Cursillo community gathers to pray, advance movement in the Diocese of Salt Lake City

Intermountain Catholic

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Cursillo leaders gather at an ultreya to share their faith and advance the movement in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. IC photo/Christine Young

KEARNS — The Cursillo community in the Diocese of Salt Lake City gathered at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Kearns on April 6 to encourage each other in their faith journeys.

The Cursillo Movement began in Spain in 1940 as Spain was entering a civil war and many Catholics had either turned from or did not know their religion. Pope Pius XII addressed the world and said we need to help our brothers and sisters return to their Christian beliefs.

During this time, a pre-Vatican II fraternal group called Catholic Action in Spain offered seven-day pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela during Easter or Christmas. Women were not allowed. A man named Eduardo Boline realized the pilgrimages were only for upper-class men because the lower-class men had to work and care for their families. So he joined the military and shortened the pilgrimages or cursillo, which means course in Spanish, to three days so men of all classes could participate.

The first cursillo was held in 1949 in Spain. Its purpose was to save souls and build a Christian community though the Sacrament of Baptism.

Frank Lujan, a member of Saint Francis Xavier Parish, has been involved in the Salt Lake Cursillo Movement since it was active in the Diocese of Salt Lake in the 1970s. "Salt Lake was the regional head over Colorado and Wyoming, and I was on the governing board," he said. "We used to have monthly ultreyas [small group reunions; the word means ‘onward’ in Spanish] to talk about how we were serving the Lord and bringing others to Christ. Our motto is: Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ."

The Salt Lake Cursillo group gathered April 6 for an ultreya, common to cursillistas, those who have completed a three-day Cursillo weekend. Cursillistas gather during the ultreya in friendship to share life experiences based on the tenets of piety, study and action.

Piety includes such things as prayer, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or spiritual direction. Study is reading scriptures, spiritual books or tapes, television or videos. Action is accomplished by bringing about change in the family, neighborhood, workplace or other environments.

The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, recently appointed Father Joseph Frez, Saint Francis Xavier Parish administrator, as the local Cursillo spiritual advisor.

"The Cursillo Movement in Salt Lake has grown not just in quantity but also in quality since it began last summer," said Fr. Frez. "It has grown spiritually in sharing and is more organized; it’s not just for socialization. As it takes time for conversion, it takes time to build a community."

Rita Stelmach has been involved in the Cursillo Movement for 30 years. Lujan encouraged her to attend a Cursillo weekend.

"I encountered Christ during my Cursillo on a personal level," she said. "I think people know God, but through a cursillo they can be drawn to a closer relationship with him that will keep them focused on a spiritual level."

Lorna Duff has been a cursillista since 1989 and was baptized into the Catholic Church at Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center this Easter.

"I was Protestant and would attend ultreyas and group reunions and through that I have seen people go through a lot of positive changes," she said. "They became more aware of and closer to their families; some went into the priesthood or became deacons."

Devery Dwyer made her cursillo in November 2011. She was struggling and had fallen away from the Catholic faith, "living a life of total destruction," she said. It was in that emptiness that she met God, she said, and through her Cursillo now has an ongoing relationship with him.

If interested in the Cursillo Movement, meet in the Cathedral of the Madeleine courtyard, 309 East S. Temple, Salt Lake City, following the 5:15 p.m. Mass on Wednesdays. For information, call Devery Dwyer at 801-979-0592.

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