The International Team of CCI wishes all Cardijn alumni and the members of Cardijn Community a spirit filled ‘New Pentecost’.

New Pentecost is very special to CCI.

New Pentecost was promoted by CCI as a follow up to its successful Conference on Vatican II + 40 in 2002 in Bangkok to commemorate the 40^thanniversary of the opening of Vatican II in 1962.

Pope John XXIII proposed the prayer “O Holy Spirit, renew your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost” for Vatican II. He wished the Vatican II to open the way to a New Pentecost in the Church.

This year CCI is commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II by launching a 3 year project re-examining the spirit and decisions of the Council in the areas of social teachings and lay participation in the light of Cardinal Cardijn’s contribution.

The project will be launched on the 11^th October this year in Manila with a 3 day Conference on ‘Vatican 2 + 50: A Cardijn Perspective’.

An ‘Inquiry’ to collate the perceptions of the laity will be launched as a preparation to the Conference.

On this special day, we beseech the Holy Spirit to guide us in our search to build a ‘sustainable Church’ in the light of the vision and spirituality promoted by Cardijn.

Singapore YCW fulltime worker, Tang Lay Lee, was among 22 Singaporeans arrested in May 1987 as part of an alleged "communist network".

Twenty five years, Edgar D'Souza, a former Catholic priest, recalls the events of that time in an interview with Elaine Fe of www.publichouse.sg.

I was utterly shocked. I knew some of those detained personally, as they were workers in church ministries.
Vincent Cheng had studied in the seminary with me and I knew him well. I could not believe he was anything but an ardent Christian who only wanted to follow the way of Jesus Christ. He cared for the poor and marginalised and wanted justice for all—especially for the voiceless and down trodden. At that time he worked with Fr Joseph Ho of the Justice and Peace Commission. Vincent was executive secretary.

I knew Ng Bee Leng, a social worker, who worked with Fr Guillaume Arotcarena, director of the Geylang Catholic Centre, assisting foreign maids who had issues with their employers. The centre offered refuge to foreign domestic workers and had lawyers acting pro bono for them. Teo Soh Lung was one of these lawyers

I knew lawyer Tang Lay Lee and her work with the Young Christian Workers group in Jurong with Fr Patrick Goh.

And I knew Kevin de Souza (not related), who worked with students from Singapore Polytechnic. Through him I offered spiritual support (offered masses and gave talks particularly on the church’s social teachings) to a students’ group.

All these people were working with the Catholic Church and following her teachings in the light of Vatican Council II, which saw the role of the church to realise Jesus’ views and teachings in a modern world.

Read the full article here:

"I have always loved the Catholic Church" (publichouse.sg)

CCI-India will launch a national study of internal migrant workers, a media training program and the creation of a Cardijn Media company, the National Team has announced following its meeting at Trichur, Kerala this week.

The 15-17 May meeting undertook an extensive review of the movement's activities in India and the steps taken since the National Council in November 2011.

CCI Secretary General MJ Ruben reports that the team adopted a multi-pronged approach to build CCI in India and to promote Cardijn, including the following:

1. A survey on the living and working conditions of internal migrant workers:

To be undertaken in 6 phases viz. (i) Finalisation of the objective and guidelines; (ii)data collection; (iii)analysis of data collected; (iv)consultation to discuss the outcome of the survey and to plan action with the field workers, experts, sociologists, organisations working on migrant issues and CCI leaders and animators; (v)publication of the survey and the last phase (vi) will be the action part (representation, lobbying and sensitization on the issue).

SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) tool will be used for formulating guideliens and analysing the data collected.

Two fulltime workers from CCI will be appointed for two to three months to conduct the survey in 6 major cities in India (Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad).

One hundred families/individuals will be contacted during the survey in each of the six cities. Besides the six cities, CCI members will also take up the survey in their own areas.

2. Media and Social Media Training

Two programs are to be held in Secunderabad from 7-11 July 2012.

3. Cardijn Media

It was also decided to register Cardijn Media as a company. Six people have already agreed to subscribe for 10,000 rupees of shares.

Under the proposed statutes, 50 per cent of any profits will be donated to CCI.

Among other decisions CCI - India formally decided to affiliate with the Cardijn Community International.

National Team member Jomon Cherussery was coopted as national treasurer following the resignation of Monica Mascarenhas.

It was also decided to open up for individual memberships with an undertaking by new members to endeavour to launch new CCI teams in their local areas within twelve months of their joining.