The first session started were had words of welcome from Stein Villumstad, General Secretary ECRL, Yolande Iliano, President RfP-Europe, Ravinder Kaur Nijjar, Coordinator EWFN and Daniela Malec, Core Group EIYN who all gave an introduction of the entities they represent and why this meeting was called. We were also given a historic overview of the previous World assemblies and what was discussed and decided.

The second session focused on Global Challenges and Contributions to Advance the Mission of Religions for Peace addressed by Dr. William Vendley, Secretary General of Religions for Peace International followed by an Introduction of Religions for Peace IX World Assembly which will be themed as “Welcoming the Other: Action for Human Dignity, Citizenship and Shared Well-being”

The themes that were tackled in the first part of the meeting were Disarmament, Peace education (conflict prevention), Conflict resolution and Reconciliation (including strategic humanitarian assistance) all these were under the main subject matter“Building peace through conflict prevention and transformation”

Than under the theme “Building peace through citizenship for just and harmonious societies and states” the four main topics discussed were Religious freedom, protection of minorities, Migration, integration and social cohesion, Democracy, good governance and Overcoming violence.

The last four matters being taken on were the Millennium Development Goals, Legal empowerment of the poor, Health and Climate Change. These four topics all fell under the umbrella title of “Building peace through human development that respects the Earth”

During these days of preparation for the World Assembly, I also had the opportunity to attend the launch of “Restoring Dignity “ Campaign with invited guests, hosted by EWFN.

Furthermore separate and parallel consultations were organized with the ECRL/RfP Europe, European Women of Faith Network and the European Interfaith Youth Network of which I was part. The conference was concluded by the
Recommendations from European entities such as concerns, priorities and suggestions to be considered in the planning of RfP World Assembly 2013.

On Sunday evening, the halls of the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, France were filled with a lot of different languages. Excitement was in the air as young people of different ages, educational backgrounds, languages and countries (Croatia, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina Spain and Portugal) mingled, using English as Lingua Franca to communicate over the langue boundaries. Their goal was to get to know the others, with whom they were to share days, rooms, coffee-breaks and, above all, their thoughts and ideas about Human Rights and how to make a difference in the education of and the fight for them.

Every day, some general input by some expert was given in the plenary. Afterwards, the plenary was always divided into smaller groups, in order discussed more in detail the distinct situations of Human Rights in the different countries and to analyze a specific topic/problem more in-depth. Afterwards, the results of the small groups were presented to the other participants in a plenary session. This gave everybody, notwithstanding their level of English, personal background etc. room to learn at their personal speed, contribute information, give their personal opinion or ask questions in a comfortable atmosphere. This way, everybody was not only able to learn about Human Rights in general, its situation all over Europe and so forth, but also to improve their English debating skills, represent their country, learn about others and strengthen the believe in a united Europe – in which all are different but equal.
One important pillar of the study session was the team-building in order to eliminate prejudices or stereotypes about other countries and their citizens and to form a strong group, ready to face together the challenges of Integral Human Rights’ Education in the XXI century. Therefore, every day some time was dedicated to games. Due to the successful team-building, during the whole week the participants continued talking about Human Rights even during breakfast, supper or dinner and in the various coffee breaks.
Work hard – play hard: After the official working program, every day the young people gathered till the early morning hours. Either during the international night, in which they introduced typical food, drinks, costumes, music, dances and idiosyncrasies of their countries or during the karaoke night, the game evening or the goodbye party.
A highlight of the week was the visit of the Council of Europe (CoE), followed by a free afternoon to discover in small transnational groups Strasbourg and to meet up again in the evening in a restaurant to enjoy the traditional dish of the region: the “tarte flambée”.
Of course, during the whole week, the spirit of the Lord was present. There was not only an opening and closing mass but every working day started and ended with a prayer, which lasted about 15 minutes.
On the final days, after having learned a lot of theoretical things about Human Rights, the European participants tried to find areas with overlapping topics in which they wanted to have a commune project to get active, afterwards. Also, they thought about how they wanted to present their organization at home the outcomes of the study session.

