Make a Friend, Be a Friend,
Bring Your Friend to Christ!
A Cursillo History Lesson
This is an anniversary for me, of sorts. It was this month, 43 years ago that I made my Cursillo weekend at the Jesuit Retreat House in Wernersville. Unlike most of you, I never heard of a Cursillo until a parish priest, Father Bill Ward, invited my wife, Mae, and I to make this retreat.
He mentioned the word Cursillo once to us with no explanation of what the name meant. He didn’t know exactly what dates the retreats were being held, but he’d get back to us.
We agreed to go because he had been so kind to us after we moved to Allentown from Chicago a year earlier. Mae underwent major surgery and Father Ward visited her every day she was hospitalized. He befriended our four sons who had the tough experience of transferring to new schools. He made us feel very comfortable in our new parish life. He was a true shepherd to our family, and we felt we owed him a favor by saying yes.
Father Ward made the Cursillo along with me and some other priests you might know. Father
Joe Lange was the Assistant Spiritual Director. At that time he was a professor of theology at the Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales. Father Jack Campbell sat at my table. He was an assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Allentown. Father Harry Strassner, who later became the pastor of St. Paul’s in Allentown, Father Vince York, newly ordained, Father Bob Devine, a guidance counselor at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales. I mention these priests because each one of them had a strong impact on my life as the years went by. But, that’s another story for another time.
In January 1970, the Cursillo movement was active and thriving in Philadelphia, and they sent a team to Wernersville to introduce the movement to the Allentown Diocese with the approval of Bishop Joseph McShea. Keep in mind, only a few years earlier, the Second Vatican Council had reached extraordinary conclusions on the role that the laity must take to help move the Catholic Church forward in its role of evangelization and ecumenism. I sincerely believe that Bishop McShea saw Cursillo as a useful instrument of the Church of God among the baptized faithful. It’s easy for me to say this to you in retrospect. That certainly was not on my mind 43 years ago when I was sitting at a table with five other men listening to a talk the speaker called “Ideal.”
He was saying things like I’m superior to an animal, and I’m thinking that my wife might disagree with him. He talked about man’s intellect, his rationality, his freedom, and his will. Then he began talking about how all of us must have a mental process and use this process to realize that this gift will help us achieve meaning in our lives. He called it an IDEAL. Without an ideal, he said, our lives won’t have focus, purpose, or order—no direction, no conviction. Then he said we must all ask ourselves how we spend our free time and our money and what direction that process is leading each of us and that direction will be our ideal. And I’m thinking what does all this have to do with a retreat? Where is God?
After a short time, I remember the Rector asking us to be patient, not anticipate, and let the process unfold for us, as he’s introducing our Spiritual Director who talks to us about living what is fundamental to a Christian life, directing our whole life to God. He described this as our highest ideal, reminding us what we heard earlier in the previous talk and how our life’s direction of spending our time, our energy, our thoughts, yes, even our money, should be toward God in a life of Grace.
He said this spiritual gift that God gives us, should we accept it fully, is called Habitual Grace—an “invitation” from God—and it was our choice to accept, our freedom to choose. This encounter of human freedom, my freedom, with God’s grace, was all new to me. I’m actually being invited to respond to a new life—no arm twisting, no threats of hell and damnation –I’m on the receiving end, and Jesus will be the instrument to help me each step of the way. Years later, I would learn that this “invitation” and my response and willingness to accept it, and my willingness to change, is called metanoia.
Hmmm…how about that? Up until the time I came on the weekend, I had a sneaking suspicion that maybe Joan of Arc was really Noah’s wife. Now, I’m being invited to seriously look at my capabilities and my limitations as a Catholic Christian and choose a new direction for my life and accept God’s freely given gift called Habitual Grace. More questions than answers were piling up in my mind about this personal relationship with Our Lord which I’d never confronted before.
We broke for some free time and then for lunch. I met with other candidates during lunch and pretended to have a handle on what the morning sessions were about. A lot of the guys were asking the same questions I was afraid to ask out loud.
