At the conclusion of the YCW Centenary Mass at All Saints Church, Fitzroy, on Saturday, 24 May 2025, David Moloney, a member of Cardijn Community Australia (CCA), delivered a powerful reflection on the remarkable legacy of the Young Christian Workers in Melbourne.
Speaking to a congregation of past and present YCW members, chaplains, and supporters, Moloney paid tribute to those who have shaped the movement over the past century—often unsung heroes whose faith and commitment forged lasting change in both Church and society. In a detailed and moving address, he described Melbourne YCW as both a “pioneer and powerhouse” of Catholic social action, highlighting its vital role in the development of co-operative housing, credit unions, community campaigns, and lay formation.
Though never a YCW member himself, Moloney encountered the see-judge-act method later in life and spoke from a unique perspective about its transformative impact. His address not only honoured the YCW’s historic achievements but also celebrated its ongoing mission—what he described as a “double transformation”: shaping society and shaping lives.
The full transcript of his remarks appears below.
Good afternoon. My name is David Moloney. I have been asked to thank those who have prepared today’s liturgy and social gathering, and also to share a reflection on the Melbourne YCW history.
Firstly, we thank the principal celebrant at our Mass today, Archbishop Comensoli. It is important for the YCW – which has formed generations of Catholics in Melbourne and across Australia – to be recognised by the Church for what it has done, and what it is doing. We are grateful for your presence here today, Archbishop Peter, and warmly invite you to join our social gathering afterwards.
To our host Father Max Vodola and All Saints parish, thank you for making time and space for us. We are also grateful to concelebrants, Monsignor Frank Marriott, and Fathers Bruce Duncan, Brendan Lane, Brian Glasheen, Bob Wood and Wayne Edwards. Joseph Cardijn gave YCW chaplains a difficult but pivotal role, to be ‘everything and nothing’. Thank you.
Thank you to musicians Fiona Dyball and Brother Michael Henry FMS: your special gifts and hard work have lifted our spirits today. And to the organising committee – Stefan Gigacz, Joe Magri, Wayne McGough, Des Ryan, Fathers Max and Bruce and numerous others whose hard work behind the scenes has made today possible. I also acknowledge those here today representing YCW, YCW Holdings, ACI and CCA, and also Anne Kelly, daughter of Kevin Kelly, who introduced Melbourne to French and Belgian YCW literature.
Most of all, thank you to all the current and former YCW members here today. Including those ‘full-timers’ who put their education and careers on hold, serving the movement for little pay, driven by faith and commitment.
An admission: I was never in the YCW; I was only introduced to Cardijn’s ‘see judge act’ method at 55 years of age. I tried it and discovered that it worked. Not only in terms of social change, but also the personal understanding that only comes through doing. My interest stirred, but still an outsider, I perhaps have a unique perspective of the astonishing, yet little-known, YCW story.
Let’s consider a few indicative works of the YCW since its formal inauguration in Melbourne in 1941.
The YCW was a pioneer and powerhouse of mid-twentieth-century co-operation in Victoria. Historian David Kehoe describes the YCW co-operative vision and practical initiatives as the largest practical attempt by Catholics to re-Christianise Australian society.
It derived from the YCW method of beginning with life, a concrete problem, one of which was budgeting and saving for married life. The YCW was instrumental in securing cooperative housing legislation in Victoria, under which it set up terminating and permanent building societies.
Similarly, its method of ‘systematic enquiries’ identified that young couples needed finance for household items, such as fridges. So it then established a long-running trading cooperative, which retailed furniture, blinds, bedding, electrical and other household goods, ultimately focusing on school desks and uniforms.
The YCW consequently spearheaded the introduction of credit co-operative legislation; in acknowledgement, it was registered as Victoria’s first credit union. Well in excess of one hundred parish credit co-ops were established across Victoria.
YCW land co-operatives subdivided land in a number of Melbourne suburbs for affordable residential development.
In the 1960s, the YCW changed the name of its Association of Catholic Co-operative Credit Societies to the Victorian Credit Co-operatives Association, thus opening up its organisation, resources and educational structure to wider society. Many parish credit co-ops then became the foundation of regional, and later national, mutual unions or banks, some still in operation. The YCW co-operative movement also helped establish industrial credit co-ops in larger companies, and for teachers and other public sector industries, some of which have grown to become mutual banks.