The week ended with a farewell-party. Till dawn, the young Europeans danced, chittered and chattered, and made already plans when and where to meet again some of the new-made friends.

(Stephanie Bendig, AKH Germany)

The conclusion that this statement is taken literally by the members of this European platform can be drawn from the results achieved through these meetings:

The COMEM/ExGA was preceeded by a joint conference between the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)/Labour Market Observatory and the European Youth Forum on the 20th April, which focussed on the topic “Quality Jobs for Youth: Are we asking too much?” This extraordinary event gave young people as representatives of their National Youth Councils or International NGOs the chance to reflect jointly with experts and researchers on the future of Europe’s labour market.

In the morning of the 21st April the delegations of the Forum organized several Thematic Squares for the meeting: Together with the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE) and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) the European Coordination JECI-MIEC prepared and facilitated a Thematic Square on the topic “Secularization and Religion” which was estimated very positively among the delegates participating.

Apart from one Position Paper and two Policy Papers newly adopted and one revised, the delegates finally decided on the European Youth Forum’s Strategic Priorities for the years 2013-2018 which will particularly focus on youth participation, strenghtening youth organizations, youth autonomy and inclusion.

The European Coordination JECI-MIEC attended the COMEM of the European Youth Forum of which is a full member, from the 19^th to the 22^nd of April 2012. On Friday morning it started with a joint event between the Youth forum and European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) titled “Quality Jobs for Youth: are we asking too much?” The prestigious panel consisted of Krzysztof Pater, EESC member, President of the Labour Market Observatory, László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Peter Matjašic?, President of the European Youth Forum, and Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee.

Following in the afternoon, were the six policy commissions which focused on the Position Paper on EU Structured Dialogue on Youth, the Revision of the Policy Paper UN and Global Youth Work Development, the Policy Paper on New Media and Internet Governance, Towards a Youth Forum Manifesto for the EP elections 2014, Youth Rights and Towards a Youth Forum’s “New Deal for Youth” to get them out of the crisis.

The second day began with the seven Thematic squares being “Secularization and Religion” in which JECI-MIEC was among the organizers, “The new database – a chance for enhanced cooperation with Member Organizations”, “Blocs & elections within the European Youth Forum”, “Safeguarding in international youth work”, “Sustainability management in youth organizations and the Youth Forum”, “Member Organizations’ Exchange on the Donor System” and “European Volunteering Measurement Project”.

This COMEM was important as it adopted the Strategic Priorities for the next six years of the European Youth Forum. These priorities are what the YFJ wants to achieve mainly focusing on youth participation, strong youth organizations and youth autonomy and inclusion. Also they gave an insight of   how these priorities will be achieved, aiming at having the YFJ as an agenda-setter on youth affairs, more empowered youth organizations and a rights-based approach in all the work.

Also it adopted the following three policies, one the EU Structured Dialogue on Youth, another on  the United Nations and Global Youth Work Development and the last one on New Media and Internet Governance. Furthermore a resolution of VAT regulation was also approved.

(Ryan Mercieca, European Team Member, MKSU Malta)

May you rejoice in our LORD’s triumph over death, evil and humankind’s sin and may this mystery of faith inspire your daily lives and be a source of joy and hope to all of you!

Therefore we also pray that the spirit of these joyful days will enrich all of your work and
projects you have in your organizations and in private.

Happy Easter! The LORD has truly risen, Hallelujah!

Yours sincerely,
JECI-MIEC European Team 2012

in order to give you an impression of our JECI-MIEC Study Session “Creating Empowered Students in Human Rights through Integral Education”, which was facilitated in Cooperation with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from the 19th-26th February 2012, we are pleased to present you a selection of photos in our Image Gallery.

At this point the preparatory team on behalf of the European Team wants to thank the Media Committee of the Study Session for taking all the pictures published here. Without the Media Committee this would not have been possible.

Today JECI-MIEC Europe launched its Study Session “Creating empowered Students in Human Rights through Integral Education” in the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, France. In the evening almost everybody had arrived. We had our dinner, celebrated the Holy Mass to thank God for the meal He provided and then we gathered to get to know each other and to express our expectations for this Study Session. After all this, we played group building games in a spirit of joyfulness and happiness.

