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HISTORY OF CFM - NOW & THEN
A new movement . . . organized by lay men and women working together. . .
to explore and deepen their faith . . . to live a family-style spirituality in a highly practical way. Today, CFM is a worldwide organization with participation in 52 countries. Internationally there are about 90,000 CFM families. There are approximately 1,800 CFM families in the United States. Membership in California is approximately 300 couples. The "common" traditional CFM structure is 1-2 groups of 5-8 families per group. HOWEVER, St. Lawrence Martyr has, for years, had one of the largest CFM membership in entire country. Last year STLM's CFM group was comprised of 120 families. National CFM conventions are held tri-annually. Inspirational speakers and activities for the whole family are offered for CFM participants from around the country. Many families have attended these conventions regularly and have made friends with other Christians around the country. THEN: Almost simultaneously in the early 1940s in South Bend, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois, small groups of lay people began meeting using a format first developed in Europe and the nucleus of Christian Family Movement was formed. This format, which we know today as the Social Inquiry Method (Observe, Judge, and Act) had been developed a decade earlier by a Belgian priest, Canon Joseph Cardijn, when he organized the Young Christian Worker movement. Now adapted through the CFM for use by couples, this process spread across the United States to touch the lives of a generation of American Catholics and provide a new sense of energy and commitment as the Catholic Church began to implement the decisions of Vatican II. CFM started its own publication, the ACT newsletter, and initiated contact with similar movements in other cities. In 1949, fifty-nine delegates representing small family faith cells from 11 different cities, met for the first national seminar, and the Christian Family Movement was born. CFM received official church recognition and became The first national Catholic lay organization. During the 1950's CFM grew rapidly in parishes across the country. The Social Inquiry Method of Observe, Judge and Act was finely tuned, addressing issues that related to Christian families. Christian families were formed by their actions. In the 1960's CFM was vital in bringing forth new ideas and new organizations such as Foundation for International Cooperation, FIC (places foreign students in homes and sponsors family tours of other countries) and Christian Family Mission Vacation (enables entire families to help the impoverished for two weeks every summer). In 1966 International Confederation of Christian Family Movements (ICCFM) began bringing families of 50 nations closer together to discuss world issues. Marriage Encounter was introduced in 1968 at a national CFM convention. Over the course of the decade, CFM helped form and train married couples in marriage ministry and social justice. CFMers in the 1970's continued to play a major role in lay ministries. They helped formulate the U.S. Bishops Call to Action document on family and led National Marriage Encounter and the National Council of Churches in sponsoring the first national family life seminar. In 1979, CFM presented eight position papers involved in the White House Conference on Families and in 1980, along with ICCFM, the Movement gave input into Pope John Paul II's Synod on the Family. Throughout the last two decades, CFM has continued to focus on family, at home, in our neighborhood, in our parish, our communities and the world. Additionally annual inquiry books began to include meetings for widowed, divorced and separated, teens along with families in crisis and middle years families. In 1993, the National Association of Family Life Minister presented CFM with its special recognition award for being a leader in family ministry. CFM has advised the United States Bishops regarding numerous documents on family life. They include the 1993 pastoral, Follow the Way of Love; the pastoral reflection, Strengthening the Bond of Peace: a Pastoral Refection on Women in the Church; Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions to Pastoral Ministers; and Everyday Christianity in 1998.
CFM continues its ministry to families by including family meetings and by developing modular programs in response to the needs of the Church. These include Everyday Christianity: a Parish Program and a set of meetings Creating Circles of Peace Church Kit produced for the Families Against Violence Advocacy Network. Learn about The Mysterious CFM Symbol -end- |
