The Basilica Recreation Centre — Befime and After

The Catholic Youth Organization is a very successful worldwide organization. The organization’s main purposes are guiding young Catholics to live a Christian life from a young age, developing trust between peers, and living a happy life in a positive manner.

Activities vary in accordance with local culture but often include prayer, singing, doing works of charity, sports and visiting the sick. In the United states CYO is mainly known for its organized sports programs.

There was some discussion and desire to form a CYO in Charlottetown but for some reason Bishop Boyle was not in favour of the idea. However, we did organize as a club in 1949 and it was called the Basilica Youth Club (BYC). Instead of the CYO we now had the BYC and in 1950 we adopted the Constitution of the Basilica Youth Club. It was basically the same as the constitution of the CYO.

The purpose of the organization was: To bring together the Catholic youth in the Basilica parish.

To promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Catholic youth of the Basilica parish through the medium of a balanced program of spiritual, cultural, social and athletic activities.

To foster a spirit of fellowship, cooperation and unity among the Catholic youth of the Basilica parish.

Membership was open to both married and single young people between the ages of 17 and 35 who lived within the parish limits. Membership fees were one dollar per year. There were seven standing committees: religious, cultural, social, athletic, membership, publicity and ways and means.

When the club was organized in 1949, a biweekly bulletin was sent out to all members consisting of a short report from each committee. It is interesting to note that the postage at that time was one cent. Fr. Charlie Cheverie was one of the founding members of the club. Fortunately, he kept all the bulletins

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