Catholic Action Demonstrations In Italy

Grey River Argus, 10 August 1948, Page 8

Catholic Action Demonstrations In Italy

(From Reuter’s Correspondent) ROME (By Airmail). Italy’s Catholic Action Organisation is oreparing two demonstrations for •September which will bring 500,000 young men and women to Rome, which, it claims, will be the “worlds biggest youth demonstration in history.” A quarter of a million girls and young women meet in Rome ITom September 4 to 6 and a similar number of young Catholic men from September 10 to 12. Culminating point of the celebrations will be a torchlight parade of 250,000 young men taking part in a “Night of Prayer.’’ The Swiss delegation to the demonstrations will total 2000 and other nations which are sending delegations include Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, Peru, Portugal, the Saar, Slovakia, Spain and the United States of America. The organisers’ state: — "Italy, the loser in a disastrous war, suffering much misery, upset still by strikes and unemployment, yet presents the spectacle of half a million younv people each one of whom is paying the cost of a journey to Rome to testify his, or her, faith. Europe is only just beginning to understand what happened in Italy on April 18. Communism no longer has a hold on the young people and even less on the very young. Spiritually and politically, in Italy, Christ has triumphed over Carl Marx.” The young people are coming to Rome to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Feminine Youth of Catholic Action in Italy and the 80th anniversary of the Male Youth of Catholic Action. The celebrations will include sports and there will be a parade of 10,000 flags.' The September demonstrations mark a great increase in the strength of Catholic Action in Italy, which is reputed to have ovei’ 2,000,000 members. Political observers think that the enormous work done throughout Italy by members of Catholic Action in aid of the Christian-Democrat Party of Signor Alcide De Gasperi was an important factor in the electoral victory of that party. As has happened in Spain in recent years, where Catholic Action has over one million members and nlays an important part in the life of the nation, the post-war years have seen an enormous increase in the strength and influence of this organisation in Italy. _____