Having outlined the evil situation in which the young people find themselves, Eugene sees the urgency of responding to Napoleon’s attacks, despite the personal danger this will entail from him from Napoleon’s police. The central thrust of his ministry for the next few years will be to establish a support system to attempt to preserve the youth of Aix from the evils with which they are threatened.
The evil is at its height and we are moving forward swiftly towards total collapse if God does not come very quickly to our help…
Must one, a sad spectator of this deluge of evil, be content to bemoan it in silence without supplying any remedy? Certainly not. And should I suffer persecution or be destined to fail in the holy enterprise of raising a barrier against this torrent of iniquity at least I shall not have to reproach myself with not having made the attempt.
What means are to be employed to attain success in so great an enterprise? None other than those employed by the seducer himself. He felt he could succeed in corrupting France only by perverting the youth, it is towards them that he directs all his efforts.
Very well, it will also be upon the youth that I will work; I will strive, I will make the attempt to preserve them from the evils with which they are menaced, that they suffer already in part, inspiring in them early-on the love of truth, respect for religion, taste for piety, horror of vice.
Diary of the Aix Christian Youth Congregation, 25 April 1813, O.W. XVI,
When you visited here in Belleville and spoke with the Shrine Community and to the members of King’s House and the Apartment Community as well as members of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate being members of the de Mazenodian Family. You hearted us all! In attendance were the Youth Ministers of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. I will offer them your most material on youth. I will also offer it to the Managers and Writers of the Missionary Association. Obviously, youth ministry is at the heart of every Oblate even those of us “who are no longer young!