Youth Catholic Symbols - Parvuli Dei
Like many boys growing up in the sixties, I was a scout; a cub scout and a boy scout. One of the awards we strove to achieve was the Parvuli Dei Award.
Parvuli Dei means “Children of God” and is an award established by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting to foster family and church values in young Catholic boys.
The award was first conceived by the Rev Gerard A McWilliams, a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Bethesda, Maryland. The first recipient was cub scout Patrick Bell of Pack 300 on February 8, 1953. The idea spread rapidly to other parishes and it officially became a National Award in 1956.
The program to achieve the award has been appropriately updated throughout the years and is now organized around the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church.
Nearly half a million Cub Scouts have earned the Parvuli Dei emblem since it was made available.
