Leaders reflect upon what it means to educate others.
On the weekend of the 13th to the 15th March, YCW members from across England and Wales gathered at Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire for a weekend of training, reflection and action.
The weekend was focused around the 'Act' phase of the current 'Good Work!' national campaign. During the 'See' phase the movement reflected upon some of the issues that face young people in the 21st century workplace including the rise of 'zero-hour' contracts and the lack of respect witnessed and experienced by many young workers. Through the Scriptures and the rich teachings on work in the social teaching of the Church, the groups and members learned a great deal during the 'Judge' phase about the Church teaching on the dignity of work.
Now in this 'Act' phase, the leaders came together to think about how they can take action on both a personal and movement wide level. There were reflections on how to instil solidarity and subsidiarity within the workplace and amongst workers, which Catholic Social Teaching calls for all Catholics to do.
To assist in these deliberations, the group were empowered by some input from Fr Jim Clarke and Hugh Foy from the Conforti Insitute in Scotland who reflected back on some of the Scripture passages used in the 'Judge' to consider how we can apply the Gospel message into our everyday lives to effect change amongst people we come into contact with.
Some conclusions from the weekend included a renewed sense of importance from the YCW membership to encourage as many young people as possible to engage with politics and to use their vote at the upcoming General Election in May. The YCW National Team will work on the methods to most effectively achieve this over the coming days and weeks.
