The “Auxiliaries of the Apostolate” (Auxilium): a 20th-century Network of Belgian Catholic Lay Women and their Role in Societal and Ecclesiastical Change (1940-1977)

Lay women of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolate (Auxilium) combined a
Christian vocation with a professional life at all levels of society, from
the presidency of the Christian Women Workers' League (KAV) to
local community work,. Their vows to the bishop, however, required
them to be discreet about belonging to this international community,
an unrecognized network of likeminded women striving to transform
both church and society according to Christian humanistic principles.
The proposed project will study this network in the transformative
1950s up to the 1970s by mapping the movement and its links to
ecclesial and societal organizations, by rediscovering their voice and
ideas as ‘travelling concepts’ between theological, gender and social
frameworks, and by assessing through historical network research
the effect of this movement on social and ecclesial organizations in a
Belgian and international context. Given the confidential character of
their vocation, it will be essential to augment social-conceptual
history with historical network research and oral history so as to
grasp the full impact of the Auxilium women on church and society.