Monday 20/02/2012

In the morning we had the official opening of the Study Session and the introduction to the major themes of the session. Through playing games we discovered the different situations of Human Rights. Then we split into groups and we designed a newspaper cover about the realities of Human Rights all over Europe. In the night we listened to the presentations by the members of JECI-MIEC and members from other external organizations and visited their “exhibitions” in a “museum”.

Tuesday 21/02/2012

The day began with a video clip on what we mean by the term ?education? and then we discussed the field of Integral Education. Later, we were divided into groups and shared experience of Integral Education and thoughts upon the use of this kind of education in general. After two input sessions by Mourad Mahidi from the European Youth Forum and Rui Gomes, the Head of the Education and Training Division the evening programme aimed at analysing the problems and issues raised by the lecturers by the method of the “problem tree”. Right now we are launching the Multicultural Evening – a great opportunity for Intercultural Learning Experience!

Wednesday 22/02/2012

After a presentation of the “problem trees” of the previous day including possible solutions everyone was invited to join one of the following workshops related to Human Rights:

-          discrimination,

-          education as a Human Right

-          evolution of Human Rights,

-          Human Rights and human dignity,

-          Human Rights, religious freedom and interreligious dialogue.

After a mid-term evaluation and the lunch we all gathered to do a joint visit at the Council of Europe main buildings. There we received a valuable introduction from experts of the Human Rights and the CoE institutions.

After the free afternoon some of us went to the Ash-Wednesday mass jointly until we all met again at a nice restaurant where we had the typical local dish “tarte flambée”.

Thursday 23/02/2012

The day began with a morning prayer. Then we were given the European and International conventions on Human Rights and were divided into groups in order to deepen our understandings of the conventions. Later, every group was given a case from the European Court of Human Rights and was asked to identify the violated articles of the conventions and propose possible actions from the Non Governmental Organizations. In the afternoon we were asked to write what rights we felt were the most important from everything we discussed so far. Then we wrote down some problems we noticed in our home or other countries and were again put into groups to discuss possible actions to solve these problems. For the evening we had a fun and successful party.

Friday 24/02/2012

The day began with our morning prayer. After that, we learnt about what Advocacy is; we were divided once again into groups, and we started preparing ourselves to act upon Human Rights’ Advocacy. Then we had three different workshops we could attend. Those were Project Management, Human Rights Education and Media and Human Rights. In the afternoon the European Youth Foundation presented itself to us. Later we started preparing for the action part by putting all of our individual cases together and found a common ground to work upon through the method of See-Judge-Act. For the evening, we prayed to God to help the people in need and then we participated in group games.

Saturday 25/02/2012

Today was the final day of the study session “Creating empowered students on Human Rights through Integral Education”. The day began with a Holy Mass. Afterwards we presented our individual action plans and had short presentations of the CoE’s and JECI-MIEC’s future plans. After lunch we were divided into groups to talk about what we are going to bring to our national organizations and we discussed possible partnerships with other NGO’s. After a short break, we were asked to write a letter to ourselves about the impact of the study session on us and about how we imagined ourselves in one year from now. Later we had the evaluation of the whole study session and the evening prayer. The evening ended with the closing ceremony and the farewell-party.

hereby we, the new European Team of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC, would like to send you our greetings for the new year 2012.

May the start into this year be as promising and advantageous as possible for all your aims at personal level as well as at the level of your organization(s). May God bless the work and efforts you all undertake to strengthen the Catholic students’ world in Europe!

For our European Coordination the beginning of the year 2012 bears a lot of chances and challenges to face. Among other recent developments in our daily work from the 1^st of January 2012 onwards the European Team (= board) of our Coordination will be in office. That is why we hereby would like to briefly introduce us as European Team for the year 2012:

-          J. Maximilian Nießen (maximilian@jeci-miec.eu). European Coordinator since 1^st October 2011 from KSJ Germany. In the third year of the Bachelor degree with the subjects Latin, Philosophy and Hebrew. Residing in Münster (Westf.).

