Coupled with concerns about the growing dechristianization of
Chilean society, enhanced social awareness led to development of the
General Mission throughout all the nation’s dioceses in the early 1950s.
The General Mission gave rise to productive practices and programs,
leading to the creation of hundreds of Small Christian Communities
(SCCs) at the parish level. Although SCCs now exist around the world,
the Chilean church was among the first to officially recognize and
support these grass-root groups more than half a century ago.
Similarly, the Chilean church actively promoted a myriad of Catholic
Action movements, devotional groups, and social associations. All
were closely monitored by their dioceses, and the records prove that
these predominantly lay groups filled vital needs, especially in a time
of severe shortage of priests during the 1950s.2
Speaking in the name of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America
at the Second Religious Congress of the United States, held at the
University of Notre Dame in August 1961, Monsignor Agostino
Casaroli appealed to U.S. religious superiors to send 10 percent of their
members to Latin America before the decade’s end.3 The invitation
sparked commitments to serve in Latin America from many priests
and religious, including many of “the best and the most qualified
vocations,” as Monsignor Casaroli had specifically requested.
As chair of Notre Dame’s theology department, I heard in person and
was moved by Monsignor Casaroli’s address. Earlier, I had collaborated
with John Considine, MM, to promote interest in the Latin American
church by sponsoring a graduate course in the department of
theology on inter-American relations. Considine was the person who
suggested to the Vatican the 10 percent figure cited above, and he,
more than anyone else, shaped and focused the activities of these
missioners with his three-part theory of missio