A major YCW achievement, mainly of its young members, was its football, netball, athletics, basketball, cricket and boxing sporting competitions and carnivals. At one stage, Melbourne’s YCW football competition was said to have been the largest amateur league in Australia. In some municipalities, parish YCW football clubs had to contest the prohibition of Sunday sport.
Also at the parish branch level, regular YCW dances became part of the life in many neighbourhoods.
The YCW established the Phillip Island Camp for disadvantaged youth and families, including those from the armed services.
YCW apprentices and workers gave their weekends to rebuild houses which had been lost in a bushfire in the St Andrews – Eltham district, earning the gratitude of some needy people. Some young workers also helped out with trade work in the Papua New Guinea mission.
Behind the scenes, an annual businessmen’s luncheon raised funds. Training in formation, leaders retreats, and fundraising fetes were held at properties purchased in this way: Maiya Wamba (boys), and Lowanna (girls). ‘Extension’ workers took the YCW to India and Southeast Asia.
After the war, the YCW provided accommodation and support for Hungarian refugees. As rural opportunities declined in the 1960s and 70s, and the ‘drift to the cities’ became an issue, it again provided accommodation, this time for country youth coming to Melbourne for work or education. It had accommodation on Beaconsfield Parade, and also conducted an extensive program placing country kids in suburban Catholic households.
The YCW introduced the ‘Pre-Cana’ marriage preparation program to Australia. This would become compulsory for engaged couples seeking to marry in many Melbourne parishes. It would go on to pioneer secular marriage education in Australia.
Car ownership by young people increased dramatically in the 1960s. The road death of much-loved YCW full-timer, Paul Ladds, killed by a driver running a red light, prompted a soul-searching ‘see judge act’ exercise. This revealed that young people constituted most of the terrible road toll, and that movement members, too, were drinking and driving.
The YCW conducted surveys, published a guidebook, and staged creative events and marches; 500 people attended its Dallas Brooks Hall conference. Its five-year, Victoria-wide ‘road safety campaign’, part of a broader community movement, attracted extensive publicity, playing a significant part in developing public support for better driving tests, the introduction of Victoria’s internationally ground-breaking seat belt legislation, and drink-driving laws. The road toll is now a fifth of what it was then.
The meeting that initiated the Fitzroy Community Legal Service was organised by three YCW veterans who had worked with marginalised youth and been part of the YCW prison visitation program. This Fitzroy initiative would pioneer Australia’s extensive ‘community legal service’ movement.
The YCW’s ‘Waltons Campaign’ successfully tackled hire-purchase schemes which targeted and exploited those who were poor. It was another expression of a traditional YCW concern at this usurious industry and payday lending schemes.
In solidarity, it protested the imprisonment of YCW members in Vietnam who opposed the war, and later in South Africa, who opposed apartheid. Actions ranged from the quiet to the bold: letter-writing to governments, and displaying a bamboo ‘tiger cage’ in the city square, a replica of the cramped spaces in which YCW members were jailed in Vietnam.
There were many personal and collective workplace actions, including the defence of the rights of apprentices. One notable example was the national ‘casual work’ survey, which raised awareness of a new workplace problem and contributed to public debate on topical industrial relations issues such as workplace bargaining.
Today’s YCW continues this legacy with initiatives such as the Cooking Project, which teaches skills and offers companionship and informal mental health support; the Work Rights campaign for young people, especially migrants, international students and refugees; and its Cost of Living campaign, which echoes the a traditional YCW concern regarding money challenges facing young people.
What’s striking is how some historical issues, such as financial problems, are being tackled anew by the YCW. And, just as the early YCW offered support to refugees, and then newcomers from the country, the present YCW reaches out to ‘the stranger’, now international students, immigrants and refugees. Other things have changed, such as connecting with youth online rather than in parishes, and the absence of a national chaplain.
The YCW’s action-rich ‘social transformation’ has been matched by extraordinary ‘personal formation’. It’s called ‘double transformation’: shaping society and shaping lives.
So many, having understood that their work is a vocation, have had their whole career trajectories shaped by their YCW formation. Others became priests, and many joined female apostolic orders.
Beyond work, it has influenced the orientation, even shape, of so many lives, in the civic arena (in local community, politics, unions) and in personal relationships. Often people trace back a simple gesture, perhaps reaching out to an isolated person, the stranger, in some setting, to ‘the YCW’.
May that legacy flourish. Please join us for supper in the hall, to reconnect, celebrate, continue reflecting and perhaps sharing a personal story in a ‘one minute wisdom’ segment.
David Moloney