-          Laura-Ioana Sopon (laura@jeci-miec.eu). European Team member from ASTRU-Cluj Romania. In the third year of Bachelor degree in Sociology. Residing in Cluj-Napoca.

-          Romana Mysula (roma@jeci-miec.eu). European Team member from AUCS “Obnova” Ukraine. Head of the International relations office at “Ternopil V. Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University”. Residing in Ternopil.

-          Nuno Wemans (nuno@jeci-miec.eu). European Team member from MCE Portugal. In the first year of the Master degree in Medieval History. Residing in Lisbon.

-          Ryan Mercieca (ryan@jeci-miec.eu). European Team member from MKSU Malta. M.A. in Diplomatic Studies; B.A. h.c. in Geography. Residing in Gozo.

All European Team members are coming from our national member organizations and have been elected during our European Committee 2011 in Corfu, Greece.

At this point we as new Team would also like to thank

-          Mihai Paul Floran. European Coordinator 2007-2011 from ASTRU-Cluj Romania.

and

-          Fani Freri. European Team member 2011 from EKNE Greece.

for their efforts and commitment as it regards our Coordination. Thank you!

Yours sincerely,

JECI-MIEC European Team 2012

(in this picture from left to right: Nuno Wemans, Laura-Ioana Sopon, Romana Mysula, J. Maximilian Nießen, Mihai Paul Floran, Fani Freri; Ryan Mercieca is missing on this picture.)

The European Youth Forum (YFJ), a platform representing 98 National Youth Councils as well as International Youth NGOs from all over Europe including JECI-MIEC, strongly believes that Europe needs to make youth policy a financial as well as a political priority. Today, in times of crisis, as well as in the long-term, investing in youth will reinforce the values of European cooperation.

During the Council of Members an extraordinary General Assembly of the European Youth Forum in Braga, Portugal, from the 17^th-20^th November 2011, the delegates present adopted an urgent resolution on the future of the Youth in Action (YiA) programme.

As stated in the resolution, the European Youth Forum reaffirms “the success and impact of the European Union’s current Youth in Action programme in Europe, which supports youth-led activities with the aim to improve the situation of young people. From 2007-2013, it will have provided around 1,000,000 young Europeans with valuable non-formal education (NFE) experience and mobility possibilities.”

Currently, out of 100 euro paid in taxes by a European citizen, only 2.80 flow to the EU. Out of these 2.80 only 0.1% are used to provide funding to youth programmes. In average, the current ‘Youth in Action’ Programme just costs less than 28 cents per year to each European citizen. Investing in youth and in youth organizations is an extremely cost-efficient way to comprehensively reach the objectives of job creation and innovation, social inclusion and sustainable growth.

Taking into account this progress experienced the Forum decided to demand the further maintenance of Youth in Action as an independent programme and brand for the non-formal education provided in youth organizations.

“Youth in Action is the only EU programme that provides support to youth work, non-formal education and youth organizations in Europe,” affirms Peter Matjaši?, President of the European Youth Forum. “As such, Youth in Action ensures and represents a visible EU youth policy initiative and the continuation of diversity, quality and the unique character of youth work in the long-term”.

In 2009, with the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU gave itself the objective and competence to encourage the participation of young people in the democratic life in Europe. The European Youth Forum is concerned that this increased competence is not reflected in the Commission’s proposal and that it misses a strong link between the article 165§4 TFEU and the focus of the EU budget efforts in the field of youth, training and education.

Acknowledging planned increases in the EU budget in terms of finances as well as the pan-European approach, the inclusiveness and the reflection of the Youth Forum’s key strands in the programme itself, the urgent resolution comes along with six concrete demands:

-          to foster – in line with the Lisbon Treaty (TFEU) article 165(4) – the active citizenship and participation of young people;

-          to support non-formal education and volunteering in youth organizations;

-          to strengthen young people’s autonomy in terms of youth-led, volunteer based and democratic organizations as bodies;

-          to understand the need of implementation of the programme’s actions to be done by the youth organizations;

-          to assure co-management with young people as far as it regards the programme

-          to improve the user and youthfriendliness of the programme’s management.

