By Theresia Titus
The Australian Cardijn Institute (ACI), an organisation named after Belgian Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, has last month welcomed its newly appointed Chair Brian Lawrence LLB.
Mr Lawrence is a former Chairman of the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (ACCER) from 2007 to 2015.
Mr Lawrence – who joined ACI at its establishment in 2018 – said his interest in the work envisioned by ACI could be traced back to the 1960s when he was first involved with Young Christian Workers (YCW) – an international movement founded by Cardinal Cardijn in 1925 – at his parish as a student when he was 14.
“In 1968 and 1969, after finishing my law degree, I worked for the national office of the Young Christian Students (YCS) as National Secretary and then National President,” he said.
“I think it is fair to say that the decade, especially the changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council during those years, changed my life.”
During his time as ACCER Chair, Mr Lawrence has presented two papers at conferences held in Rome by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
In May 2011, he presented “Applying Catholic Doctrine on Minimum Wages in the Context of Globalization: the Australian Experience” at the 50th Congress on the Occasion of the Anniversary of Mater et Magistra.
In November 2015, he presented “Gaudium et Spes and the economic foundations of family life: decent work and a wage that is worthy of a human being” at another conference.
Mr Lawrence said he planned to continue mapping out current and future activities of ACI, which fall into three areas.
The first key area is to research into the dissemination of the contribution of Joseph Cardijn, to the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, particularly to the reforms introduced by Vatican II regarding the nature and functions of the lay apostolate “to promote social justice and the common good”.
Mr Lawrence said he wanted to promote the work of ACI “to bring about a more just social order that will promote the common good and protect all citizens through effective social policies and social safety nets”.
“The ACI hopes to contribute to this through drawing on the historical contributions that Cardijn and others made to a proper understanding of the importance to work, the need for economic systems to be inclusive and the rights of workers,” he added.
“In the longer term, I would like to see the ACI establish a public policy institute concerned with socioeconomic issues and the application of the principles of Catholic social teaching.”
Mr Lawrence explained the third major task was “to support organisations within the Church in Australia that seek to engage their members and others in the formation and actions that are true to the principles advocated by Cardinal Cardijn and established in the Church social teaching”.
“ACI has already assembled a substantial body of material to assist these organisations through its website and newsletters, but much more is needed,” he continued.
“A medium-term goal is the provision of online courses on applied Catholic social teaching, with an emphasis on the needs of parish-based and other local groups.”