SODALITIES OF OUR LADY, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF

The National Federation of Sodalities of Our Lady in the U.S. was erected by the bishops of the U.S. at the annual meeting of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), November 1956, in response to the expressed wish of Pius XII. At the time thousands of sodalities in the U.S., canonically erected and affiliated with the Prima Primaria Sodality in Rome, were serving the Church under their local ordinaries. In approving the national federation, the American hierarchy wished to provide a structure that would unify these singular and individual sodalities, represent them on national and international levels, and enable them to cooperate in approved work of other organizations.

First Sodality. The first Sodality of Our Lady was established in Rome in 1563 by Father John Leunis, SJ, for students attending the Roman College. In its initial years, this organization for men developed and practiced the distinctive marks of sodality life that have been perpetuated through the centuries. Thereafter, for 400 years, the sodality, proposing a Christian way of life through a well-defined program of spiritual formation, tried to implement and unify the sacramental nature of the Christian at prayer and the Christian in action. Its characteristic mark has been service of the Church under the patronage of Our Lady and the direction of the hierarchy.

After the erection of the first sodality, similar groups were formed in other Jesuit institutions in Europe. In 1584 Gregory XIII canonically erected the Annunciation Sodality at the Roman College as the Prima Primaria Sodality and empowered it to affiliate other sodalities willing to adhere to the rules approved by the Holy See. Women were admitted as sodalists in 1751.

The Sodality in the Americas. The first sodality in the New World was founded in 1574 at the Colegio Maximo in Mexico City. In March 1739, Clement XII issued a papal bull approving the sodality founded in 1730 at the Ursuline school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first sodality within the geographical area of the U.S. after its emergence as a new nation, was at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. This sodality was affiliated with the Prima Primaria in 1833, but had been established and functioning since shortly after the founding of the college in 1789.

During the latter part of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century, the Sodality of Our Lady was widely used in the U.S. by pastors as a basic parish organization for women and young girls. These sodalities developed during the era when the Church was stressing monthly corporate Mass and Communion for the laity. Although a monthly meeting provided for some spiritual and apostolic development of the members, many of the groups lost sight of the nature and purpose of sodalities as defined in the common rules.

In 1910, when the common rules of sodalities were revised, there was need to promulgate them. In 1913, the general of the Society of Jesus asked Jesuits in various countries to begin publication of sodality magazines for their nations. In the U.S. the task was committed to the Missouri province. Under the guidance of Rev. Edward F. Garesché, SJ, the Queen's Work was launched to encourage directors and sodalists to honor the Queen of Sodalities through fidelity to the common rules of the sodality.

Aware of the need to meet sodalists personally, Garesché held meetings and conventions across the country. In many localities he was successful in organizing diocesan unions of sodalities, and he appealed to the bishops to appoint diocesan sodality directors.

In 1925 Daniel A. Lord, SJ, who as a Jesuit scholastic had worked with Garesché, was assigned to succeed him as editor of the sodality periodicals. For more than a quarter of a century, Father Lord exercised an important influence on the development and promotion of sodalities. In 1929 he organized the National Parish Sodality Advisory Board, composed of lay sodalists from many dioceses. While this board served in an advisory capacity, it was a formative step toward national sodality unity, and its effectiveness led to the establishment of a national advisory board for high school sodalists. In 1931, in response to the official call to Catholic Action issued by Pius XI, Lord instituted the Summer Schools of Catholic Action (SSCA). These were originally designed for leaders of sodalities so they could assume their rightful responsibility in the apostolic programs of their bishops.

From 1913 to 1963 the Jesuits and laity of the Queen's Work, St. Louis, Missouri, promoted sodalities through publications and in national and local training sessions. Gradually, more bishops gave approval for the establishment of diocesan federations of sodalities and appointed diocesan sodality directors. In 1939 the diocesan directors, with the help of the sodality promoters at the Queen's Work, began to meet annually. These informal meetings resulted in the formation in 1956 of the National Diocesan Sodality Directors Conference. Rev. Erwin A. Juraschek of San Antonio, Texas, was elected the first president.

U.S. Federation. On July 2, 1953, Pius XII juridically established the World Federation of Sodalities whose general aim was to assure union of sodalities everywhere and more effective cooperation in the lay apostolate throughout the world. One of the approved means for doing this was the establishment of national federations of sodalities. Under the World Federation of Sodalities, the first World Sodality Congress was held in Rome in 1954. In November 1956, the American bishops in their annual meeting approved the National Federation of Sodalities and named Cardinal Joseph Ritter (then Archbishop) of St. Louis as episcopal moderator and Bp. Leo.C. Byrne of St. Paul, Minn. as executive episcopal moderator.

The first convention of the U.S. federation was held in St. Louis in January 1957, with 17 diocesan federations or unions present. Robert Graffy, a Cleveland, Ohio, businessman was elected president, and seven lay sodalists formed the executive council, with Juraschek as national director. In 1959, the National Federation of Sodalities (NFS) was host to the second World Sodality Congress in Newark, New Jersey. An American sodalist from New York, Mary I. Di Fonzo, was elected secretary of the World Federation. The need for stronger unity in the national federation demanded that it embrace sodalities of all kinds and classes, as well as all directors and all movements.

This next organizational step was undertaken by a committee of lay sodalists and directors under the leadership of Bishop Byrne. A new constitution was adopted at the fourth biennial convention held in Cleveland, October 1963, which transformed the NFS into an organism representative of all parts of the sodality movement. Three councils within the framework of the NFS include one representative of all sodalities, whether or not these are organized into diocesan federations; another for the bishops' representatives and diocesan directors; and a third representative of all directors and moderators of sodalities, whether they be clergy, religious, or lay.

In the organizational structure of the NFS the president of the council of lay sodalists was, ex officio, the president of the federation. Major responsibility was placed in the hands of the laity who constitute a majority of the executive council. The council of lay sodalists, within the NFS, reflected the results of the apostolic constitutio Bis saeculari, issued by Pius XII in 1948. The challenge of the social apostolate emphasized in Bis saeculari brought new depth and vitality to existing adult sodalities, and influenced the establishment of many sodalities for professional adults, such as teachers, lawyers, doctors, and business people. Through the apostolic spirituality of the common rules and the Bis saeculari of Pius XII, the NFS also guided the laity to the mature Christian thought and action enjoined on them by Vatican Council II.

In 1971 Pope Paul VI promulgated revised norms for the organization and changed the name for sodalities of Our Lady to Christian Life Communities.

Bibliography: Archives, National Sodality Service Center, St. Louis, Mo. e. villaret, Abridged History of the Sodality of Our Lady, tr. w. j. young (St. Louis 1957). b. wolff, The Sodality Movement in the United States, 1926–36 (St. Louis 1939) w. b. faherty, "A Half-Century with the Queen's Work," Woodstock Letters 92:2 (April 1963) 99–114.

[a. j. conley/eds.]