Milford Junior Has Listened To Youth

NOW HE HAS HIS OWN SAY
NOW that you have had your say, suppose you listen to me for a few seconds. Many of you have shown satisfaction with what is being done for you in your parishes or immediate neighbourhood in the way of Youth organisation; others, lacking this, have naturally asked: " Why can't something be done for us?" Others, again,
with broader vision and bigger souls, have asked that parochial --barriers should be broken down, that unity with similar organisations in the area, and eventually throughout the country, may be achieved.
Motives have been varied: there are those who think that mingling with other clubs will make more possible the choosing of a Catholic partner in marriage; others. want to see new faces, new clubrooms, play on different billiards tables, get new ideas from new friends, just because they like variety, The aggressive type of contributor. utast!), a Y.C.W. bay or girl, or person imbued with its spirit, sees visions in his or her youthful impatience. and WattlA to conquer the youth of Britain, AS 4' NATION. for Christ. And I have noticed, in such letters. a terrific and passionate love for Christ, for the C:hurch, and for what it stands for. There is no smugness in those letters, no expressions of pleasure that " my parish is being well catered for." They feel it. of coarse, but things just don't end there.
The " SEE—JUDGE—ACT " urge is in them, though they may not know it. The three perfect rules for a perfect and efficacious lay apostolatc, blessed and commended by Pope and Bishops ! They follow as a natural result from the chief urge, that of sanctifying oneself last. • These fine contributors have seen the need to save our youth now: they have judged the minutes left us before it is too late: it is exactly 11,55 ! WE' MUST ACT NOW, they cry.
BILLY ARDS-CU M-MONTHLYCOMMUNION COMPLEX
How simple of accomplishment it all is ' Let the C.Y.M.S., S.V.P., K.S.C., L.O.M., and the other societies catering for Youth share out the country among themselves, and wherever nothing is being done to serve Youth, get to work at once—but for goodness sake eradicate first the billiards-emumon ly -Communion complex I Then face the task of # nation-wide link-up. But start with nuniber one, at the bottom, in the parishes. Then build up nationally.
Echoing the above sentiments to some-extent is a letter I have by me from Beinard O'Neill (21), of Belfast, who deplores the fact that Catholic Youth is not prepared. because " we know blast-all "! Now that militarism is so strong in the country, he says, " let a portion of that spirit pervade our Youth Movement. Why? To make a real, disciplined civic-spirited youth. Nothing extreme, of coarse, but look how Baden-Powell went about it ! One man and the world ! What could we not do 1" Ile goes to the extent of suggesting (I'm afraid, Bernard, that I don't agree !) that organised Catholic Youth should wear an 'millet with a cross boldly displayed on it, and adds that members " could picket Fleet Street, if need be, in protest against the many articles often written against the Faith, and also against the conspiracies of darkness, e.g., the case of the corporate State in Portugal." That armlet idea anti the picketing business worry me a hit ! Don't they denote soMething Continental that we are trying to avoid?
• OPTIMISM Through arguing with agnostic and Communist students and lecturers, " I went to earth with a bump and rose again rather more cynical and very much more practical," writes Christopher J. Tuimey (19), Chairman of the Ilford Catholic Club, and now a strident in law, who makes the interesting comment that " the Yopng Communist League attracts a Youth that is sick to death of the lazy optimism and squeamishness of the last few centuries. It is reactionary and suggests alluring violence.
"That. and not the fact that it is ostensibly run by Youth, is the secret of the success of the Y.C.L. Moreover, the vast majority, if not all, of the members of the Y.C.L. are convert, to Communism; they joined the Movement prepared to be fanatics, they indulge in it as an antidote to something definite, whereas most young Catholics are Catholics by birth and habit only, and— dare I say it?—in non-Catholic society they are apologetic for their Faith."
MILVORD JUNIOR.