The First Official Cursillo

THE CURSILLOS IN CHRISTIANITY IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF DAVAO 1964 – 2014
(compiled, researched and written by Bong Baldoza MC #188)
5th of a series

Though between 1944 and 1948 five other Cursillos were held and by the Grace of God enjoying similar success, the Cursillo held January 7 to 10, 1949 at the San Honorato Monastery is considered by the Church hierarchy at that time as the “first offical cursillo”. This is so because it has the approval and support of Bishop Hervas, who at that time is the incumbent Bishop of Mallorca. With such an approval and support, the said Cursillo was given a number – the number “1”.

With this, Bonnin explains. “In 1947, Bishop Juan Hervás, was appointed co-adjutor bishop of Mallorca. Up to that point in time his pastoral experience had been focused mainly on Catholic Action. He very soon became aware of our efforts and was very positive about what they already meant. The official support made it feasible that from 1949 on, many people who had formerly been unreachable for us could now become a part of the Cursillos in Christianity and it ceased to be a constant struggle. The better organization began to show and, amongst other things, due to the much greater frequency with which they were held, the weekends began to be numbered. It fell to me to be the rector of the first numbered Cursillo held in San Honorato and this weekend was carried out in exactly the same manner as the first one in Cala Figuera, in every aspect except for the first meditations which were given with a new approach by Fr. Juan Capo. His meditations were then incorporated into the Cursillo method.”

On the issue of where and when the first cursillo was, Bonnin continues: “I look on that Cursillo in Cala Figuera as a true Cursillo, a summary of man’s efforts in his search for God and of God’s willing Love in searching for mankind. We wished then, as we wish now, that man would centre himself on what is real and natural so that he would become really and naturally evangelistic. We knew that the most effective way to let the world be penetrated by the Holy Spirit was to ferment the environment in which we live with Christian Life and that FRIENDSHIP is the most appropriate way for the lay-person to receive all the energy from the Christian Essence and to pass it on. At the same time I cannot stop looking back to that germinal moment without remembering all the wonders with which Our Lord has astonished us during all this time. Neither can I forget the troubles we have run into in our determination to keep the Cursillo being what it is meant to be and to ensure it would not lose what we now call ‘the foundational charism’, or that it could be recovered if it were not too late”.

There is no conflict here. While it is of note that the first Cursillo held in Cala Figuera in 1944 given a new impetus by Eduardo Bonnin as not only preparing for the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, but looking towards our pilgrimage to the heavenly Father. The Cursillo in San Honorato Monastery on January 1949 bearing the same mark as that of the 1944 Cursillo, is also considered the first Cursillo — Cursillo No. 1, now, with the offical approval and support of the Church’s heirarchy in the person of Bishop Juan Hervas, DD. Hence, it acquired its ecclesial character. In both Cursillos, however, Eduardo Bonnin was the Rector.

Speaking on adapting the Cursillo to different countries and times, Bonnin has this to say: “If the Cursillo has already demonstrated anything, it is the universal dimension of its unabridged and entire message because the seed always moulds itself naturally and without any special laboratories when it has fallen on good earth. It is not so with the greenhouse plant, which is only accustomed to the laboratory and to the artificial climate created by the experts of the moment. We are not afraid of adaptations, which life itself has produced without having an initial aim to change things, nor if the agent of change is the everyday Christian. We are afraid where adaptations have emerged from the lay person who has become almost a professional in ecclesial subjects, or from pastoral guidelines”.