Conversion by Workers

THE laity were now needed, desperately needed, in the work of the apostolate. If the majority of people were to be converted, if the ordinary men and women, working in the docks, in the factories, in the fields, were to be convinced that Christ had come to save them, and that he had established the Catholic Church to carry cm His work, they most receive evidence of this from their own friends and fellowworkers.
Mgr. Cardijn first established the idea of converting workers by workers, and Pius XI raised this method up into a standard way for all the laity. the conversion of like by like.
Pat Keegan was a cotton worker in Wigan when a local priest, Fr. Rimrner, began to try to apply the principles of the Jeunesse OuvrIere Caiholique to the local situation, in 1937. Other priests were of a similar mind all over the country, so the Y.C.W. grew rapidly and was established as a national Catholic society in England before the beginning of the war in 1939.
These two years were a hectic time for Pat who became secretary of the Y.C.W. in 1939, working with Harry Tollfree as president and Gerry Sherry as treasurer. Pat's home was his family's council house at Hindley Green, Wigan. succession of addresses, an office in a block of flats owned by the Church of England at Euston, then from a shop in the Vauxhall Bridge Road. then from the Boys' Club, St. George's Square, Westminster. Young cotton worker Pat, having moved to London. was drawing the dole.
A National Campaign
IN 1941. the I leadquarters went to Liverpool; and in the same year Pat was called up. For three years he could only keep contact with the movement by letter and on occasional leaves. By 1944. he was back in London from Aden, as Leading Aircraftsman Keegan, and able to begin plans tor ille post-war activits
In November headquarters were formally set up at 42 OffIcy Road, S.W.5, which is now the home of Fr. Mitchinson, the chaplain general of the movement. Pat was now President, and Ordinary Seaman Kevin Muir joined with him as National Secretary. Soon others arrived and a national campaign for promoting the movement became possible.
In 1948 Pat was elected International President of the J.O.C. and from that point it is almost impossible to follow him, travelling all over the world with Mgr. Cardijn. conscious of the full backing of the Holy Father.
seen in Pat's work in the international field.
His achievement is directly related to his dynamic, persevering and irrepressible human approach to every problem. Impossible to convey it all in these brief words. And to quote any of his abiter dicta would be to give a wrong impression. They are always bitingly pertinent! Perhaps most characteristic are the sort of qualities one is used to assuming that the Englishman nurtured in our Public School and University traditions possesses, a sense of humour, tolerance and judgment. so valuable in the international field. In Pat these qualities are fired with the inspiration of the most important Catholic movement of the century. One is proud to see this addition to British international achievement. The Jeunesse Ouvriere Chretienne seemed in many ways to be essentially a continental movement. It is encouraging to find its great priest-founder, Mgr. Cardijn choosing an Englishman as his lieutenant over a ten year long campaign. in many ways the Church in England often seems to be entirely oblivious of the pulsing Catholic life in other countries, changing and developing so many of our accepted conventions. We may give thanks that in this direction, and that probably the most important of all. we have had something to offer to others, and a means of receiving from them. Thanks, Pat! Ad multos annos.