History of the Antioch Community

Its humble beginnings

The idea of an Antioch weekend originated from the National Staff of College YCS and at More House, the Catholic chaplaincy at Yale University. At both places, the need was felt for a weekend that could be "packaged" and used at various colleges around the country. Those from the More House realized the need for a weekend that could introduce Catholic students at Yale University to an understanding of what it was like to be part of the Church at a secular university. A team was organized to attend the first men's Cursillo in South Bend, Indiana in December 1963.

December 8, 1963 marked the closing of the first men's Cursillo in South Bend, Indiana and it was in the enthusiasm and realization of what could be achieved that the team began to work in formulating the Antioch Weekend. One of the first realizations was the need for a campus-based Weekend program. The Cursillo induced a team of campus ministers to work on something specifically for college students. The Cursillo, brought those who first began to work on the Antioch weekend together, and it gave them a new impetus to work out their ideas.

A new Weekend program emerged different from the Cursillo. There were only two things borrowed from the Cursillo: a well-integrated set of talks given by a team and a tightly planned schedule. The rest was patterned after the YCS study weekend. The Antioch weekend was designed to be an informal and relaxed weekend.

The program was developed over a period of three years. It was developed at the University of Notre-Dame, South Bend, Indiana. It began with a Cursillo that closed on December 8th and the first weekend that could be described as an Antioch weekend was on October 11. The work on it was done by a team composed of priests, graduate students and undergraduates. From Notre Dame University, the program was shared to other campuses among them University of Michigan, Yale University and Iowa State University.

In 1981 three teenagers, Byron, Teresa and Claire Pirola, brought Antioch to Australia. Together with their family and friends, they formed a team of 24 youth, a priest and two married couples, and launched the first weekend in Maroubra Bay parish, Sydney in September, 1981.

In between those years, the Antioch weekend found communities all over the world such as Papua New Guinea and Europe. In September 1982, Antioch was introduced in the Philippines, through the efforts of the Pirola family pf Australia, at the parish of Santuario de San Antonio, Makati, Archdiocese of Manila. At the last count, there were 14 parishes in the Archdiocese of Manila are doing Antioch, including Antioch Alabang. Seven parishes in the Diocese of Imus adapted Antioch as their youth program with a strong support from their respective parish priests. Antioch communities can also be found in the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres (Naga), and the dioceses of Legaspi and San Pablo. In 1982, the Antioch weekend in Santuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park, Makati will seed Antioch BF Homes which in turn will seed Antioch Alabang.

In 1994, Antioch was introduced at St. Francis Church in Singapore. A year after, The Blessed Sacrament Church had their first Antioch Weekend.Also, in 1994, Antioch was introduced in Hungary. At present there are two parishes in Hungary doing the Antioch program.More recently Antioch was introduced in England.

Below is a list of the websites of the different Antioch websites all over the world:

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