PROTECTION OF YOUNG WOMEN, INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION OF WORKS FOR THE. - The Association carries out a work not of redemption but of preservation on behalf of the young woman in the face of the dangers she may encounter in travel, at work, in student life: it operates and arranges a service of vigilance in stations, ports, airports (missions de gares), etc.; it organizes and manages hostels and family homes (homes), hotels, canteens, clubs, employment, news and information offices, festive and cultural gatherings, convalescent and vacation homes; it is linked with a vast network of "supervised" hotels in many countries of the world; it collaborates with all Catholic associations for youth, and also with non-Catholic associations directed to the same purpose. Through its "travel guides" it establishes the broadest itineraries by which it can follow the young woman wherever she may go. The International Committee has its seat in Fribourg.
It was founded in 1896 by Louise Raynold, with the approval of Leo XIII, out of the need to defend young women from the "white slave trade." The International Committee has its president appointed by the Holy See and, as ecclesiastical adviser, the bishop of Fribourg. Spread across the 5 continents, it has in Europe very active national committees, especially in Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Holland, Portugal and Spain. The Association has held 11 international congresses; the most important at Budapest (1931), at Fribourg (1935) and at Rome (1948), where the representatives of 23 nations gathered. Patroness of the Association throughout the world is the B. Virgin of Good Counsel; of the young women assisted, St. Maria Goretti. An associate of the International Union of Catholic Women's Leagues, its president is an ex officio member of the World Council; it has consultative vote in the "Vatican migration bureau" in Geneva; it takes part in the meetings of UNAC, of the non-governmental organizations at the United Nations (NGO).
The Italian National Committee has its seat in Rome; it arose in Italy in 1902 through the work of Prof. Rodolfo Bettazzi and Countess Maria di Groppello Bray, with the first committee in Turin. Committees in Milan, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Naples followed. Once the National Committee was constituted in Turin, it had the task of coordinating and directing the spread and the interconnection of the P. of the y. in Italy. In 1930 the national seat was transferred to Rome. Today the P. of the y. counts 51 committees and 29 secretariats; it has in operation 3051 parish correspondents (during the war this capillary organization was totally disrupted), 29 station offices, 3 at ports (Genoa, Naples, Venice), 6 at the frontiers (Brenner, Chiasso, Domodossola, Modane, Tirano, Ventimiglia) with uninterrupted daytime and nighttime assistance. In the principal cities and provincial capitals it has hostels for the hospitality of young women passing through and family homes for those far from their family or without one, who find themselves isolated because of work, employment, study, etc. In 1949 it provided assistance to 81,200 young women, two thirds of them minors and very young.
The Italian National Committee oversees the publication of the bimonthly bulletin, La P. della g., and of the address sheet (F. I. T.), with the name and address of the committees, secretariats and correspondents, as well as the listing of the hostels and family homes, the frontier posts, the station offices, continually updated. All the committees, secretariats and correspondents provide assistance, if forewarned (airports, intercity services, special timetables). The Association has employment and news offices, supplemented by the vast network of correspondents in Italy and abroad (practically throughout the world) for obtaining the necessary guarantees before the young women's departure for the place of work. It has festive recreation centers; it devises initiatives for vacations; it promotes courses of professional qualification and of study; it provides medico-legal, moral and spiritual assistance. The individual committees provide assistance according to local needs: assistance to the rice weeders in travel and in stops and at the weeding sites, to families, to emigrants in the formalities for expatriation, for placement, for travel, for crossing the frontier; to emigrants by means of the national committees of the various countries, to "day" students who flock from the outskirts to the provincial capitals, exercising above all a delicate and prudent surveillance within the radius of the station to avoid the complained-of inconveniences; they manage warm canteens near the schools in full collaboration with the school authorities; assistance to domestic servants for placement and for residential assistance, supervising their conduct, their formation, their health, checking the morality of the house that hosts them, reporting to the families, acting in their stead.
All the services of the P. of the y. are free of charge. The president of the National Committee is elected by the General Assembly. Throughout the world the ladies who perform service in the stations, at the frontiers, at the ports, on journeys wear on their left arm a white and yellow colored band; those of the committees wear a badge with the initials A. M. (Ave Maria).