Document
Rev. Mgrs Marcel Uylenbroeck
Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
Vatican
As a young priest I met future Pope John Paul II in 1946, when I was studying in Rome and living in the Belgian College. Archbishop of Krakow, Adam Sapieha, had asked the Belgian bishops for an admission to the college two students from his diocese. One of them was Karol Wojtyła, who was ordained a few months before that request.
For two years we were living in the same house. Furthermore, we went to the same Pontifical University of St. Thomas, “Angelicum”, and attended the same lectures. We were also appointed to say a Mass in a nunnery near the college, and every day we celebrated the devotions to the Blessed Sacrament.
In this time, there were fifteen students in the college. At that time, the rector of the college was the present Cardinal, Maximilien de Fürstenberg. Karol Wojtyła enjoyed widespread affinity because of his kindness for everyone and because of his care for fraternal relationships. He smoothly joined the collegial community. To fraternize better with students who spoke Flemish, he began to learn this language. Importantly, he was fluent in French. Instead of wasting time on useless or pointless disputes, he devoted his time to learning. I remember that he primarily explored then the mystical theology of St. John of the Cross. When walking to the University or when returning, he freely took up pastoral, doctrinal or spiritual topics.
He was a man of profound prayer. He often stayed alone in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament. During the feasts of the Roman saints, we frequently went in the morning to churches, in which their corpses were buried in, to celebrate a Mass there. We did it one after another and ministering to each other, because concelebrating was still not practiced then.
When completely focused on his studies, Fr. Wojtyła was also interested in the pastoral ministry for workers. Just like me, because before entering the seminary, I was an activist in the JOC [Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne; the Young Christian Workers]. At the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome I led a circle of young workers under the patronage of Fr. René Arnou S.J., dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. Father Wojtyla was an ardent and faithful participant in these meetings. During holidays, he went to Belgium to better understand the movement of Catholic workers, including the JOC.
Commentary
Marcel Uylenbroeck was born on June 5, 1920 and was ordained a priest in Rome on April 5, 1947. He was a priest of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Thanks to him, Karol Wojtyła met Fr. Joseph Cardijn, creator of the JOC. In 1969-1979, Fr. Uylenbroeck served as a secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, of which Cardinal Wojtyła was a member-consulter. This created the opportunity for their cooperation. Shortly after his election to the papacy, John Paul II received the friend. According to Andrea Riccardi, the Pope suggested to Uylenbroeck to take the bishopric in Mechelen-Brussels. Fr. Uylenbroeck, however, declined due to his cancer illness (cfr. Giovanni Paolo II. La Biografia, Cinisello Balsamo 2011, p. 82). He died on October 2, 1979.
Fr. Uylenbroeck’s testimony, written in French, does not have the exact date. It is worth noting, however, that it was written in the first months of the pontificate of John Paul II and in the last months of Marcel Uylenbroeck’s life. The copy of the typewritten two pages is in the archives of the John Paul II Pontificate’s Center for Documentation and Research in Rome.
Karol Wojtyła’s interest in the innovative pastoral ministry of workers and laity in the Roman period of his studies is a quite well known fact from his biography. He mentions this in his book Gift and Mystery (Nairobi 1996, p. 65-69). Fr. Uylenbroeck makes it clear that this was done by Wojtyła’s participation in the meetings of the JOC at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Here is how John Paul II, after many years, recalled one of the conversations with Uylenbroeck from the period of their common studies: “The topic of our conversation was the situation in Europe after the Second World War. My colleague expressed himself more or less as follows: ‘The Lord allowed the experience of such an evil as Communism to affect you… And why did he allow it?’ His answer to the question I find significant: ‘We were spared this in the West, because perhaps we could not have withstood so great of a trial. You, on the other hand, could take it’. This remark by the young Fleming remained fixed in my memory. To some degree it had a prophetic value. I often recall it and I see ever more clearly the accuracy of his opinion” (Memory and Identity, London 2005, p. 50).
Another student from Krakow, mentioned by Fr. Uylenbroeck in his testimony, was a cleric Stanisław Starowieyski (1922-1986). He worked in Brazil, where he was known as a man of deep spirituality. In 1973 he entered the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in Rio de Janeiro. He was remembered as a very holy priest.
Joseph-Léon Cardijn (1882-1967) was ordained a priest in 1906. In 1925 he founded the organization of the Young Christian Workers (JOC). His innovative ministry eventually gained approval from the church hierarchy. In 1950 Pius XII bestowed on him the honorary title of Prelate to acknowledge the importance of his work in the JOC. Paul VI elevated him to Cardinal in 1965. Before that, Cardijn received the episcopal consecration. At that time he resigned from the leadership of JOC, and the function of the general chaplain was accepted by Uylenbroeck. Cardinal Cardijn died in 1967.
Maximilien de Fürstenberg (1904-1988) was ordained a bishop in 1949. He was a Vatican diplomat and papal nuncio in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Portugal. Paul VI raised him to the rank of cardinal in 1967 and appointed him the prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. John Paul II recalled years later: “How can I fail to remember that during the conclave of 1978 Cardinal de Fürstenberg came up to me at a certain moment and spoke the significant words: ‘Dominus adest et vocat te’? It was like a subtle and mysterious completion of the role he had played, as rector of the Belgian College, in my priestly formation” (Gift and Mystery, p.71).
Compiled by Andrzej Dobrzyński