To understand the history and the development of the Cursillos, it is perhaps  necessary to look briefly at the country into which they were born.

More than any other European nation, Spain has a sense of salvation history: Every aspect of her  life has been permeated with the divine.  Institutions, occupations and most particularly agriculture have been governed jointly by both Church and State; the two have never been separated.  Thus, religious reforms became the personal interest of sovereigns and the fostering of spiritual and cultural life, shared with the Bishops.  Right  into the 20th Century, Catholic orthodoxy was preserved, despite her internal political strife and isolation from the rest of the world.

However, the first half of this century,  was marked by instability; political violence and anarchy.  Anti-clericalism, secular humanism, Communism and atheism made great inroads into the life of the people.  The Government’s power was absolute.  When  Enrico Franco came to power in 1939, he gave Spain peace and unity and he also controlled the Church.

It was into this world that Cursillo was born and this background shaped it’s identity.  In this Spain, political dissent was nonexistent, the Christian community was hindered from being vocal on socioeconomic issues.  Thus the Cursillo could not involve itself in such matters; it developed an environmental and evangelical thrust and did not concern itself with institutions or systems.

Socially and economically the country was very backward; education having been one of it’s chief casualties.  So the approach of the Cursillos was a simple and direct approach to Christianity, born amongst the poor and ill-educated.  This has, in turn determined the simplicity of the Cursillo mentality and method.  Perhaps because of this, quite unconsciously, Cursillistas discovered the true nature of the lay apostolate.

Initially, the Cursillo was aimed only at Spanish men, who had long since discarded churchgoing as a pastime fit only, for women and children!  It was to be several years before the clergy could be persuaded that women too could benefit from such an experience!

“Pre-Cursillo” Spain was traditional and conservative in it’s Catholicism.  The need for change and growth was to be met by Cursillo’s emphasis on Formation.  The general apathy of the people was to be overcome by the intensity and dynamism of the Cursillo exercises.

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote his encyclical Rerum Novarum, setting out the Church’s concern for social justice for the working man.  It was at the Pope’s bidding that Catholic Action was developed around the world, in an endeavour to change attitudes.  In it’s Spanish form, Catholic Action was concerned more with the revival of piety and morality than with social or justice issues.

Thus, a  grand Youth Pilgrimage was planned to the Shrine of the Apostle James at Compostela. Short courses (cursillos) were given to train the Pilgrim Leaders and Guides.  Because of political unrest and World War II, several years elapsed between the inception of the plan and its completion.  Eventually, more than 100,000 young men from Spain and Latin America took part. 

When the pilgrimage was over, it was realised that what had been important, was not the Pilgrimage, but the courses run to train the Leaders.  This involved the dynamic sharing of  witness, because the Leaders could speak more and more of their own personal experience of the Christian Life.  As a result of the long period of preparation for the pilgrimage, the Leaders saw that this was a pilgrimage of life rather than a single journey.  Thus, the concept of pilgrimage, always dear to the Spanish heart, has remained embodied in the Cursillo movement.

The Cursillo evolved from the sharing of values by a group of young Catholic laymen.  Yet it grew out of organised Catholic Action, inspired by The Holy spirit and is therefore truly a movement  of the Church.

Courses for Leaders of the Pilgrimage took place all over the Spanish speaking world, but it was only on the island of Mallorca that they evolved into The Cursillos in what is fundamental to being a Christian.  This came about as a result of the recognition of their own lack of knowledge.  The young Leaders had developed schools of Formation, where together they grew in holiness, knowledge of Scripture and the teachings of the Church.

These young men, together with their parish priest, worked hard over the years to develop and try out their ideas.  Thus, to all intents and purposes, the Cursillos in Christianity were fully developed  and several had taken place, by the time Bishop Hervas arrived on the island in 1947.  He had been sent by the Spanish Hierarchy to investigate” what was going on there.”  The Bishop, an open and intelligent man, quickly saw what the Cursillos were achieving and realised that here was something special.  He gave to this infant movement, two of his best Rome trained priests and the work blossomed with dramatic results.

It may be remembered dear reader, that  throughout the history of our Christian Church, the spread of the faith was often effected by conflict and very often carried “on the back of the military.”  This still seems to hold true today.

By 1955 the Spanish Bishops, still under the control of Franco, had decided that what the Laity were being allowed to do on the island of Mallorca was highly dangerous.  Hervas was therefore removed to Ciudad Real in mainland Spain and a new Bishop put in place with express instructions to surpress the Cursillos, which within two years, he had done most successfully.  This caused many of the Leaders to disperse, only to introduce this movement of the Holy Spirit, into Spain itself and then to the rest of the world.  The opposition to this new lay initiative had forced the founders to clarify their ideas…ready for nation-wide development in the face of a suspicious hierarchy.

The first Cursillo outside Spain was taken to Columbia in 1953 by a priest and two women travelling companions.  In 1956 the first Cursillo was held in the United States, in Wako, Texas taken there by two young Spanish Air Cadets and a Spanish Chaplain who had worked with Bonin and the others in Mallorca.  The first English speaking Cursillo took place in 1961 in San Angelo, Texas.  From there it spread into most Catholic Dioceses and was given to the Episcopalian and Lutheran churches and through them to the Anglicans in England in 1980.

It was particularly effective in the Military Chaplaincies and as a result of the movements of the many American service people around the world, Cursillos began to be held in places such as Japan, Korea  and places East, as well as Holland and other NATO countries.  From Austria and Germany it has now moved swiftly into the former Eastern European countries and is a foremost tool for Catholic evangelisation.

From Spain it spread to neighbouring Portugal.  A group of Portuguese taught themselves Italian in order to take it to Italy and it was the vision of an Englishman, Francis Stillwell, living and working in Lisbon who encouraged his Portuguese friends to spend two years learning English in order to bring it to Liverpool and Dublin in 1970.

Cursillos are held in the Catholic Dioceses of Liverpool, Hallam and Clifton and is present through small communities, in other parts of England.

From the earliest times Cursillo has had to struggle to exist.  At no point has the “going been easy”.  From the early objections to laymen gathering together without the supervision of a priest, to Cursillos being held for women, for the young and the old.  In England the enemy has been fear and apathy from both the laity and the clergy.  Fear of the unknown, something foreign and of having lives changed?  Perhaps it is the Puritan streak in us that  considers as suspect,  any person who actually enjoys their Faith and endeavours to live it to the full? 

The movement did not start by accident.  Ordinary people were led by the Holy Spirit to perceive that there was a challenge; that they could be effective in bringing about change.  It was obvious that clerical led solutions were getting nowhere and that if the Christian influence in Spain was not to be entirely diminished then laymen (and later women!) would have to be apostles to each other.

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