There are some who see in Catholic participation in the Youth Movement a powerful means for stemming the leakage. They recognise that the Catholic club or youth organisation may well be the bridge between the school and the world. It is obvious, indeed, that there is immense gain to our adolescents when they are nurtured in a Catholic atmosphere by those who are solicitous for their spiritual welfare. It would be difficult to overestimate the good that must come from their taking part in activities directed by helpers whose outlook is necessarily apostolic.

But these good results will only be achieved if our own attitude to the Youth Movement is right. We must not regard it as a kind of rescue work, as if there had already been failure in the cultivation of the tender plant. If it is not yet a proclamation of the glorious fruition of youthful endeavour, it must not at any rate continue the artificial forcing that was begun at school, now in the form of an imposed culture and a suggested enthusiasm for social betterment. Our Youth Movement must be a real one in the sense that it is Youth which is making the movement, and not Youth being moved by its self-appointed guardians.

In short, the Catholic participation in the Movement must not be allowed to involve us in a false philosophy. On the contrary, we have in the Catholic youth organisation an opportunity of combating false ideas on “culture”. We can show that any concentration on collective activities, physical and mental, points not to a material life-goal, but to an eternal one. We must emphasise that we are making no pretence to stay the time which is all too surely and rapidly running its course, but are encouraging our young people to make the best use of the vital period in preparation for this life and the next.