Henri Caffarel, founder of Équipes Notre-Dame, has been declared Venerable

The Holy Father Leo XIV has authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the diocesan priest Henri Caffarel, founder of the Équipes Notre-Dame Association and the Secular Institute Fraternité Notre-Dame de la Résurrection.

A French national, Henri Caffarel was born in Lyon on July 30, 1903. In 1923, while reading the book Vademecum proposé aux âmes religieuses by the Italian nun Benigna Consolata Ferrero, he sensed his vocation.

Ordained a priest on April 19, 1930, he worked in the general secretariat of the JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne), then in that of Catholic Action as secretary general of the Centrale catholique du cinéma et de la radio, and later edited the magazine Choisir, the weekly founded in 1932 to inform and educate the public on the use of cinema and radio, as well as to promote their improvement.

New forms of apostolate: accompanying married couples and widows

In 1936 he resigned from all his positions to devote himself to preaching spiritual retreats and leading gatherings, especially for young people, and in 1939 he began a new form of apostolate, a ministry dedicated to accompanying married couples. The groups soon grew, and thus the Équipes Notre-Dame were subsequently founded.

On September 8, 1943, in the grotto of Lourdes, together with seven widows, he asked for the intercession of the Virgin Mary to understand God’s will regarding the founding of a new group dedicated to widows. In 1977, this new group was named Fraternité Notre-Dame de la Résurrection.

On April 19, 1992, the then Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed the recognition of the Équipes Notre-Dame as an international association of the faithful of pontifical right. All information can be found in the Directory of International Associations of the Faithful.

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During the same audience on March 23, granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV also authorized the decrees recognizing the offering of life of Cardinal Ludovico Altieri and the heroic virtues of Edward Joseph Flanagan, founder of the City of Boys, of Stanisława Samulowska and Maria of Bethlehem of the Heart of Jesus Romero Algarín, respectively a religious of the Society of the Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul and of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Divine Heart, and finally of Giuseppe Castagnetti, a lay person.