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?
In fact, someone asked me just this week when the Jeunesse Etudiante Catholique (JEC) or Young Christian Students (YCS) was founded.
As is so often the case, including for the JOC, the date celebrated is often chosen from among several possible.
Cardijn, for example, always insisted that the first JOC groups were those he and his colleagues launched for teenage female factory workers in the parish of Our Lady at Laeken in 1912.
Another very frequently cited date – including by Paul Garcet, one of the “founder trio” – was 1924, which is the year that the movement’s name was changed from Jeunesse Syndicaliste (Young Trade Unionists) to Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne (JOC). Indeed, as I must write about in another post, JOC sections and federations had reached within 100 metres of the French border by the end of 1924.
But the date retained for celebrating the foundation of the JOC in Belgium was 1925, the year that Cardijn first met Pope Pius XI, and that the two French-speaking Belgian movements, the JOC and the JOCF, held their first national congresses.
A congress in 1927
What about the other JOC-inspired Specialised Catholic Action movements then?
To answer this, we need to look at two events that took place in Belgium in August 1927. Historian Roger Aubert explained the story in his 1972 article entitled “Organisation et caractère des mouvements de jeunesse catholique en Belgique” (Organisation and character of Catholic youth movements in Belgium).
The first event was a study day for priests held on 3 August 1927 at which Cardijn apparently gave a powerful speech calling for specialised group of Catholic youth into various movements for young workers, students and farmers.
Aubert explains
Le fait de la spécialisation par milieu social, accompli par la J.O.C. passait à l’état d’un principe valable pour toute la jeunesse. La tâche principale de l’A.C.J.B. était désormais de susciter, à l’instar de J.O.C., une Jeunesse Etudiante, une Jeunesse Agricole, une Jeunesse Universitaire, peut-être d’autres branches encore, de manière à achever l’éventail de la réalité sociale. Son rôle à elle ne serait plus d’exercer une influence directe sur les jeunes gens, mais plutôt de coordonner les efforts des groupements homogènes, en ce qui regardait les éléments communs de la formation et de l’action. C’était un changement complet de perspectives.
Translation
The specialisation by social background achieved by the J.O.C. became a valid principle for all young people. The main task of the A.C.J.B. (Belgian Catholic Youth Association) was henceforth to create, following the example of the J.O.C., a Student Youth, an Agricultural Youth, a University Youth, and perhaps other branches still, so as to cover the full range of social reality. Its role would no longer be to exert direct influence on young people, but rather to co-ordinate the efforts of homogeneous groups with regard to the common elements of training and action. This was a complete change of perspective.
Henceforth, the French-speaking or Walloon Belgian priests adopted and committed themselves to the principle of specialisation by social milieu.
The second event was the national congress of the ACJB, which took place in Liège on 28 August 1927.
As Aubert writes:
Le congrès de Liège du 28 août 1927, qui se tint dans un enthousiasme qu’on ne retrouvera plus par la suite et qui marque en quelque sorte l’apogée de l’A.C.J.B., fut pour celle-ci l’occasion de se présenter officiellement sous son nouveau visage. Une lettre autographe du pape Pie XI y fut lue, approuvant explicitement l’organisation et les méthodes de la Jeunesse catholique belge.
Translation
The congress in Liège on 28 August 1927, which was held with an enthusiasm that would never be seen again thereafter and which in a sense marked the apogee of the A.C.J.B., was the occasion for the latter to officially announce itself in its new guise. An autograph letter from Pope Pius XI was read out, explicitly approving the organisation and methods of the Belgian Catholic Youth…
In other words, the Congress, with the explicit approval of Pope Pius XI, adopted the system of organisation and methods of the JOC as the basis of a series of specialised Catholic Action movements.
Aubert continued:
Dès le lendemain du congrès, Mgr Picard (il fut nommé prélat en novembre) s’appliqua à la réalisation organique de ce qui avait été décidé. On commença tout naturellement par plus facile, à savoir la J.E.C., car, ainsi que l’explique G. Hoyois avec elle on remonterait aux origines mêmes du mouvement de jeunesse, issu avant la guerre des estudiantines de vacances. Ce genre de groupes s’était maintenu à travers le développement de l’A.C.J.B. Son organe, Le Blé qui lève, avait continué de paraître, sous des directions différentes et finalement celle de l’abbé Joseph Desmet. Les étudiants n’avaient cessé de manquer les congrès de jeunesse de leur bouillante exubérance. A vrai dire, la J.E.C. existait en puissance dans l’A.C.J.B. Elle était mûre pour prendre forme. Il s’agissait surtout de la regrouper sous une direction d’ensemble et de lui donner conscience d’elle-même. Pour Mgr Picard, cela revenait principalement à chercher un homme, un prêtre qui accepterait la responsabilité d’animer cette filiale de l’A.C.J.B. Cet homme, ce fut pendant les premiers mois un professeur de l’Université de Louvain, le chanoine Monin, puis à partir de 1928 prêtre du diocèse de Liège, l’abbé Mignolet, plein d’enthousiasme mais un peu rêveur.
Translation
As soon as the congress was over, Mgr (Louis) Picard (who was appointed as a prelate in November) set about putting into practice what had been decided. Naturally, he started with the easiest of all, the J.E.C., because, as G. Hoyois explained, with it we would be going back to the very origins of the youth movement, which had its origins in the pre-war university student holiday programs. This type of group had continued throughout the development of the A.C.J.B. Its organ, Le Blé qui lève, (The Ripening Wheat) had continued to be published, under different leadership and finally that of Abbé Joseph Desmet. Students continued to fill the youth congresses with their ebullient exuberance. To tell the truth, the J.E.C. already existed in potential inside the A.C.J.B. It was ready to take shape. Most of all, it was a matter of gathering under a coordinated leadership and becoming conscious of itself. In Mgr Picard’s view, this primarily required looking for a man, a priest who would accept the responsibility of leading this branch of the A.C.J.B. For the first few months, this was a professor at the University of Louvain, Canon Monin, then from 1928 a priest from the diocese of Liège, Abbé Mignolet, full of enthusiasm albeit a bit of a dreamer.
