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Edition February 2002

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General Assembly of the International Catholic Organisations

“The world is changing.... the I.C.O.'s are moving”
2-9 December 2001 Bangkok -Thailand-

From 2 to 9 December different representatives from the federated international Catholic organisations met in Bangkok to the conference of the I.C.O(International Catholic Organisations).Fimcap is one of the member organisations and was represented by Albeiro Vásquez and Johan Cottyn. Also other organisations were present and had brought along advertising material about themselves and their activities. These were: the Papal Council of Laity , the international observer from the Vatican in Geneva Bishop Martín, CCIC (International Catholic Centre of the UNESCO) CCIG (International Catholic Centre of Geneva and New York) and different personalities of the ecclesiastic life in Bangkok.

During this week different conferences and work shops were organised. The work axis of the conference was: “the task that the Catholic organisations take up in the civil society”. Are we an important part in this changing civil society? The ICO's work in society for a more human world, in the spirit of the Gospel.

OIC's work closely with different international instances or at the national governmental level, alone or in co-ordination. It seems however that it is more and more necessary to unite resources, to have world wide co-ordination to be effective. The action of ICO should be of ethical order, based on Christian values. As I’ve said before, the best way to be efficient is to work together within coalitions and with different resources, many times in an inter-religions way. It is necessary to work with the other ones while maintaining our identity.

During the last two days we were working on the statutory part, and we elected the new president and the co-ordination committee. The Conference elected Mr. Ernest Koenig as new president (President of AMI International Military Apostolate) from Austria; the co-ordination committee has been renewed and Fimcap has been chosen as member of the committee in the person of Olivier Heyen.

But not everything was intellectual work. We also had a very brief cultural immersion. There were 8 different groups which planned to meet diverse Thai realities. We participated in a visit of a floating market, a visit of the cathedral and a visit to a co-operation community.

The impression that I had of people from Thailand is that they are very friendly people, with many gestures (to join the hands to greet in sign of respect) with a great respect for the nature (I didn’t see papers or garbage in the streets neither in Bangkok neither in the places we visited) and for the human being. Many times, we associate being poor with carelessness and dirt, and this is for sure incorrect. I also believe that some European ideas about the world don't coincide with the reality and are just prejudices.

The note of joy during the working sessions was given by Spanish interprets, who made very precise and cheerful comments during the different moments of the conference.

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Chiro Southern Africa

Chiro Youth Movement of Southern Africa held its 17th tri-annual General Council (GC) from the 6-11 January 2002 in George, Western Cape, South Africa. The theme for the GC was „discovering ourselves through personal healing and growth“ The GC was attended by participants coming from twelve dioceses including that of Lesotho and Botswana. The first day began with the introduction of the theme. The theme was important for many reasons. One of them being that as leaders, we must discover and know who we are. Many leaders and members have experienced pain and trauma in their lives. As a result these pains are buried and Chiro people never know what peace is. This reflection enabled leaders to look at their lives and to find out what pains need to be healed. It is only through healing that they can then build meaningful relationships in their lives as well as in the lives of the groups.

The remainder of the week was spent on Chiro business. This included each diocese providing activity reports over the last three years. The Chairperson and national secretary likewise provided reports on the activities of Chiro over the past three years. The leaders were encouraged to take the Chiro motto and make it an even greater reality during the next three years.

Elections were held for a new national executive committee. Desmond George was re-elected as chairperson and Shaun Dunn as national secretary respectively. Thembile Zulu was elected as vice- chairperson. The remainder of the executive is compromised of regional representatives from the eight regions.

The GC resolved amongst others to develop Chiro’s vision and implement training on diocesan level.

Shaun Dunn,
national secretary.

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Sad News

Fr .Michael d’Annucci

Fr. Michael d’Annucci, a Stigmatine priest and ex Chiro chaplain, was shot dead when his car was hijacked by three young men.
Fr. Micheal was just returning from having had a prayer service in the home of one of his parishioners on 8 December 2001 at about 18:00, when he was shot dead at the scene, as he shuffled with the three hijackers. He had been working in South Africa from 1967. He was born in Italy in the town of Potenza.

He was very involved in pastoral work, in the promotion of the family apostolate and working with youth. he served two terms as the Chiro national chaplain between 1987 to 1993. his commitment to youth and Chiro has been outstanding. he worked tirelessly in raising funds for the movement and training Chiro youth leaders.

Judy Figland

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Ateitis

Ateitis federation acquaintance with FIMCAP started in Kehl, Germany, in 1999 when three representatives of our organization took part in Eurocontact’99. It was the time of new friends, the time of information about catholic youth organizations in other countries, the time of sharing: giving and getting ideas, methods, games that we have brought back to our camps, courses and seminars. Then there was the meeting of youth leaders in St.Antoni, Switzerland, when Euroforum’2000 took place. It was like a miracle that the necessary information about Euroforum had reached Ateitis federation on time and that we could meet our friends of FIMCAP again. In Switzerland we have already asked about necessary steps towards membership in FIMCAP.