Back in the drill room after lunch, our rector (whose name was Tom Smith) again asked us not to anticipate and continue to be patient, especially with ourselves. He then introduced the next speaker who would talk to us about our role as a lay person in the church. By the time the speaker finished his talk, it started to dawn on me what this team of men was attempting to do for us. God, in His wisdom, and through His grace, by using these team members as His instruments, was helping us define for ourselves who we really are as Catholic Christians and take our next steps with Christ at our side. The speaker said that depending on our personality and our circumstances, we can achieve this goal. It’s our opportunity if we choose to live God’s message of truth and goodness and share it with our world, my world, your world. The late Pope John XXIII said that “an authentic Christian is a joy to himself, to God, and to his fellow man.” My sisters and brothers—the Pope was talking about Cursillistas and the Cursillo Movement.
The Friday of my Cursillo was only half over, and it dawned on me that the Ideal talk and the Lay Person in the Church talk with Habitual Grace as a bridge in between had provided me with some answers about who I was, what I was asked to become, and I guessed I’d find out how I would reach this goal—if I would be patient and not anticipate.
All this happened 43 years ago. To the best of my memory, I tried to give you a brief glimpse of how the lay talks on Ideal and Lay persons affected me personally. Naturally, I had to bring in the Habitual Grace talk because the first two lay talks would have made no sense without the bridge of Habitual Grace. And that’s the beauty of the progression of the Cursillo talks. They fit, hand in glove, with one another. When the talks reach fifteen, our candidates have a complete picture of the heart and soul of Cursillo.
When we accomplish these goals, we make the Cursillo the most unique Catholic movement in America, and when placed in the right hands of our Catholic bishops, it can be a very powerful and authentic tool of the truth and goodness of God’s will and the love He has for us.
For Mae and me, the Cursillo has introduced us to a community of Christian friends who have loved and supported us in so many ways over these past 43 years. Mae had to wait six weeks before she made her Cursillo. Boy, that wait was no picnic in our home. She had questions and questions, and I had half answers and no answers. When she finally went and came back, our world as Catholic laity changed.
With the help and guidance of our priests, our small group selected a Secretariat and set up Ultreya on a weekly basis at St. Catharine’s in Allentown. Our first Lay Director was Jim Gallo and our Spiritual Director was Father Joe Lange.
After several months of Ultreya, Father Lange advised us that we had to start a School of Leaders, without which he said, our movement would wither and die. He explained how the School would operate and said that our commitment to the School would be for two years. Those of us who agreed had to sign an actual contract that the School would be our primary Apostolic Action in Cursillo. We were fortunate. The priests who made the first Cursillo with us became our first teachers. They formed their own group reunion and studied the material available to us at that time. It worked.
We learned, we made mistakes, but the Holy Spirit didn’t allow us to wallow in our mistakes. The Spirit helped us grow in our early years—form teams and hold weekends—pick our Lay Directors, our Secretariats—our rectors and rectoras, and start to reach out in our environment. We actually met weekly, both for Ultreya and for School of Leaders. Time and demographics make that impractical today, I know, but back then it was necessary.
By the way, our first School of Leaders director was a young man from South Bethlehem named Sav Pasqualucci. Did we know how to pick them or what?
An interesting note here—during the early years of team formation, all of the lay talks were given to the School of Leaders. The rationale back then was each Cursillista should know what the talk outline contained and should be prepared to critique the team talks. The Cursillo section set the guidelines for the speakers and for the listeners. We were told that all of us should be prepared to step in if a team member was unable to make the weekend up to the very last minute—including emergencies that could occur on the weekend.
Over the years, there were occasions, both before and during a Cursillo weekend when emergencies occurred and being exposed to learn the talks paid off. You’re the Cursillistas who are committed today, and I’m still around along with a handful of survivors to tell you that the Lord continues to bless this movement.
You’ve expanded by means of love and friendships, the fundamental ideas of Cursillo. You’ve been faithful to the original purpose of Cursillo and the mission of our church. Is it worth it? You bet it is!
