WEEK BY FVEEK I By Stanley B. James I

CHILDREN OF THE MIRACLE
The Catholic Worker Re-arises Through Youth
Rallying the Recreative Forces of Christendom
THE recurrence of the Feast of that patron of Youth, St. John Bosco, give an opportunity for commenting on one of the most i striking phenomena in the life of the modern Church. Addressing a gathering of 80,000 Young Christian Workers in Paris, June, 1937. Cardinal Verdier said : " You, dear children, with Christ, with the Church, nourished by the doctrine and full of the life of your Faith, have sworn to work the miracle that we in our timidity no longer counted on. To-morrow, thanks to you, your lives and your doctrine, the world of labour, for its happiness and for ours, for the glory of your country and for the good of humanity, will throw itself into the arms of Christ, our God. CHILDREN OF THE MIRACLE, we bless you. May God be with your This did but confirm the prophecy uttered on the same occasion by Canon Cardijn, the Founder of the movement. " We see the dawn of a new era," he said. " You, Young Christian Workers, are the missionaries of new times. Christ confides in you the most sacred, the most decisive of missions: that of saving all your brothers and sisters of labour. For this immense task, apostles will be needed--you will be the apostles; martyrs will be needed—you will be the martyrs; saints will be needed—you will he the saints."
Those who have worked with these youths know that this language is not exaggerated. A new type of sanctity has made its appearance. It is radiant, apostolic, sacrificial. These, indeed, are familiar qualities, hut they are manifesting themselves in a novel form appropriate to the conditions and tasks of our age.
l'he criticism that the eulogies quoted pre-date the war is beside the mark. As the farmer sows in the autumn that which he will reap in the summer, so does it often happen that in spiritual movements between the initiation and the resurrection comes a crucifixion. The Y.C.W., who are valiantly weathering the storm, will reappear to be the spear-head of the modern apostolate, all the stronger for the experiences through which they have passed.
THE MIRACLE THERE is a paradox in the fact that an institution so old as the A Catholic Church and one which its critics have charged with having -settled into the rigidity of old age, should have given birth to this surprisingly fresh youth movement. But the paradox is not difficult to understand. The critics make the mistake of supposing that anything old must be of necessity out of date and calculated to appeal only to musty die-hards. But there are certain perennial values which are never out-moded. There has yet to be found the individual who . absents himself from meals on the ground that eating and drinking is a pre-historic fashion which the modern mind should reject. Wars and revolutions without number have left unaffected men's and women's habit of indulging in love-making. This is something which, in spite of countless unhappy unions and all the gibes of the cynical, still persists, and every pair of lovers " rediscovers America " as though there had been no Columbus before them.
Religion belongs to this category. It satisfies the most fundamental of all human nature's needs. To rediscover it is to tap afresh the headsprings of life. It is the God-less life which, exhausting its own limited resources, speedily grows stale and burdensome. It is the function of religion to renew our childhood. For the very reason that it is primitive it has this effect. It is not at all surprising therefore that the main stream of the religious tradition should refresh successive generations.
In view of Youth's well-known disregard of tradition as such, this recovery on its part of God bears testimony to the fact that faith does not need the support of precedent. As men and women would love even if they had never read love-stories, so will the heart of Youth, even though contemptuous of the past, turn to the perennial Source of life.
THE REBEL WE associate the young with revolt. In fighting for its indepen dence, its right to stand on its own feet, adolescence has earned the reputation of unconventionality. It is apt to find a positive delight in shocking its elders. It is for this reason that the phenomenon of which we have spoken is, to many minds, so puzzling. A Catholic renaissance among youth seems a patent contradiction. The new generation, it is held, should enlist in new movements. Its proper place is in the ranks of militant unbelief and Communism. • Now this idea has its roots in the curious inability of the older generation to recognise the fact that what in its own youth' was new and unconventional, needing courage in its champions, has become the fashion. The heirs of nineteenth century agnosticism still tails as though it was a bold thing to proclaim oneself agnostic. With all the world about them turning Red, they carry the Red Flag as though it was the standard of devil-may-care pioneers. Once upon a time there really were courageous individuals who defied Victorian prudishness, but to regard indulgence in sexual licence to-day as calling for the plaudits due to a forlorn hope is simply ridiculous. Unfortunately this pose has deceived the youthful intelligentsia of our universities and the revolutionary-minded among the proletariat. It is all very well for a Victorian like Mr. H. G. Wells to adopt such an attitude, but twentieth-century Youth should know better.
