For 75 years, Catholic families in the Archdiocese of Chicago have been gathering to build the bonds of friendship and community, to deepen their faith and to make the world a better place as part of the Christian Family Movement.

The movement celebrated its anniversary Aug. 3-4 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary with the theme of “Make Friends, Make Disciples, Make a Difference.”

Coming to Mundelein was a nod to the movements roots, said retired Auxiliary Bishop George Rassas. The movement grew out of the Catholic action movement promoted by Monsignor Reynold Hillenbrand, then rector of Mundelein.

Hillenbrand encouraged lay movements using the Jocist method of “observe-judge-act” created in the early 20th century by Belgian Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, the founder of the Young Christian Workers Movement. The method calls for people to take a close look at social issues in light of the Gospel, determine what should be done and then do it.

“Those were very creative years, at the end of the ’40s and in the ’50s,” Bishop Rassas said.

Pat Crowley, who with his wife Patty Crowley, was instrumental in the development of CFM, was part of a men’s Catholic action group in Chicago whose members discovered that they did not have enough in common in their professional lives for the “social inquiry” part of the process to work. But they were all husbands and fathers.

That led to the Cana Conference, and, in 1949, to the establishment of what was then known as Catholic Family Action.

“The name now is Christian Family Movement because we are open to everyone, but it’s based in Catholic teaching,” explained Sally Shewmon.

Sally and Brad Shewmon have been involved in CFM for 29 years at their home parish, Our Lady of the Wayside in Arlington Heights, and now are serving as national vice presidents for the movement.

They started as members, then became small-group leaders. Members of the movement meet as small groups once a month, from fall through spring, following the book the movement publishes each year to discuss issues and come up with an action.

“We observe what’s going on in the world with what our topic is, and we judge according to the Gospels,” Brad Shewmon said. “What does Jesus say about it? We act, so how do we make a difference? How do we make a change in the world for the better?”

“It promotes a lot of deep conversation based on the programming materials,” Sally Shewmon added. “It’s faith in action.”

Sometimes the groups do acts of service that are suggested in the CFM book, and sometimes they come up with their own. In the Our Lady of the Wayside Parish community, for example, years ago, when the Shewmons’ three adult children were young, CFM did several projects to help the family of a high school football player who was paralyzed in an accident, raising money for their needs and building a wheelchair ramp at his home.

“Our kids were involved in that,” Brad Shewmon said. “Our kids grew up with service as part of their life and they still do it.”

Sometimes service is a part of the monthly social gatherings for the whole family, the Shewmons said, and sometimes they are fun activities, or both service and fun.

“It makes your big parish smaller,” Sally Shewmon said. “Over time, you get to know more and more people in your parish. And the pastor really likes CFM because they know they can call on CFM families if they need to get something done.”

The Shewmons and Bishop Rassas said they think many parishes — and their members — would benefit from having active CFM groups.

“I think it really brings value to families,” Bishop Rassas said. “It’s an easily accessible program. Every year they have a copy of the program book, the meetings are already set out for you. And it creates bonds between families.”

“It makes a more cohesive parish,” Sally Shewmon said. “It makes us want to help and volunteer for things that are done in our parish.”

It also has individual benefits, she said, helping people cut through the noise to determine what they are called to do.

“How do we bring our faith into everyday life?” she said. “How can we make a difference in the all the craziness going on the world, and how do we do it in love and service and kindness?”

For more information, visit cfm.org.