Category: JOC
Maxence Van der Meersch’s Fishers of People
Who knew that a famous French author, Maxence Van der Meersch, wrote a novel about the YCW of the 1930s in the northern French city of Roubaix?
Centenaries, centenaries: JOC, JEC, JAC, JUC, JIC…
The fact that this year is celebrated as the centenary of the foundation of the JOC raises the question: When were the other Specialised Catholic Action movements for young people founded?
2025: YCW centenary and other anniversaries
The biggest jocist anniversary of the year is indisputably the centenary of the official foundation of the Belgian Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne or JOC in 1925.
A priests’ meeting in July 1924
The name “Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne” or JOC first appears in the first edition of the “Bulletin des Dirigeants” or “Leaders Bulletin” published in July 1924.
From La Jeunesse Syndicaliste to La Jeunesse Ouvrière
100 years ago in April 1924, the Jeunesse Syndicaliste (Young Trade Unionist) movement changed the name of its magazine to Jeunesse Ouvrière, first step towards the adopion of a new name for the movement: Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne – the JOC.
Jocist people anniversaries 2024
Happy New Year 2024! Here is a list of people anniversaries to celebrate and commemorate over the course of the coming year.
1924-2024: From the Jeunesse Syndicaliste to the JOC
Happy new year 2024, a year that’s going to be particularly rich in jocist anniversaries, beginning with the centenary of the name “Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne” or JOC
The growing pains of the JOC and JOCF
This is a second letter from Cardijn to the Rome-based Jesuit sociologist and canonist, Arthur Vermeesch, that Jean Tonglet kindly sent to me from the hard drive archives of the late Fr Marc Leclerc SJ. (See the earlier one here: https://www.cardijnresearch.org/2023/01/cardijns-student-movement-la-jeunesse.html) This letter is dated 24 November 1933, eight years after the official foundation of the…
Paulo Freire and the Jocist movements
Today, 19 September 2021, we celebrate the centenary of the birth of the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, known for his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which described the literacy education programs he had developed for promoting critical consciousness and action among the poor.
The best definition of the YCW
A beautiful definition of the YCW presented by Cardijn in his Godinne Lecture Series “La paix” in 1940.
Universal brotherhood and solidarity: Cardijn & JPII
It’s a hundred years this month since the birth on 18 May 1920 of Karol Wojtyla, now better known as St John Paul II. Remarkably, the Polish pontiff was the fifth and last 20th century pope known personally by Cardijn
Liturgical renewal, Specialised Catholic Action and social change in Quebec
In her article, “Doing It Rite: Specialized Catholic Action and Liturgical Renewal in Quebec, 1930s–1960s,” Indre Cuplinskas highlights the role of Specialised Catholic Action movements (SCA).
Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet – 75 years
On 27 January this year, the world will commemorate the liberation by Soviet troops of the infamous camp at Auschwitz, where so many people perished during the Second World War.
2020 in anniversaries – Updated
To start the new year, here is a starter list of significant anniversaries that fall this year.
The jocist bishops who signed the Pact of the Catacombs
It is no surprise to find a strong jocist influence in the text of the Pact of the Catacombs, notably in its concluding sentences, which explicitly refers to the jocist “review of life.”
The JOC influence at Vatican II
Among his many other engagements throughout his long life, François Houtart took part as a peritus or expert at Vatican II.
Love, friendship and social action
One day I (or someone) must go through Cardijn’s writings to analyse what he said about love and friendship. I’m confident that there will be quite a bit.
25th August – a day of meaning
It was only when I went to work for the International YCW that I learnt that 25 August was celebrated as the “birthday” of the movement.
Cardijn’s astonishing last letter to Paul VI
On 25 June 1967, four weeks before his death, Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, wrote his last letter to his old friend Pope Paul VI, requesting him to visit the JOC in France.
Paul Dabin – Conscious and responsible
Paul Dabin was a Belgian Jesuit who died too young on 14 June 1949 at the age of only 58. In 1941, he published Le sacerdoce royal des fidèles dans les livres saints.
