See–judge–act: YCW celebrates 100 years of putting love into action

Throughout its history, the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement has inspired hundreds of thousands of young people to be attentive to the world around them, reflect deeply on their experience in light of the Gospel, and respond in ways that put love into action. While membership numbers have ebbed and flowed over the years, the transformative impact of the YCW—the longest running youth movement in Australia—is still felt in lives and communities around Australia and across the globe.

A hundred years after Belgian priest Fr Joseph Cardijn (later a cardinal) founded the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC)—‘Young Christian Workers’ in English—past and present members of the YCW from Melbourne and around the country came together at All Saints Church in Fitzroy on Saturday 24 May for a special Mass and reunion to celebrate the movement’s centenary, learn about the current work of the YCW, and reminisce and give thanks.

The origins of the movement date back to the early years of the 20th century, when a young Fr Cardijn began to formulate his own distinctive approach to ministering to young workers and students, convinced that he had been called to bring the light of the Gospel to struggling but often-neglected working-class communities—communities like the one in which he had been raised himself.

YCW in Australia ... was part of the decisive turn in the Church towards the lay apostolate, where baptism, not ordination, was to be seen as the primary vocational calling.

Drawing on documents like Rerum novarum and the Catholic Social Teaching they embodied, he developed the ‘see, judge, act’ model, encouraging young people to start with their own experiences and observations, particularly in their workplaces, to reflect on what they saw in light of the Gospel, and then use that understanding to take concrete actions.

Gaining the blessing of Pope Pius XI in 1925, the movement—which has always been for young workers and directed by young workers—grew rapidly among both women and men, spreading first across Europe and then the world, eventually arriving in Australia, where at its height in the 1950s and 60s, it created hundreds of YCW groups and attracted tens of thousands of young people.

In his homily at the centenary Mass, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli paid tribute to the role that a former Archbishop of Melbourne, Justin Simonds, played in the foundation and direction of the YCW in Melbourne.

‘As a young priest, he had experienced the Jocist movement in Belgium during the 1920s, just as YCW was commencing in Australia,’ Archbishop Comensoli explained. ‘This new movement of YCW in Australia, although by then a firm part of the expanding international reality of Catholic Action, was part of the decisive turn in the Church towards the lay apostolate, where baptism, not ordination, was to be seen as the primary vocational calling.’

Quoting the Gospel of Luke, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice’ (8.21), Archbishop Comensoli observed that ‘it does not require much imagination’ to connect YCW’s ‘see, judge, act’ approach with Jesus’ words.

‘By observation of the world; by consideration of it in Christ; and by acting towards the kingdom. This is what Vatican II would describe as, “the duty [of the Church] of scrutinising the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.” (Gaudium et spes, 4). Or, to use the language of Pope Francis, the Church that listens; the Church that discerns; the Church that journeys.

‘It was—and I hope still is—the driving force and inspiration of the YCW movement to build an intense formation in Christ that then goes out to build God’s kingdom,’ the Archbishop said, expressing his hope that the centenary reunion would be ‘a marvellous celebration of the blessing bestowed on this city from the exercise of the lay apostolate, and an impetus to be renewed in vision and purpose’.

It was the driving force and inspiration of the YCW movement to build an intense formation in Christ that then goes out to build God’s kingdom.

David Moloney, a member of the Australian Cardijn Institute, thanked those who had organised and contributed to the Mass, listing a few of the significant actions and achievements of the YCW in Melbourne over the years. Among them were the establishment of credit cooperatives, housing cooperatives, retail cooperatives and land cooperatives, as well as a wide range of sporting events and competitions, including athletics carnivals, the largest amateur football competition in the country at the time, and netball, basketball, cricket and boxing competitions. Parish dances also provided regular opportunities to socialise and build friendships, as did the YWC holiday camp at Philip Island.

The YCW organised overseas missions to Papua New Guinea, and closer to home, when homes were destroyed by bushfires in Eltham and St Andrews, tradesmen and other YCW members volunteered to help rebuild them. The movement provided accommodation services immediately after the Second World War to Hungarian immigrants, and again during the 1960s to young people coming from the country to Melbourne to work and undertake training.

David pointed out that the YCW’s Pre-Cana marriage preparation course ‘started the whole marriage-preparation movement in Australia’ and that three veterans of the YCW initiated the Fitzroy Community Legal Service, which inspired the whole Australian community legal service movement.

The YCW also participated in groundbreaking road-safety campaigns that contributed to the first seatbelt legislation in the world being introduced in Victoria. Its ‘Walton’s campaign’ exposed exploitative hire-purchases schemes, and its casual work campaign in the early 1990s contributed to a national debate on work cover and workplace bargaining.

Dr Stefan Gigacz is secretary of the Cardijn Institute of Australia and was the main organiser of the Mass and centenary celebration. He is also an internationally recognised expert on Cardinal Cardijn and the YCW, having completed his doctorate in this area.

