Cardinal joseph cardijn biography

One night in a small town in Halle, Belgium a small boy called Joseph crept downstairs to where his mother and father were discussing his future and hesitantly announced to them that he wanted to continue his studies and become a priest.

In later years he never forgot their generous response and the sacrifice it meant for them as  working people to support his calling. On his father’s death in 1903 Joseph Cardijn, now in the major seminary, pledged to give himself entirely to the service of working class people.

This appreciation of his parents’ faith and generosity was combined with the pain he experienced at seeing the effect of working life on his friends who went straight into the factories from school and with his sensitivity to the deplorable conditions of working life suffered by young workers in his first parish in Laeken near Brussels in 1912.

Fr Cardijn was a lively and energetic man of action.

He did not wait for the young people to come to him and