JEC 1928
Thus, according to Roger Aubert, the Belgian French-speaking or francophone JEC or YCS began to take form towards the end of 1927 and reached its fulness with the appointment of a chaplain, Fr Mignolet, in 1928.
Later, Aubert adds that from 1928, the magazine, Le Blé qui lève, became the official publication of the JEC, which goes to confirm that it existed as a movement in Belgium from 1928.
So, I think we can conclude that the centenary of the JEC or YCS will take place in 2028.
JUC 1929
That’s not the end of the story, however. As Aubert explained, many JEC leaders were university students and “it quickly emerged that the issues facing high school students and university students were too different to gather them in a single movement.”
Hence, since university students in fact already existed albeit “hardly with the concerns of Catholic Action” a new branch, namely the JUC (Jeunesse Universitaire Catholique) was established in 1929 with the collaboration of a priest well known in academic circles, the sociologist, Jacques Leclercq.
JAC 1929
Two more movements also saw the light of day in 1929, the JAC for young people from the agricultural milieu and the JIC for those from a bourgeois or business background.
According to Aubert, the JAC began as follows:
Avec la Jeunesse agricole catholique, on sortait du milieu dans lequel s’était principalement recrutée l’A.C.J.B. jusqu’alors: il s’agissait d’organiser pour un milieu de travail spécial à partir de la sortie de l’école primaire une action éducative analogue à celle entreprise par la J.O.C. dans le monde ouvrier.
A la différence de la J.E.C., il n’existait pratiquement rien de préexistant à la base et tout dut être organisé d’en haut à partir du secrétariat général de l’A.C.J.B., avec l’aide d’un jésuite, le P. Foucart, et d’un jeune laïc, Gaston Remacle, qui trouvèrent leurs principales recrues dans le diocèse de Namur.
Translation
With the Catholic Agricultural Youth, the ACJB began to move away from the environment in which it had mainly been recruited up until then: it was a question of organising educational action for a special working environment from the primary school leaving age, similar to that undertaken by the J.O.C. in the working class world.
Unlike the J.E.C., there was practically nothing pre-existing at grassroots level and everything had to be organised from the top, from the general secretariat of the A.C.J.B., with the help of a Jesuit, Father Foucart, and a young layman, Gaston Remacle, who found their main recruits in the diocese of Namur.
Indeed, the launch of the JAC was reported in the journal, “La Cité Chrétienne,” with its aims summarised as follows:
Le programme de la J. A. C. se ramène aux trois choses suivantes :
1° Promouvoir le redressement et l’amélioration de la mentalité du jeune agriculteur aux points de vue religieux, professionnel et social;
2° Faire rayonner, dans l’ensemble de la classe agricole, l’influence des groupements jacistes ;
3° Faire participer les jacistes à la vie et à l’action des organismes généraux d’action catholique.
Translation:
The J. A. C. programme can be summed up in the following three points:
1° To promote the recovery and improvement of the mentality of the young farmer from the religious, professional and social points of view;
2° To spread the influence of Jacobean groups throughout the farming community;
3° To involve Jacobeans in the life and work of general Catholic organisations.
Moreover, the new movement was launched simultaneously in Belgium and France under the auspices of the respective Catholic Youth Associations, the ACJB and the ACJF.
JIC 1929
Aubert continues to explain the beginnings of the JIC as follows:
Quant à la Jeunesse indépendante catholique, qui regroupait le public un peu hétéroclite des jeunes gens des classes moyennes ayant accompli certaines études et déjà engagés dans une profession, un noyau avait été fondé à Bruxelles en 1928 par un jeune employé, Raymond De Becker 39, assisté par un professeur de collège, l’abbé Sirre. L’année suivante, ce premier cercle de « Jeunesse indépendante » ayant essaimé, l’A.C.J.B. reconnut le mouvement comme l’une de ses fédérations constitutives. Ainsi s’achevait la spécialisation par milieux sociaux de l’Action catholique des jeunes gens.
Translation
As for the Jeunesse indépendante catholique (Catholic Independent Youth), which brought together a somewhat heterogeneous group of middle-class young people who had completed certain studies and were already involved in a profession, a nucleus had been founded in Brussels in 1928 by a young employee, Raymond De Becker 39, assisted by a secondary school teacher, Abbé Sirre. The following year, as this first ‘Independent Youth’ circle spread, the A.C.J.B. recognised the movement as one of its constituent federations. This marked the end of Catholic Youth Work’s specialisation by social background.
And so by 1929, the full set of classic Specialised Catholic Action movements – all the vowels, JOC, JEC, JUC, JAC and JIC – existed in Belgium, with several already spreading into France, namely the JOC, the JEC and the JAC with the JIC to follow in 1931.
Interestingly, they all seem to have chosen the appellation “Catholic” in contraast to the JOC, which called itself “Christian,” at least in French-speaking Wallonia.
The JOC thus celebrates its centenary this year, the JEC in 2028 and the JUC, JAC and JIC in 2029.
Dates worth remembering!
Stefan Gigacz
REFERENCES
Roger Aubert, Organisation et caractère des mouvements de jeunesse catholique en Belgique, in La Gioventù cattolica dopo l’Unità, 1868-1968 Rome, 1972, p.289 (Politica e Storia 28)