Jozef Cardijn’s Youth Movement
Pillarisation and Secularisation
Jozef Cardijn, a priest from Halle, was indignant at the wretched lot of young workers, and so after the First World War he founded the Young Christian Workers. His new youth movement caught on and remains active worldwide.
As a parish priest in Laken Cardijn was confronted before the First World with the poverty and exploitation of workers. Many boys and girls left school at 14 to go out to work. He was particularly struck by their work situation. In order to improve the life of young people from that deprived milieu, he organised meetings for factory boys. The Young Christian Workers Movement grew out of his initiative in 1924. A little later Cardijn expanded the youth movement with a girls’ section. Members were given religious instruction and learned how to take action for improved living and work conditions. Thanks to Cardijn’s charisma the movement grew fast, including in French-speaking Belgium. After the Second World War Cardijn expanded his youth movement worldwide. As a token of appreciation, the pope appointed him a cardinalafter the pope the highest rank in the Catholic church. in 1965.
Leuven, KADOC-KU Leuven. Beeldarchief KAJ/VKAJ. 137
Young Christian Workers at the Rejoice! Mass Meeting in Heizel Park, 1935.
Pillarisation and Secularisation
When Cardijn began with his youth movement the Catholic church still had a firm grip on private and public life. However, it was concerned about the results of modern, industrial society and saw Socialism as a threat.
In order to secure the loyalty of the faithful the church, especially in the first half of the 20th century, supported the foundation of Catholic organisations in all social fields. Besides schools and hospitals, health insurance and trades unions, sports associations, cinemas and even a radio station of their own appeared. All these initiatives were designed to promote the Catholic world view. Young or old, man or woman, educated or not: there was something for everyone. In Socialist and Liberal circles too this strategy of member adhesion was followed. Sociologists would later call the division of society into separate ideological spheres ‘pillarisation’.
When after the Second World War more young people could stay longer at school and increasing prosperity created more free time, the influence of religion began to wane. The church itself also showed more understanding of and openness to modern society. This resulted in accelerated secularisationthe decreasing influence of religion and the increasing importance of worldly matters. . That went hand in hand with a process of depillarisation: instead of orientating themselves according to what was on offer from ‘their’ sector, people started more often making choices for themselves. However, many pillarised organisations continued to exist because they offered important services, such as healthcare or trades union defence of interests.
Focal points
Jan Van Bostraeten
The youth movement Chirojeugd Vlaanderen has some 120,000 members as of 2023.
Youth Movements Then and Now
The church had traditionally given much attention to upbringing and education. In the wide selection of Catholic organisations that saw the light in the first half of the 20th century, it follows that youth movements occupy a special place. Following Cardijn’s example, the church leadership supported young people’s organisations adapted to any social milieu. Thus students, workers, famers and shopkeepers acquired their own youth movement, often linked to a local parish. The scouts and the Chiro too, who did not target a specific social group, were linked with the Catholic sector. Other ‘sectors’ also set up youth associations in this period. For example, the Socialists founded the Red Falcons in 1929. Young people in uniform, singing and marching through the streets, were a familiar picture in Flanders between the two World Wars.
From the 1960s on the pillarised nature of most youth movements disappeared. The ideological inspiration remained but became secondary. Groups opened their doors to boys and girls. Playing together, looking after each other and annual summer camps were now top priority. With over 275,000 members the youth movements still determine the free time of many young people in Flanders.
Kontich, Lintfabriek, uitgeverij Stockmans Art Books
Youth houses such as Netwerk (Aalst), Democrazy (Ghent) and Het Lintfabriek (The Ribbon Factory, Kontich) became a huge attraction for lovers of the most diverse ‘alternative music’. This is the American band Fishbone performing at The Ribbon Factory on 20 October 2002.
Youth Houses
In 1952 the first youth house opened its doors in the Paleisstraat in Antwerp. Comparable initiatives followed. Youth houses were a way of reaching young people who did not belong to a youth movement. They also owed their success to the ‘Dance Act’ of 1960: it denied minors entry to dancehalls, but not to parties in youth houses. Socialists, Liberals and Catholics all had their own youth house federation.
Because more young people went to school for longer and more and more frequently found a place in the universities and colleges, the youth phase lasted longer. In the 1960s teenagers and twenty-somethings formed separate age-groups between childhood and adulthood, associated with bolshiness and experimentation. Outwards signs of that rebelliousness were, for example, clothing and hairdos, with which people rebelled against the bourgeois codes of the time: neatness, discipline, self-restraint, a strict distinction between boys and girls…
From the 1970s many youth houses followed the depillarisation trend and went their own way. They became more professional and more independent. Young people spent their own free time there as they wanted to, with parties and performances, films and discussion evenings with friends. The 534 recognised youth houses that exist in Flanders today, have become centres of independent youth culture.
Discover more on this topic
Histories – Jozef Cardijn
Bron: VRT archief, AMSAB, KADOC, Rijksarchief in België – 11 mei 1999
Non-fiction
De jaren ’30 in België: De massa in verleiding
Ludion, 1994.
Cardijn. Een mens, een beweging
KADOC Jaarboek, 1982.
Door eigen werk sterk. Geschiedenis van de kajotters en de kajotsters in Vlaanderen, 1924-1967
KADOC, 2004.
Tussen bescherming en verovering. Sociologen en historici over zuilvorming
UPL, 1988.
De christelijke arbeidersbeweging in België
2 dln., UPL, 1991.
De verzuiling voorbij
Kritak, 1987.
Het volk in beweging. Beweging voor het volk: 125 jaar ACW Gent-Eeklo
Vanden Broele, 2016.
Het Vlaamse platteland in de fifties
Davidsfonds Uitgeverij, 2012.
Voor u, beminde gelovigen: het Rijke Roomse leven in Vlaanderen 1920-1950
Lannoo, 1993.
Cardijn en de KAJ een wereld in beweging
Uitgeverij Averbode, 2017.
Ieder voor allen. De Belgische Boerenbond 1890-1990
LUP, 1990.
Fiction
Een mens is maar een wandelaar
Davidsfonds Uitgeverij, 2018.
De bolhoed van mijn vader: herinneringen uit de kersentijd
Polis, 2015.
Nu kijken
Bekijk een interview met Jozef Cardijn door Joos Florquin
(1962)
Bekijk een kort portret van Jozef Cardijn