Over the years, the Cursillo has led Mae and me back to our parish environment and because of Cursillo we’ve had the opportunity to volunteer as lectors and Eucharistic ministers, work on parish retreat teams, which are designed in structure similar to the three day Cursillo. A priest named Monsignor John Murphy, who made a Cursillo, put a program together modeled after Cursillo—and he’s be the first to tell you that the Cursillo experience influenced him greatly. Many pastors are using his model for their parish retreats throughout the diocese.
In 1971, at the University of Notre Dame and in 1980 at Niagara University, I represented our diocese at International Cursillo Encounters, along with other Cursillistas from the Diocese of Allentown. We were a young movement in ’71 and gotten some age by ’80. We gained valuable insights on how we were progressing, what our strengths and weaknesses were—where we had to improve, how the Cursillo was doing on an international level and how the U.S. movement was surviving since it started in 1957. We digested as best we could, what we should and should not be doing in the Allentown Diocese and passed it on to the then current leadership. There’s no report card on the results, but we’re here today and that should tell us something. There have been many such conferences on regional and national levels over the years and obviously the Holy Spirit is looking over the shoulders of our leadership and guiding them quite well in their decision making.
Early on, when we were told to form group reunions which are the cornerstone of the method of Cursillo, I met with three other men on weekly rotating bases at each other’s house after we attended an early Mass every Saturday morning beginning around September 1971. After a few months, we found out that some of our Cursillo priests were having trouble communicating with their brother priests in Reading about introducing the Cursillo to the Reading community.
At a Secretariat meeting, I suggested to Father Lange that maybe our group reunion could give it a try. We thought we’d try to reach a couple of priests we knew who used to be stationed in Allentown and were now serving in Reading. He gave us the okay. The plan we came up with was to see if any of our priest friends would be willing g to set up a meeting with members of their parishes so we could witness to them about Cursillo.
Our first call was to Father Steve Halabura. He was happy to meet with us. He, in turn, called Father Bob Biszek who met with us two weeks later. In turn, Father Biszek called Father Fred Loeper and Father Felix Losito. Both agreed to meet with us, and over the course of eight weeks, we met with these extraordinary men who in turn set up initial meetings for us with their parishioners.
The Holy Spirit was indeed alive and kicking for Cursillo. Our group reunion was not alone in our efforts. Over the next six months, we went to Reading just about every Wednesday and brought with us other Cursillistas from the Lehigh Valley to witness with us about how Cursillo has worked in our lives and the lives of our families.
Father John Auchter, who was at St. Margaret’s in Reading, joined the other priests in setting up parish meetings during this period. By the time we were ready to hold our 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Cursillo, we had enough men and women from Reading signed up to make those weekends with their Lehigh Valley brothers and sisters and help form the nucleus of a team that would put on the first all Reading Cursillo. Our group reunion continued to go to Reading for another six months to help with recruiting, meeting with priests, and team meetings. The team members also attended our School of Leaders. The rest is history. The Reading community introduced Cursillo to their friends forty years ago. The results of their first step are self evident.
As I look around, I see a strong vibrant Catholic community representing many parishes from Berks County and the Lehigh Valley. There’s more work to be done in Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe counties. Our sisters and brothers from those regions who have made Cursillo need our support and help to continue to bring the message of Cursillo to the many parishes in their area. We can’t let them down. Reach out and continue to encourage and help them.
The Reading priests I mentioned were indeed the real heroes and true shepherds in bringing the Reading community the gift of Cursillo at the beginning. Over the years, so many other priests, throughout our diocese, (one in particular, Monsignor Joe Smith) have championed the Cursillo. Today, such men as Father Marty Kern and Father Rich Brensinger now carry our spiritual burden along with our permanent deacons. These men need our support. We must continue to care for them and pray for them. We need them. Let them know it.
My group reunion is down to two now—Pete Kucharczuk and myself. Marty McCooley and Jim Walsh are with the Lord. I’m positive they are doing Palanca for us at this very moment.
That just about wraps it up for me today. The history of the movement since 1970 is rich and exciting to talk about. We can learn from past experience. Mae and I have spent more than half our lives as Cursillistas. It’s been a fun and spiritual journey with many magnificent friends to celebrate with.
De Colores
Ned Squires
Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena Parish
1st Allentown Cursillo