8/26/2020 CODE 196: CICM in Action A (Justice, Peace, Indigenous and Interreligious Dialogue) -

CODE 196: CICM in Action A (Justice, Peace, Indigenous and Interreligious Dialogue)
Prelim Learning Resources

Background of the CICM Congregation

Brief Historical Background of the Church

Sacrament: means channel, representative, visible sign of an invisible reality.

God     ------------------>      Jesus     ------------------>      Church

The Sacrament of God is Jesus and the Sacrament of Jesus is the Church (John 20:21, Acts 1:8)
The Church started as a religious renewal “movement”/group in Jerusalem, Israel by no other than Jesus Christ. Jesus grounded the Church on the
foundation of the Apostles and it spread from Jerusalem to the Roman Empire world until throughout all the earth.

The first “name” of the Church was The Way (Acts 9:2), The members of the Church were called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11: 26). The Church
was persecuted by the Roman Empire (which was still pagan) until the Conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 313 AD which paved the way for
Christians to infiltrate Rome until Christianity was declared as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD by Emperor Theodosius.

Way back in 45 AD, the first apostle who went to Rome and started the Church there was no other than Peter. Later, reflecting on the mission of
Jesus which He passed on to the Church, the Church’s official “name” or title evolved into: One (John 17:21), Holy (Ephesians 1:4, 5:27, I Peter 2:9),
Catholic (Matthew 28: 18-20, Acts 1:8, Gen 12: 3, John 3: 16-17) and Apostolic (Ephesians 2:20 )

From the Church developed the Hierarchy (Bishops, priests, and deacons – with the Pope as the overall head for the sake of division of work and
maintaining the unity of the Church while it spreads the Kingdom of God on earth.

From the Church comes the different “kinds” of priests according to spirituality or mission area.
a. Diocesan is a term use for priests serving their local places;
b. Monks: started in the 3rd century AD in Egypt and in Syria with a life of simplicity or asceticism.

Monks who are composed of sisters (not priests) only came out later. Example of few monks in Cagayan who are sisters are those at the St.
Claire monastery in Iguig.

c. Missionaries are group/community of priests who really want to go to serve remote places not yet evangelize.
Examples of missionaries are the following:
c.1. The Dominicans who was founded by St. Dominic in Prouille, France in 1216. (Dominic was a Spanish priest).
c.2. The Augustinians which started in 1244 in Italy (group or no specific founder).
c.3. The Jesuits or called Society of Jesus who was founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola, formerly a Spanish soldier
who became priest.
c.4. The CICM and other missionary groups only came out later.
The CICM was founded by the diocesan priest Theophile Verbist in 1862 in Scheut, Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium.

Background of the CICM Congregation

So what is a CICM? It is just one of the missionary groups which is an arm of the Church for evangelization.
One of the many strategies for missionaries to evangelize people especially the youth to prepare them to become also evangelizers in their
own ways in the future is to establish schools. With this, obviously, in the missionary schools and even schools established by the local Church, the core
of the curriculum is the Christian Faith Education of the young (children to college). In a wider sense, the Christian formation of the Community who are
running the school. The CICM established schools for such purpose. Here at the University of Saint Louis, our motto for us to always remember this is
“Mission and Excellence” and among the core values of our University’s Vision – Mission, the first is Christian Living.

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