September 2025
Christian nationalism - Labor of Love - Church of the Poor - YCW and YCS martyrs - St. Pier Giorgio and Cardijn - Integrating mission and life - Remembering Msgr. Jack Egan
Dear friends,
This month we mourn the ongoing violence that has taken the lives of Charlie Kirk and Minnesota Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and so many others.
In a climate of increasing political polarisation, perhaps it’s helpful to recall Cardijn’s insight that genuine dialogue can help transform hate into love.
In this light, Richard Pütz has a vital reflection on the need for a Christian response to the rise of “Christian Nationalism.”
Fr. Ty Hullinger reflects on Jesus’ message opposing oppression and hate at the Freedom Church of the Poor.
We also share an appeal from the Catholic Labor Network - its first ever fundraising appeal - which aims to increase its capacity to respond to wage theft and other issues.
This month we also remember the YCW and YCS martyrs under Nazism who will be beatified at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on December 13.
We also have the story of Cardijn’s contribution to the canonisation process of the new saint Pier Giorgio Frassati, a student leader who attended the foundation conference of the Pax Romana movement and who was actively resisted the rise of fascism in Italy.
He was canonized by Pope Leo together with Carlo Acutis, an even more recent saint of the digital age. Let’s remember St. Pier Giorgio and St. Carlo alongside Blessed Maria Guggiari Echeverria from Paraguay and the French martyr Blessed Marcel Callo, both YCW leaders.
Communities of Faith Organizing for Action leaders reflect on the need to revive social action.
Similarly, Trinidad and Tobago catechist, Bernadette Gopaul-Ramkhalawan, emphasises the need to integrate mission into our lives via the see-judge-act.
Finally, Bill Murphy remembers the great Chicago Cardijn priest, Msgr. Jack Egan.
Thanks again for your ongoing support.
The Cardijn Associates Team
A Labor of Love
Alex is a concrete worker in Nashville. Five years ago, Alex and his crew poured long days into laying concrete at a local public school and a university campus. But when the job was done, they did not receive the pay they were owed, the Catholic Labor Network reports.
When the Catholic Labor Network learned that Alex was Catholic and active in his parish, they stepped in. We connected him with his pastor, who joined with others to publicly support Alex when he confronted the school board and contractors. Sadly, even with broad support, Alex was never paid in full.
Stories like Alex’s are not rare. Wage theft is one of the most common forms of worker exploitation in our country. It robs workers and families of their paychecks, steals their time, and violates their God-given dignity.
In order to increase its capacity to respond, the Catholic Labor Network is launching its first-ever fundraising campaign: A Labor of Love.
SUPPORT HERE
Will You Stand Up Against Wage Theft? (Catholic Labor Network)
Christian Nationalism is idolatry
The rise of Christian nationalism in America presents one of the most urgent spiritual crises facing the Catholic Church today, writes Richard Pütz. Yet many Catholics—including some bishops and priests—have embraced this ideology without recognizing its fundamental incompatibility with the Gospel message.
When Satan offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" in exchange for worship, Christ's response was unequivocal: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve" (Matthew 4:5-8). This temptation scene reveals the eternal danger of conflating divine authority with earthly power—the very foundation of Christian nationalism.
READ MORE
Christian Nationalism is Idolatry: A Catholic Perspective (Cardijn Reflections)
Prayers for the people: Father Ty Hullinger, United Workers
Fr. Ty Hullinger reflects on Jesus’ Jubilee message at the Freedom Church of the Poor: “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
"Characterized by biblical stories and historical and contemporary examples in which every need is supplied, such as the garden of Eden, manna in the wilderness, the practice of jubilee, and the early Christian communities, this theme describes the anti-poverty programs that run throughout the Bible.
The season of “Jubilee” parallels Pentecost, when God’s Spirit was poured out on a multiracial movement of Jesus followers, as well as the season just after, often known as Ordinary time. These biblical narratives provide not just our moral justification that everybody has a right to live, but also how that reality can be achieved, which ought to be ordinary in our lives and world.
