presided over his final Mass in Beit Sahour - the ‘Shepherd’s Field’ - on Sunday.
Father Louis is considered one of the most influential figures among Palestinian Christian youth.
READ MORE
Israel forces much-loved Catholic priest to leave Palestine (Independent Catholic News)
Louis Salman (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
Cardijn and Catholic Social Doctrine
As he often recalled, Cardijn’s first encounter with what we now call Catholic Social Teaching came when, as a nine year old boy, he was asked by his illiterate father to read him Pope Leo XIII’s foundational 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, writes Stefan Gigacz.
When, after being ordained in 1906, he was finally posted to the parish of Notre Dame at Laeken in 1912, Cardijn encouraged the study of Catholic Social Teaching by leaders from the very beginning.
READ MORE
Cardijn and Catholic Social Doctrine (Cardijn Research)
Formation in Catholic Social Doctrine (Cardijn Research)
Networks and Events for Global Solidarity
***People of the North East Catholic Communities, Baltimore
May 15, 2026 | Baltimore, MD | People of the North East Catholic Communities. Pizza, Beer and Conversations Monthly meeting. Focus: The Vocation of the Laity in the service of justice and peace. Share your reflections on:
Location: Saint Matthew’s Rectory at 5401 Loch Raven Blvd Baltimore MD
6:30 pm Fellowship. RSVP irishnancy52@gmail.com
***St. Frances Xavier Cabrini - Patron of 2026 Eucharistic Pilgrimage
May 24 - July 5, 2026 | Eucharistic Pilgrimage In honor of America’s 250th birthday, join the pilgrimage journeying through the historic landmarks along the East Coast and learn more about St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants, and the first American to be canonized a saint.
Learn more about the St Frances Xavier Cabrini route
***Archdiocese of Washington DC
May 30, 2026 | Archdiocese of Washington DC Black Ministry Pastoral Plan Listening Sessions. The Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach and the Black Ministry Pastoral Plan Committee will host listening sessions at various parishes and locations through August 2026.
Location: St. John the Evangelist - Church Lower Level
8908 Old Branch Avenue Clinton, Maryland 20735
***ACTION ALERT: Protect Communities from Coal Ash Pollution
Jun 10, 2026 |The Catholic Climate Covenant, Franciscan Action Network, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and the Sisters of Mercy is urging people of faith across the country to sign a joint public comment opposing EPA rollbacks of federal coal ash regulations that would weaken protections for waterways and communities. Learn More and Sign the Statement by Jun 10.
***Save the Date: IYCS/JEC 80th Anniversary Reunion
June 28, 2026 | IYCS Reunion | Silver Spring, MD. Meet Roshan Lobo, IYCS Secretary General and reunite with IYCS alumni from around the world! More information soon about tickets for dinner and fellowship.
Cardijn Associates USA
Contact
Email: cardijnassociates@gmail.com