Then there were a lot of letters and E-mails, Bureau meeting in Brugge and finally the observer membership status for Ateitis federation was confirmed in General Assembly in Ghana. Now we can say that the way to FIMCAP was not the easiest one: it was the time of introducing Ateitis federation to FIMCAP and FIMCAP to Ateitis federation members, evaluating positive and negative sides, counting finances and possibilities, thinking what we can give and get, looking for something that Ateitis federation could share with other catholic youth organizations…

While acquaintance and membership in FIMCAP is a process but not a steady status, we would like to continue it with presenting some of our activities and plans.

On the weekends the “Local Groups Days” team teaches (learning by doing) representatives of local groups how to plan and lead group activities, how to encourage new ideas and be more active. The last High School for Members of Ateitis federation (MAMA) was called “ Push Your Carriage towards the Star”. There gathered those members who would graduate from school in spring and who wanted to find their own place in today’s world. We would like to organize two more MAMA sessions and seven “Local Groups Days” till summer.

The weekend of Ateitis federation called “Where Are We Going?” is the possibility to evaluate current situation, to clarify objectives and aims of the organization and to discuss how to solve the existing problems.

December 26 - January 1 the Central Board of the Union of Schoolchildren organized national winter academy "I can do it". Schoolchildren of Ateitis came together to share their experience, to discuss what is the most important for the youth of their age, what are the most efficient ways of communication, what are the possibilities for young people to create, to learn, to understand, to change, to serve and help others.

The Union of Students has started the cycle of seminars called “Matches”. The aim of the seminars is to empower, reconcile and prompt activity of local groups and corporations. The title “Matches” expresses wish to be active Ateitis members and work with “fire” that you can start only when you have got “matches”. Participants of the seminars are taught to set the aims of communities, to define objectives, to plan activity, to motivate members of local groups, to write and realize projects. January 28 - February 3 national winter camp for members of The Union of Students will be organized too. It was very nice to meet representatives of FIMCAP organizations during the Bureau meeting in Lithuania. We hope that they were not very frightened of cold and continue keeping contacts with Ateitis.

Ruta Taraseviciute
AF International Secretary

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Ranfttreffen

I have a very difficult question for you: What was the main attraction in the city of Lucerne on the 15th December 2001? It was’t one of the monuments, it wasn’t the hundreds of Christmas trees for sale, but it was 14 leaders from Chiro in their uniforms. The short trousers caught a lot of attention because it was snowing and the temperature was about eight degrees below zero.

And what was the main attraction for myself, as I have seen Chiro Uniforms many times before? I was observing the reactions of people in the street. Some of them asked: “Is it summer?” with a big smile on their face. Others were shivering and murmured: “They are completely mad!” Somebody guessed: ”They probably come from very far away and they don’t know how cold it is in winter here.” Up to today nobody found the true reason for this Belgium clothing habit.

After this short sightseeing tour we went to the office of the national board of Blauring/Jungwacht. There we cooked a meal for all of us and our guests were happy to sleep a few hours.

Around 5pm we left for Sarnen to start the activities of Ranfttreffen (= meeting in Ranft). We easily found Swiss people who wanted to participate in a group with Belgium people. They enjoyed (more or less) speaking English. However, we always understood each other. We had to walk two times about one hour. In between we had a break in a house where we played a group game, we participated in different workshops and we got a soup.

On the way a lot of Jubla people were amazed by the Chiro uniform. The standard communication was: “aren’t you cold?” in Swiss German. Then the group leader said: “you should speak English.” For some people this was the end of the conversation, for others it was the start of a long talk.

There are also other ways to express amazement. During the soup-break a group with Chiros played a very fast and loud clapping game. A Swiss person watched them so intensively that he dropped his plate with the soup and made a big mess on the floor and even on other people.

Our last stop in a small village offered us a lot of different workshops and gave us the possibility to warm up before the service. At 3pm all the 2000 young people, who were participating ,were sitting on the ground in the very small valley called “Ranft” and the celebration started. It was about 10 degrees below zero and everybody was wrapped in blankets. There was a big fire in front of a small chapel to give light to the priest and each person had a personal candle. All this was a beautiful picture in the night.

After the service everybody quickly walked back to the starting point to warm up with a hot drink and a piece of bread.

It was a beautiful night and we send a special “thanks a lot” to our guests from Chiro. They brought the fimcap spirit to this meeting where many leaders from Blauring/ Jungwacht had the possibility to feel it. We hope to welcome many fimcap people on next Ranfttreffen at the night of 21 December 2002.

You can find more pictures at www.ranfttreffen.ch

Doris Renggli,
Blauring/Jungwacht Switzerland

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