Raised in a Catholic home and educated at St John’s College in Braybrook, Stefan was drawn as a young man to YCW through a Catholic Worker house in Fitzroy run by Val and Mary Noone, where he discovered ‘a  kind of Catholicism that I could identify with’. He would go on to play a central role in attempts to re-establish YCW groups throughout Melbourne and around the country in the 1970s.

It doesn’t matter how small the action is: you’ve got to take an action. And that’s how you build big actions, from the small actions.

Speaking about why the ‘act’ in ‘see, judge, act’ is so important, Stefan recalls an experience when he was 19 and working as a labourer. Noticing the way a young Aboriginal co-worker was excluded by other workers, he mentioned it to other members of his YCW group, who encouraged him to befriend the isolated workmate.

It took a few attempts to break the ice, but ‘Long story short:  at the end of the three months I worked there, he becomes my best mate in the workplace. But it’s because they asked me to do a specific action …  And that’s the key. It doesn’t matter how small the action is: you’ve got to take an action. And that’s how you build big actions, from the small actions.’

Many others at the reunion spoke of the enduring ways in which their involvement had changed their lives and outlook.

Bill Scales AO has had a remarkable career spanning the public and private sectors, including roles as chancellor of Swinburne University, secretary of the Victorian Premier’s Department and chair of the Industry Commission, but he began his working life, aged 14, as an apprentice fitter and machinist.

Like many others, he was initially drawn into YCW through its football competition, but ‘relatively quickly’ became president of his local Yarraville branch, filling the role ‘for two or three years’. He went on to become a regional organiser, eventually working full time with the YCW in Melbourne, and serving as state president before a brief stint as the movement’s national secretary.

There was this complete connection: your whole life became a life of a Christian.

The recent recipient of a papal award, Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great, Bill says to properly appreciate the impact and legacy of YCW, ‘you have to take yourself back to a different time … a time when most young people didn’t go to university’, which meant most YCW members typically joined during their early years at work.

‘What the YCW did [is give] them the ability to act, to try to understand their life as a young worker … and find a way [to] see purpose in their life as a young worker, and a way [to] turn that world of the young worker into, in effect, their vocation.

The way they lived out their faith and Church life, he says, ‘was through their vocation, and their life as a Catholic and a Christian supported that vocation … So there was this complete connection: your whole life became a life of a Christian.’

We did everything ourselves. We didn’t ask: Would we? Should we? …  Just about every night of the week, we were doing something in YCW.

Bill says the formation he received through YCW—especially its ‘see, judge, act’ approach and its insistence on the dignity of every individual—has had a lifelong impact, not just in his career but also through his longstanding involvement in the not-for-profit world. ‘It was basically my whole motivation for life really.’

Reminiscing at the reunion in the All Saints parish hall after the Mass, Nola looked back on her early YCW years at St Mary’s East Malvern fondly. ‘For us, it was formation on Friday nights, and then a lot of social activities,’ she recalled. ‘We used to run a dance, where we invited people [from] around Melbourne. We did everything ourselves. We didn’t ask: Would we? Should we? …  Just about every night of the week, we were doing something in YCW. We had badminton competitions, played squash. We did country trips where the boys played football, the girls played netball, and there’d be a dance afterwards.

‘We had a “Miss YCW” competition—I was a runner-up—and we had a big ball at St Kilda Town Hall helping all the different groups around Melbourne fundraise. We filled that town hall—no alcohol,’ she remembered, adding, ‘We had a wonderful time, and because of that,  a lot of the young couples that knew each other from YCW actually ended up as life marriage partners.’

Today, the work of YCW continues with in Melbourne with the financial support of which manages and invests the funds raised by YCW over the years. Kate Harvie, who was active in YCW in the Bennettswood and Forest Hill parishes in the 1990s, now serves as president of YCW Holdings, helping, she hopes, to ensure that YCW continues to be well resourced for ‘another 150, 200, 300 years’.

Through YCW Holdings, for instance, YCW Melbourne was able to employ Caitlin Hunt this year as a part-time youth engagement officer. Originally from the Netherlands, Caitlin grew up on Phillip Island and has previously worked for other not-for-profits, including the Edmund Rice Foundation.

We welcome anyone who wants to get involved.

Inspired by YCW’s ‘from-the-community, for-the-community’ approach, Caitlin is currently helping to run a program in Melbourne’s West focused on social connectedness and tackling food insecurity by helping young people to develop skills in planning and cooking meals on a budget.

Participants in the program ‘create a meal with loads of leftovers for them to take home,’ Caitlin explains, ‘ and we build a community around that, where we then, in our time together, employ the “see, judge, act” that is so unique and specific to YCW and  that empowers the people who engage in YCW to take action in their own lives.’

It is just one example of ‘a plethora of amazing things’ that YCW is doing around Australia, she says. She encourages anyone who is interested in finding out more about the work of YCW to come along. ‘We welcome anyone who wants to get involved.’