The birth of the Cursillo came about as the result of the preparations for the Great Pilgrimage of 1948 to Compostela, the tomb of St. James the Greater. These preparations began in 1941, with many workshops (called "Cursillos" - short courses) to form the Catholic Action leaders. The notion of a pilgrimage to God began [...]

Ivan Rohloff reports that as far back as 1889, Pope Leo XIII set the stage for the Cursillo in his encyclical "Rerum Novarum." Leo urged the formation of a network of clerically led Catholic associations for social, benevolent, economic, and political purposes. His successors, Pope Pius X and Pius XI, wrote about Catholic Action. The [...]

The Concordat with Roma had a profound effect upon the Cursillo Movement. It left the movement in a position of being unable to confront the government and unable to take strong positions on political and social issues. Another edit of Franco's government that would have future influence on the Cursillistas (members of the Cursillo) occurred [...]