A worker's movement within the Catholic church: Three personal stories from across the world

A worker's movement within the Catholic church: Three personal stories from across the world

From Think Again by Jennifer Borrell & Jacques Boulet

May 1, 2026

About this episode

The episode discusses the history of a workers' movement within the Catholic church, featuring personal accounts from three individuals involved in its development.

For this May Day special, Jacques talks with Stefan Gigacz and Jorge Jorquera about the history of the Young Christian Workers (YCW), a workers' movement that emerged within the Catholic church starting in Belgium over 100 years ago and rapidly spreading worldwide.All three of us have been involved in the movement and have been influenced in various ways, Stefan starting in St Alban's in Melbourne's NorthWest and researching the life of Joseph Cardijn, YCW's founder, Jorge from Chile arriving as a refugee in Brisbane and immersed in the thinking and activism of Liberation Theology and Jacques in his native Belgium studying in a Catholic Wokers Movement School of Social Work and later involved in several Catholic movements and events in Congo and Germany. All three offer their personal accounts from their own experience.Referenceshttps://australiancardijninstitute.org/ https://australiancardijninstitute.org/cross-disrupts-imperialist-occupation-of-the-world-pope-leo/

People in this episode

Host: Jacques Boulet

Guests: Stefan Gigacz, Jorge Jorquera

Topics covered

  • workers' movement
  • Catholic church
  • history
  • personal accounts
  • May Day
  • global influence

Keywords

  • workers' movement
  • Catholic church
  • Belgium
  • May Day
  • personal accounts
  • global influence
  • Stefan Gigacz
  • Jorge Jorquera

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Belgium, Melbourne, Brisbane, Chile

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