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THE HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT
The Cursillo Movement is a movement of the Catholic Church. The name
Cursillo is Spanish, meaning short course, and is often associated with
a 3-Day weekend - which is only one aspect of the Cursillo Movement. The
proper name is Cursillo de Cristiandad (short course of Christianity).
There is much more to the Cursillo Movement than just a 3-Day weekend.
This Movement evolved from Spain, where it got its origin, in the 1940s.
God taught a group of men how to work for Him in an effective way, a way
that bears fruit. In the late 1940s, the first Cursillo was given and
the Cursillo Movement began. Those who make Cursillo's today would find
much of the first Cursillo familiar. The Cursillo has been refined and
changed somewhat, but today's Cursillo weekend remains basically the same
as those first Cursillo's.
At first, the Cursillo's were just "little courses" (little
course is the literal meaning of the Spanish word - Cursillo) given to
participants as a way of forming them so they could become effective apostles.
The first Cursillo in the United States was held in Waco, Texas, in 1957.
The key figures in the beginning were Father Gabriel Fernandez and two
airmen from Spain, Bernardo Vadell and Agustin Palomino, who were training
with the United States Air Force. Father Gabriel had arrived in Waco in
1955 from Spain where he had made his three days under two of the founders
of the movement, Father Juan Capo and Eduardo Bonnin. The priest and the
airmen were responsible for putting on the first two weekends in Waco.In
1959, the Cursillo spread throughout Texas and to Phoenix, Arizona. In
August of that year the first national convention of spiritual directors
was held, and Ultreya magazine began publication. In 1960, the growth
of the Cursillo quickened in the Southwest, and weekends were held for
the first time in the East in New York City and Lorain, Ohio. Until 1961,
all weekends were held in Spanish. That year the first English-speaking
weekend was held in San Angelo, Texas. Also in 1961, first weekends were
held in San Francisco, California; Gary, Indiana; Lansing, Michigan; and
Gallup, New Mexico. By 1962, twenty-five more English-speaking weekends
had been held.
In 1962, the Cursillo Movement came to the Eastern United States. Weekends
were held in Cincinnati, Brooklyn, Saginaw, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Newark,
Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Kansas City and Boston. In the West, the first
weekends were held in Monterey, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Pueblo and Yakima.
The movement spread rapidly with the early centers carrying the Cursillo
to nearby dioceses. As of 1981, almost all of the 160 dioceses in the
United States had introduced the Cursillo Movement.
The Cursillo Movement in the United States was organized on a national
basis in 1965. At this meeting a National Secretariat was organized, and
a National Cursillo Office (currently in Dallas, Texas) was established.
The Cursillo Movement has the support of the vast majority of the American
hierarchy. It is joined to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
through an official liaison in the person of Most Rev. James S. Sullivan,
Bishop of Fargo, and through the Bishops' Secretariat for the Laity in
Washington, D.C.
Today, it is a worldwide movement with centers in nearly all South and
Central American countries, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Portugal,
Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy,
Yugoslavia, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka
and in several African countries. The movement is a member of the International
Catholic Organizations of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome.
In 1980, the Cursillo Movement established an international office, the
OMCC (Organismo Mundial de Cursillo's de Cristiandad), in Santo Domingo
to coordinate the three existing international working groups of Latin
America, Europe and the International English Language Group. The international
leaders of the movement meet periodically to further its work.
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