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Introduction

If you decide to join Bolton Circle you can be assured of a warm welcome from members who value their Catholic Faith very highly and who like to meet as friends on both formal and informal occasions.

Organisation

The Association was formed, in Manchester, a hundred years ago. The name Catena comes from the Latin word meaning a chain. The local groups are known as Circles, ie. links in the chain. There are now nearly 350 Circles spread across the UK, Australia, Ireland, Malta and Zimbabwe. A member of any Circle will be welcomed if he attends the meeting of any other Circle. Indeed this is encouraged. Circles are grouped into Provinces. Bolton belongs to Province 1 with nine other Circles in the vicinity of Manchester. Each Circle elects a Provincial Councillor to make up the Provincial Council, with a Provincial President being elected by those councillors.

The members of Provincial Council elect a Director who sits on Grand Council, the governing body of the Association. The members of this Council elect, on an annual basis, the Grand President who is the world wide figure head of the Association.

Annually the members of the Circle elect a President together with a Vice President (the President in waiting), a Secretary, a Treasurer and 4 or 5 other officers. All these make up the Circle Council which formulates policies to be put before the members. Any other Circle member is welcome to attend the Council meetings.

Responsibilities of Membership.

The Association state its aims are:-

  1. To encourage members to meet socially; to encourage one another in the practice of the faith, especially in a family setting.

  2.  To assist where possible, with justice for others.

  3.  To provide benevolence for needy members and their families and to assist widows of deceased members.

  4. To help Catholic youth with career advice.

No member is expected to trade with another just because he is a member.

We are encouraged to make a contribution to the Benevolent and Children’s Fund. There is also a Bursary Fund which dispenses aid to Catholic young people who are undertaking development work with the needy in the UK or overseas.

The requirements for membership, which is all male, are that the candidate is a practising member of the RC Church; that he is prepared to attend Circle meetings regularly unless prevented by some reasonable difficulty and that he accepts the aims of the Association.