THE FORMATION OF LEADERS
Lecture given by Monsignor JOSEPH CARDIJN
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE YCW,
Brussels, Belgium – 27th August, 1935
THE YCW sets out to be a school for the conquest of the destiny of the young workers; it also sets out to be a service, a representative body crying out that destiny to the world, and endeavouring to find the necessary means of obtaining it. It is an organisation which does not content itself with a general teaching, but takes the life of the young workers, their whole life, their individual, family, social, sentimental, professional, economic, public life, taking their life in its totality, teaching to see, to judge, to live a life in conformity with their temporal and eternal destiny, an organisation which is concerned with, the framework of that life. The natural environment of fish is water, that of trees the earth; it has too often been forgotten that the natural environment of the young worker is their social environment, and in consequence the young workers have been prevented from attaining their destiny. It is for that reason that the YCW, implanted in the natural environment, sets out to help the young workers to attain their destiny.
After all, the YCW does not exist for a few good little boys belonging to pious confraternities, it exists for the mass, for the lowest, because the Kingdom of God is for all, and especially for the wretched, for the lowly.
We must organise them for conquest. In this conquest, we must not separate two fundamental problems: the problem of the transformation and formation of the mass and the problem of the conquest and the formation of the elite.
That is what we have called the Catholic Action of the young workers, that is what the Holy Father demands when he speaks of Catholic Action. Our ambition is to conquer the great mass of the young workers, whose conditions of life are at present in contradiction with their eternal and temporal destiny, and who nevertheless must attain that destiny. The whole purpose of the YCW is the solution of this problem, it is the key to the movement, the action, the organisation of the YCW, the focal point of the formation of the leaders.
The leaders form the staff, the stable group of leaders, the local nucleus in the parishes, the factory, the district, the street, the town ; not only locally, but regionally; and finally, at the top level, the national nucleus of leaders, all of them laymen from the first to the last. All these groups form the centre, the heart of the YCW, I would almost say the whole of the YCW. The parochial, regional, national ICW will be what its leaders are.
But please note that there can be no local, regional or national leaders without the priest. In the YCW the Chaplain must act as one who, by his priestly character, is the channel and trustee of doctrine, grace and the sacraments. He must find leaders, he must arm and form them ; they are the centre, the heart of the YCW, without them there is no conquest possible. The priest must give them faith in that conquest, if necessary he must make them into martyrs. He will not only give them the spirit, but also the tactics of conquest.
And for that reason he will place his mind, his doctrine, his whole priesthood at the disposal of his leaders in the YCW, at the service of the Church’s militia, to whom he is the spiritual father.
If we can say: the YCW will be what its leaders are, we may also say, with few exceptions, that the leaders will be what their chaplains are. But we must make our meaning quite clear; in our methods of formation, we must not try to separate the formation of our leaders from the organisation of the movement and from the YCW action through which they receive their formation as leaders in collaboration with the Priest.
The formation of our leaders must never be effected alongside YCW organisation and YCW action, but always in the YCW organisation and action, so that organisation and action become for the leaders a school, a service and a representative body.
Whom do we call leaders? There are one per cent leaders and a hundred per cent leaders. Let us not imagine too easily that we need at once one hundred per cent leaders. Are we one hundred per cent ourselves?
We must always start by taking the leaders as they are; it matters little whether they are socialists, or communists, carpenters or bakers; but we have to say: I shall make that fellow a leader. Leaders are not found ready-made; they are formed.
By a leader we mean one who, first of all and above all, for his whole life as a young worker, conquers himself and conquers others to their eternal and temporal destiny.
We shall say: first of all the conquest of self before going to the conquest of others; not a priority of time but a priority of intention. A YCW who makes magnificent speeches and five minutes later misconducts himself with a girl, is not worthy of being a leader. Do not set out to conquer others if you do not want to conquer yourself.
A leader is therefore one who conquers his own destiny. He is at the same time one who gives himself for the conquest of others to that eternal and temporal destiny.
The ambition of the YCW should be to have at least one leader for every five or six members, a leader who forms the membership in the YCW spirit. The chaplains and leaders must always be concerned with seeking and forming leaders. They must be formed with intensity, they must be multiplied, and as we are a youth movement, we must always be ready to start over and over again.
The doctrinal formation of our leaders must be profound. This formation must take place gradually. It will not be effected by speeches, by lessons with a view to passing brilliant exams. The leader must learn to live doctrinal truths, to transpose them into their own lives. A doctrinal truth is a truth to be conquered.
Leaders are formed by personal contact. They cannot be mass-produced; the formation of leaders is a formation of souls, it is a personal conquest.
These contacts must be deep and intimate, but never indiscreet. In some consciences we have to allow grace to act on its own. We must let them develop, and they will come to us when Providence wills it. There must therefore be contacts with the Chaplain, and also personal contacts with the other leaders.
The Chaplain alone does not form the leaders; simple, cordial friendship between the leaders is also needed.
At the leaders’ meetings, the leaders assist and educate one another in the discovery and conquest of the moral, religious and social truths of their eternal and temporal destiny. That is why we have given up the use of the term ‘Study Circle’, which reminded one of meetings where they talk about the moon, the stars, and all the prehistoric animals. Only one thing was forgotten; the study of the daily life of the poor little wretches who had to take part in those Study Circles! With us the study circle is simply a meeting of doctrinal preparation for action. That is why we call them leaders’ meetings.
We now come to the deepest element in formation; the formation in religion, which is the soul, the heart, the centre of all formation. In this matter our ambition can never be too great. It is curious what a change of mentality is necessary in this matter. Sanctity is for monks and for priests, they say. But sanctity is as much needed in the barracks and the factories as in convents. Man of little faith! I often say to myself – and it’s true. We are astonished when we realise what we can obtain from our YCW leaders. There is no single formula suited to all souls, for there are not two souls alike. There is first of all the science of religious formation, and then there is the art, a personal thing, which must be adapted to each soul. But for this we must be humble; we must be more concerned with the soul we are educating than with ourselves as educators.
We need optimism in our search for leaders. We must believe that leaders can be found everywhere. Perhaps they are not one hundred per cent leaders to begin with; sometimes even they are anti-militant. Have no fear, these are sometimes the best, they can become like St Paul. We shall find them everywhere among the workers, even among the illiterate. When I started the first team of young workers, I had to start by teaching them to write, to compose a letter to their boss. We must have optimism, but it must be realist; we have to take them as they are.
Copied by: Vivian Silva.
SOURCE
Joseph Cardijn, Forming leaders (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)