From Catholic School Rooms to a Radicalised Student Movement

This is a collection of essays and interviews from those who were involved in the late 1960s through to the early 1980s in a student organisation within the Australian Catholic Church, the Young Christian Student movement (YCS). An international movement, it was founded in Australia 1942 and was essentially for many years in Australia a secondary Catholic school movement. In other parts of the world, it was a tertiary sector movement. In the 1960s Australia had 25,000 members around the country. Groups varied in size from five or six to twenty-five members. Many Catholic secondary schools, and many dioceses, had YCS groups of senior secondary Catholic school students. By the late 1960s and early 1970s things began to change. The leadership of the movement was changing. Chaplains who had been present for many years began to move on or were encouraged to move on by the student leaders. It was becoming more and more a student led movement, a movement 'by students for students' following the inspiration of Joseph Cardijn the founder of the Young Christian Workers movement (YCW). In the late 1960s the Australian YCS began to participate in international meetings and in the 1970s various leaders, full-time workers from overseas, began to visit Australia. At the leadership level, full-time workers became more aware of what was occurring around the world in oppressive, military led, regimes and of apartheid in South Africa. The leadership became aware of YCS leaders in other places were being imprisoned, beaten or tortured. Material was being sent to the Australian National Office, in Melbourne, from the international office or other YCS groups around the world or from within the Asian region. From the National Office material was disseminated around the country. A rift developed between the bishops and the national leadership. School groups and groups generally began to close or cease to meet. At times this was encouraged by the full-timer workers or by school administrations. Nuns and priests who had been involved in the movements for many years were uncertain of what was happening. Some of the bishops saw the movement a s becoming too left wing and too political. Today there are very few groups and students involved in the Australian YCS.