YCW and YCS martyrs to be beatified at Notre Dame
The Diocese of Paris has announced that 50 martyrs of the faith including more than twenty YCW and YCS leaders will be beatified at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris on 13 December 2025.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg who was also a YCW and YCS chaplain as a young priest will preside over the ceremony.
Their names include Raymond Cayré, Gérard-Martin Cendrier, Roger Vallée, Jean Mestre… These priests, seminarians, scouts or lay faithful, many of whom came from the Young Christian Workers (JOC), died for the most part in concentration camps where they had been sent because of their apostolate, an activity prohibited by the Hitler regime, reports note.
READ MORE
YCW & YCS martyrs beatified at Notre Dame
Who are France’s new WWII martyrs? (Pillar Catholic)
St Pier Giorgio, founding member of Pax Romana
As a corresponding member of Pax Romana, the movement of Catholic students, intellectuals and professionals, to which St Pier Giorgio Frassati once belonged, the Australian Cardijn Institute welcomes his canonisation by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday 7 September 2025 alongside St Carlo Acutis..
Pier Giorgio is known for his charitable work, his commitment to social reform and his intense prayer life.
“Charity is not enough; we need social reform,” he often used to say.
While a student of engineering in Turin, Pier Giorgio attended the inaugural conference in Fribourg, Switzerland at which Pax Romana was founded in 1921.
READ MORE
St Pier Giorgio, founding member of Pax Romana
Cardijn and Pier Giorgio Frassati
Cardijn was an early supporter of Pier Giorgio Frassati’s cause for beatification and eventual canonisation, writes Stefan Gigacz. On 24 January 1938, he wrote personally to his friend Pope Pius XI supporting the introduction of Pier Giorgio’s cause at the Holy See.
Perhaps that letter may also be found in the Vatican Archives but at this point we do not have a copy.
What we do have is the text of the response from the Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, soon to become Pope Pius XII.
READ MORE
Pier Giorgio Frassati and Cardijn (Cardijn Research)
Integrating mission in our lives
Mission is what our Christian life is about. Christians are missionaries in the world, writes Bernadette Gopaul-Ramkhalawan at Catholic Trinidad and Tobago.
“Christians are at the service of the world. Mission is not an event one does now and then. It is an integral part of everyday life,” she notes.
“Mission is about service that elevates the life of others. There are human needs all around us and so we must educate ourselves on the model that the Church uses to guide us in our missionary work.
“We need to learn the ‘See, Judge, Act’ method so that we can integrate mission in our lives.”
READ MORE
Integrating mission in our lives (See Judge Act)
Reviving bottom-up social action
In El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, Communities of Faith Organizing for Action (COFOA) unites people from 162 communities to organize for access to water, electricity, schools, healthcare, and land rights. Inspired by Catholic teaching, COFOA’s organizing is a direct legacy of See, Judge, Act.
Nevertheless, the work is challenging. “It has not been easy to revive Saint Romero’s legacy and find clergy willing to risk promoting social action,” write Gordon Whitman and Joseph Fleming. “Still, organizing has become profoundly counter-cultural within the Church and society,” they observe.
“Reviving that tradition of bottom-up social action will require more than moral statements,” they explain. “It demands investment from bishops, dioceses, and religious orders in lay formation, grassroots leadership development, fundraising, and social analysis rooted in Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching.
READ MORE
Reviving bottom-up social action (See Judge Act)
History: Remembering Msgr Jack Egan of Chicago
Msgr. Jack Egan was one of the many creative and zealous priests who were formed at Mundelein Seminary under its eight-year golden age under the rectorship of Reynold Hillenbrand (1936-44), writes Bill Murphy at Better Politics.
He was “another example of a Chicago priest who exemplified the vision of the Second Vatican Council,” Murphy continues. “This model understood the Church as an agent of justice and human dignity, working in solidarity with our fellow citizens, thereby manifesting the Church as an efficacious sign and instrument of unity between the human family and with God (Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no. 1).”
READ MORE
Remembering Msgr. Jack Egan (1916-2001) (Better Politics)
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