Page 5, 16th February 1962

16th February 1962

Page 5

Page 5, 16th February 1962 — ACTION BY YOUTH FOR YOUTH
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ACTION BY YOUTH FOR YOUTH

By Terence McQueen
IN some 300 different parishes up and down the country, groups of young people are meeting every week for training as Y.C.W. Leaders in the apostolate of workshop, office and factory.
The oldest member is only 24 or 25. The youngest is 16 or 17. Yet between them they are leading a membership totalling some 17,000. And every one of the 17,000 is striving, as a member of the Young Christian Workers' Movement, to win the world of working youth back to Christ.
How this work is carried out can best be seen by dropping in on a Leaders' weekly meeting in a parish. This meeting, lasting about if hours, is the nucleus of a whole school of training and apostolate for young workers — a springboard of action for the parish's Y.C.W. Section.
Along with their chaplain, each group of young Leaders goes through a 20-minute GOSPEL ENQUIRY, following up with a half-hour REVIEW OF INFLUENCE and concluding with a 30-minute SOCIAL ENQUIRY.
The GOSPEL ENQUIRY provides the basis of the Leader'e To bring youth together in bright surroundings — OR opposed to dowdy make-shift premises allotted to youth in some parishes Voting Christian Workers at Warrington have acquired their own premises and installed a Jukebox and this streamlined Espresso Bar. A grant towards the Club (named "The Cardlin Club") has been obtained from the Local
Authorities.
K.S.G. FOR
C.Y.M.S. MAN
ARCHBISHOP GRIMSHAW of Birmingham on Tuesday conferred a Papal Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great on Mr. Kenneth Mackey, National President of the Catholic Young Men's Society 1953-56.
Mr. Mackey, a parishioner of SS. Thomas and Edmund Canterbury, Erdington. Birrhingharri, has been 34 years in the CYMS and has given outstanding service to the Church in various offices of the CYMS. Before the 1939-45 War, during which he served in the Royal Navy, he was for seven years secretary of the Birmingham Archdiocesan Council of the CYMS. He was elected the Society's National Vice-President in 1950.
He is an old boy of St. Philip's Grammar School, Birmingham.
Church bombed
A church run by the Capuchin Fathers was bombed in the 14th explosion set off by terrorists in Guatemala City since the beginning of the year, No one was injured by the blast, which did only minor damage.
judgment, the motive for all his or her work.
The REVIEW OF INFLUENCE consists of a report from each Leader on facts, problems. and opportunities which he or she has observed, experienced and tackled during the week, The SOCIAL ENQUIRY reveals some particular aspect of life, helping the Leader to see his or her corner of the world objectively. (It may concern conditions at work or the views of fellowworkers on courtship and marriage. Whatever it is, it is all part of the reality of that world which has to be Christianised.)
A programme of enquiries on a particula, phase of working life is produced each year by the Y.C.Wes national team of Organisers and chaplains. The line of enquiry is devised from reports and answers to questionnaires sent to the national team by Y.C.W. sections all over the country.
TEAMS
Each Y.C.W. Leader eventually forms four or five other young workers into a team to take part in the action of the parish's Y.C.W. Section. Members for this team arc won by personal contact — at parish dances, for instance, or at socials or coffee bars, All types of teams are springing Up through Leaders' endeavours. There are teams for visiting the sick, helping immigrants, guiding apprentices, assisting domestic workers, keeping in touch with chaps in the Forces, promoting the spread of Catholic newspapers and periodicals. guiding schoolkavers in the school-to-work transition
The personal influence of a Y.C.W. Leader in particular surroundings often develops into collective influence. Evidence of this can be found in abundance among reports received at Y.C.W. Headquarters.
("Jack saw that during the lunch break a group of the younger lads used to hang about, obviously feeling out of things. He encouraged them to Join in a football game and later was able to assist them in some of their difficulties at work. Now they look to him habitually for
a lead . . ". "Mary meets seven or eight girls at meal and tea breaks at work. Through their talks together and Mary's example and friendly influence they all now take a firm line with the men and demand respect in the men's talk and behaviour. Mary has won the support of three of them at meetings of the staff association. Two of them have joined VC. W. sections where they live. One has taken instruction and
come into the Church . .").
CAMPAIGNS
Many teams are concentrating on a particular group of streets or a particular end of the town, making contacts for special meetings and campaigns, organising leisure activities, Some are discreetly concentrating on certain dance halls where hundreds of young workers congregate • and where there is evident need of a leaven acting from within.
For co-operation in a common work of influence and service and representation, sections link up together on a regional or district basis. Regions cover small areas, with three or more sections in the same town.
Regions and sections are serviced and given assistance in their work of apostolic action and training by eight Y.C.W, Leaders working full-time from the Y.C.W. Headquarters in London.
By their own decision, these fulltimers receive only a basic vocatinnal wage. They are not youth organisers in the secular sense but full-time apostles — educators and inspirers of other young workers. They are young themselves and know the real needs and difficulties of their apostolate.
The full-lime National Secretary for the boys, Michael Foley, is 25; he was formerly a draughtsman with an engineering firm on Teesside. The girls' full-time National Secretary. Mary Goggins. is 26; he was formerly in banking.
A flourishing publications department at Headquarters collates information on youth problems and needs—reported through local Y.C.W. sections — and a steady supply of attractive and informative literature, plus fact-finding questionnaires, goes out regularly.
"The basic belief of the Y.C.W.," says Mr. Cyril Pickering, National President " is that every
young worker. without a single exception. is called to he a son of God, and this truth must be lived in and through the details of his everyday life. Anything which hinders him from living this truth constitutes the problem which the 'Y.C.W. must tackle. Our object is to train ' leaders in life '—leaders who are playing a full part in the community and whose day-to-day activities are infused with the spirit of the Gospels.
"A youlh organisation cannot therefore be content to serve only its members. We in the Y.C.W. —and indeed all ley people—have a share in the divine mission of the Church. It is through their formetion in the Y.C.W. that young workers arc made aware of this mission and equipped to carry it out."
The need for the, Y.C.W. movement was frequently stressed by Pope Pius Xl. His successor, Pius XIII, constantly urged its extension. Pope John said in a recent message to Mgr. Cardijn, "I want the Y.C.W. more than Pius Xl, more than Pius XII It will save the working youth ".
* The Y.C.W. Headquarters are at 106 Claphant Road, London, S.W.9.




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