Who is Cardijn
Joseph Cardijn, the eldest son of a working class family was born on 13November 1882, in a small town in the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium. His father, a coal worker, could neither read nor write. His mother had been a domestic servant. Cardijn grew up in an
industrial environment. Everyday he was confronted by the struggles of working men, women and children. He came to know the
workers and trades people of his town, their struggles and sufferings, their work and
their aspirations. The long road to priesthood began at the seminary of Malines.At home during the holidays he was shocked and challenged by the change that had taken place in his former school-mates who had now commenced work. The worker problem began to take shape his mind as a double-sized problem. Workers were victims of the wage earning condition; they were separated from the Church by the consequences of that system. In 1903 Joseph received a telegram and hurrying home he found his father near death. Beside his father’s death, Cardijn made the vow which was to be his life’s guiding star. “Father, you killed yourself for me! I shall kill myself for the working class of the world.”
In 1906 he was ordained; then followed a year of further studies and five years of school teaching. Cardijn knew that he was far from understanding the social conditions which had such a lethal effect on young workers. During his holidays he visited factories, not merely in Belgium but also in Germany, France and England. In 1912 he was appointed curate at Laeken, a parish where 90% of the 15,000 parishioners where under paid workers. The movement caught on. Some hailed it as a blessing from God. Others condemned it as a revolutionary, radical, subversive and dangerous to Church and State. Many were uncertain. Cardijn himself was branded a communist. Under pressure, Cardinal Mercier banned the movement. Cardijn’s work shattered. There was only one place to turn the Pope. Cardijn went to Rome and met Pope Pius XI, by sneaking into the papal quarters. After explaining the nature and purpose of his work, Cardijn was told by the Pope, “Not only do we bless your Movement, we want it, we make it ours.” In 1957 Pius Xii said “The YCW is the most perfect form of Catholic Action.”
YCW and YCS spread through Belgium, then to France, England and other European countries, across to North and South America and to Africa, Asia and in 1942 in Australia. Cardijn’s ideas had a big influence on Vatican II. In 1965, Cardijn was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI, who described him as “one of the men who in this century has worked most of the Church.” He died on July 24, 1967. He had given young people a movement, a method and a vision – a vision that they can change the world. Today, years later, one meets many YCS members with a real love of Cardijn, because what he created has completely changed their lives. The YCS is a school of life…in which the students learn to see, to judge and to achieve the apostolic value of their whole life in all its aspects, all its details, the most humble and daily ones at home, in their district, in their street, in the school, at meals and at the rest, in their leisure always and everywhere, in their courtship…(It is an essentially) active and acting school, with its inquiries and its action which impart a social sense, a social conduct, in a much more gripping way than any lessons and lectures which leave the listeners passive and inactive; a school which reveals to them the beauty and the grandeur of their humble life as students, which exalts them and achieves in the whole of their life that indispensable unity which gives them, with the strength of conviction and character pride in their Christian, apostolic and radiating life; a school which transforms their life as students into a lay priesthood and a lay apostolate.”
Our Mission
The mission of IYCS is Evangelization, Formation, Transformation and Liberation through bringing the Good News to the Poor of today, through empowerment and Solidarity for a just world in the student milieu...
SEE - JUDGE - ACT (The Review of Life)
YCS Spirituality
The Review of Life is more than a pedagogy- it is the YCS Spirituality and it is a Way of Life. TO SEE... is to see as Jesus saw: This means "Seeing" with our eyes, hearts, and minds to see the reality objectively and deeply, not only issues, but their causes and consequences on the life of the people, especially of the students. TO JUDGE... is to judge as Jesus judged: Not so much to judge others, but rather allow our faith to judge our options, values and attitudes. We judge whether the reality we encountered is God's will and if not, we reflect on what should be the ideal situation. TO ACT... is to act as Jesus acted: As an active apostolate and movement, we respond to the reality at a personal level as well as with our community.
