YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (Y.M.C.A.). - A youth association founded in London in 1844 by George Williams, a fellow of King's College in Cambridge, strongly taken with the idea of uniting the Churches, with the aim of devoting himself to social questions and pointing out their solutions; he indeed held that social problems constituted a point of convergence and therefore of union of all Christian denominations. The Y.M.C.A. can therefore be considered as the beginning of what since 1910 has been called ecumenism (v.).
I. DIFFUSION
The association first spread among the young apprentices of the Hitchcock and Co. factory in London, with the aim of restoring the working environment in a Christian way through friendly meetings and religious associations with the other workers. In 1851 it spread to the United States, creating groups in Boston, and then in Montreal. At present the members of the Y.M.C.A. number about 2,000,000, belonging to 85 different associations or denominations. Two thirds of the members are under 25 years of age. In French-speaking countries, that is France, French-speaking Switzerland, and Belgium, the Y.M.C.A. has taken the name Union chrétienne de jeunes gens, and is part, together with the scout and student federations, of the Conseil protestant de la jeunesse (C.P.J.), with its headquarters in Paris.
II. CURRENT ACTIVITY
The Y.M.C.A. exerts a notable influence especially in the United States, with these principal aims: to promote the democratic principles of freedom and mutual understanding among men; to harness the influence of Christianity as a means of the moral development of character, of international rapprochement and, therefore, of peace among peoples. To achieve these aims, the groups make use of educational and cultural means: subsidies are granted to poor university students; well-equipped and well-run sports centers for physical education are organized; educational programs are disseminated in schools and in workers' and sports centers to guide young people in the choice of a profession and in their reading. In World War II the Y.M.C.A. greatly helped to keep up the morale of soldiers and to organize assistance to the wounded and to prisoners, joining with the National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Salvation Army, the National Travellers Aid Association, and forming the United Service Organization.
III. ATTITUDE OF CATHOLICS
In the United States the Catholic Church has recently had to take a position with regard to the activity of the Y.M.C.A., setting out the following points: a) most of the association's aims do not differ from those that Catholics pursue; b) nevertheless, the manner in which it seeks to achieve them does not meet with the Church's consent. The association in fact professes religious indifferentism, which the Church absolutely rejects. The way in which they speak, write and act leads one to believe that all forms of Christianity are good, and that it is enough to practice charity, in whatever way, to feel sufficiently Christian, independently of the creed to which one adheres; in this way dogma has no importance, provided that Christian morality is respected, even considered from a merely human point of view. The Y.M.C.A. is, therefore, in formal opposition to the Catholic Church as regards the absolute respect that must be given to revealed doctrine and the necessity of faith in order to be saved. Everything that is done to alleviate human suffering is undoubtedly praiseworthy, but one must not forget that Jesus Christ came to redeem men and to open for them the gates of eternal life. The exercise of charity cannot be called truly Christian if it does not correspond to Christ's primary desire, which is to lead men redeemed by his blood to the kingdom of heaven, that is, to the eternal possession of God. Catholics therefore cannot collaborate with the Y.M.C.A., because this would mean forgetting or abandoning these essential truths. This does not prevent, however, that, in a limited way and for precise and immediate purposes, one may collaborate with all those who dedicate themselves to the good of humanity, provided that the Catholic faith is safeguarded and the temporal goods that one wishes to attain do not cause one to forget eternal ones (v. also YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION).