To change the venue at that time without postponing the Council would have been all but impossible. Besides the IYCW felt that this was an unfair decision made without consultation and opposed to the autonomy of the YCW. Consultations were held with the National YCW’s around world. The Australian YCW believed that it would be disastrous to postpone the Council again and proposed that the new Spanish YCW be invited to attend the Council also with observer status. It was decided to hold the Council in Spain and unfortunately, we believe, the second YCW in Spain was not invited to attend.
Because of this, the Vatican did not send representatives to the Council and the have refused to recognise the Council and its decisions. They do not recognise the officials of the YCW elected at the Council many attempts have been made but the Pontifical Council for the Laity refuses to see these officials and to recognise them.
The news of the split in the IYCW came as a total surprise to us. We knew of course of the conflict in orientation in the movement. In common with the dissident YCW’s we believe that documentation of the IYCW continually took the approach of an international analysis of the situation of young workers and that this was often simplistic and repetitive and not respecting the lived experience of young workers. We agreed that the energy and financial resources of the movement would be better spent in other areas like the development of the National movement an extension of the international YCW. We believe that the Christian aspect of the movement should be more explicit and more efforts made to achieve this.
Hugh O’Sullivan
[Date unknown, venue unknown]
Reference: 003-060299