You will find a truer example of unconventional defiance of contemporary tradition in the battalions of young men and women who, in a secularised. age, have set up the standard of faith. These are the real dare-devils, for they have taken upon themselves to defy the devils that are sapping the spiritual foundations of civilisation at a time when those enemies of religion are at the zenith of their power. These groups of Catholic.Youth. belonging to a class which is ,foremost in repudiating and attacking organised religion. have dared to fling their challenge to the Goliaths of Mammon and Marxism. . Of course, to act in this manner merely for the sake of satisfying Youth's predilection for the unconventional would be folly. We need not waste words in defending them against the charge of eccentricity for the sake of eccentricity. Nevertheless, it is their pioneering spirit which accounts for their characteristic joyfulness and optimism. Like
Chesterton in his early days they may say :
I have found my youth in the lost battle, I have found my heart on the battlefield.
And it is this that gives to their Catholicism that special radiance and cheerfulness which it exhibits.
POSITIVE CHRISTIANITY TT is unfortunate that a Catholicism which has failed to recover the A glorious confidence that enabled it, out of the ruins of imperial Rome, to create Christendom should continue to irritate us by a nervous repetition of negative counsels. In particular it is depressing that the Communist bogey should be treated with the same ineffective censoriousness which it was once the fashion to treat the Church itself. But the creation of suspicion, unless an outlet for positive action is given, merely ministers to a mood of impotent fatalism. It is precisely because Communism has been able to voice the inarticulate discontent of our generation and transform it into a militant movement with a definite " gospel " that it has been able to rally to its standard so many diverse elements and achieve so remarkable a success. It can be met and overcome only by a corresponding movement, equally positive, equally concrete, from the Catholic standpoint. Such a movement is all the more necessary because to-day we have to deal with a manhood that has been militarised. The men and women who have been marshalled in their tens of thousands for the terrific .national effort are not going to be content with a private religion that, in the face of militant evil, can only nag. Happily it is possibie to declare that in Catholic Action as represented by organised Youth there already exists the nucleus of what is required.
It takes no profound knowledge of psychology to see why this body of young workers has been able to overcome the apathy which inactivity has bred and why the discovery of an outlet for their corporate energies has given them the high spirit of cheerful daring which distinguishes them. The stagnant waters breeding a poisonous miasma are now a running stream sparkling in the sun. Because they find themselves enlisted in a Crusade aiming at the reconquest of the world for Christ, religion has become a real thing.
THE CENTRE OF THE CONFLICT MOREOVER. self-respect is heightened by consciousness of the responsible position they hold. As workers they occupy the strategic point in the contemporary situation. It was the present Pope when known as Cardinal Pacelli who said: " In the complexity of the modern world the working classes take on a growing importance. an importance which it would be stupid and unjust to underestimate. The extent to which the representatives of labour are penetrated with the principles of the Gospel will decide in large measure the extent to which the society of to-morrow will be Christian." We have spoken of the way in which Moscow has become the rallying point for subversive forces of every kind. It is our belief that Catholic Working Youth will play a corresponding part in rallying the recreative forces of Christendom. Devotion, culture, social reform and philanthropy will be found organised around this centre, but it will remain the driving force of the whole. And, seeing that it is the sense of responsibility which is the making of youth, can we wonder if those called to this high task should recall the sober enthusiasm of the Church's first days?