Finally right at the moment the European Youth Forum is launching the campaign “Where are you going?”. You can find more information about this campaign on www.whereareyouthgoing.eu.

the European Coordination JECI-MIEC has the great pleasure to invite all the national member organizations to nominate candidates for the Study Session “Creating Empowered Students in Human Rights through Integral Education”, which will be taking place in the European Youth Centre, Strasbourg, France from 19^th – 26^th February 2012.

The Study Session is targeted to both: Secondary and University Students.

These Study Sessions are organized in collaboration with the Council of Europe and take place in the European Youth Centres in Budapest or Strasbourg regularly alternating with other typical activities of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC.

The Study Session “Creating Empowered Students in Human Rights through Integral Education” aims to empower the Students to take an active role as Human Rights educators in their own milieu by using the Integral Education.

The objectives are the following:

• to deepen the different approaches to Human Rights and the mechanisms for their protection;
• to analyze the different realities in the societies where participants are coming from and identify different forms of violation of Human Rights;
• to raise awareness of the Intercultural Dialogue and to promote Intercultural Learning among the participants;
• to understand the concept of Integral Education and its use and practice it;
• to facilitate participants to find their individual approach to the Human Rights;
• to reflect and identify the responsibilities and the key roles students have as important agents in promoting and protecting Human Rights.

Deadline for sending the participants application form: 30th December 2011. Please find enclosed the call for participants with detailed information on the Study Session as well as the application form for the participants.

Maximilian Niessen

European Coordinator

StudySession2012-ParticipantsCall

StudySession2012-ParticipantsForm

I would like to start with a quotation:

“European culture gives the impression of  “silent apostasy” on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist. This is the context for those attempts, including the most recent ones, to present European culture with no reference to the contribution of the Christian religion which marked its historical development and its universal diffusion. We are witnessing the emergence of a new culture, largely influenced by the mass media, whose content and character are often in conflict with the Gospel and the dignity of the human person. This culture is also marked by an widespread and growing religious agnosticism, connected to a more profound moral and legal relativism rooted in confusion regarding the truth about man as the basis of the inalienable rights of all human beings. At times the signs of a weakening of hope are evident in disturbing forms of what might be called a ‘culture of death’.” (9)

Although this rather unambiguous statement seems to be rooted in Benedict the XVI.’s teaching which hints at the permanent menace of what the Holy Father calls “dictatorship of relativism”, it is in fact taken from an Apostolic Exhortation of his predecessor John Paul II.

I discovered this document on the Vatican website when searching for an inspiring text which could serve the following multiple purposes:

1)      to transmit the central values and to be an authentic background of what a European Catholic student organization such as JECI-MIEC realizes in its everyday work and concrete actions while

2)      taking into account and paying a tribute to the topic chosen by Obnova: “Human dignity in John Paul II. teaching” although the presenter is not an expert at all on John Paul II. teachings and

3)      to offer a thematic basis on which also the other students as invited guests – even if they are non-believers – can reflect and discuss on.

What can better serve all this purposes, than a text named “Ecclesia in Europa” – “Church in Europe”?

The impact Church’s existence in fact had for the historical development of Europe is shortly, but pointedly described as follows:

“The Church’s concern for Europe is born of her very nature and mission. Down the centuries the Church has been closely linked to our continent, so that Europe’s spiritual face gradually took shape thanks to the efforts of great missionaries, the witness of saints and martyrs, and the tireless efforts of monks and nuns, men and women religious and pastors. From the biblical conception of man Europe drew the best of its humanistic culture, found inspiration for its artistic and intellectual creations, created systems of law and, not least, advanced the dignity of the person as a subject of inalienable rights. The Church, as the bearer of the Gospel, thus helped to spread and consolidate those values which have made European culture universal.” (25)

Among the values fostered by the Church John Paul II. also names the “dignity of the person”, which is the core focus of this conference. Of course the literary source wherefrom Christianity argues in favor of a dignity of human beings can be found in Genesis 1,27 and therefore in the cultural context of ancient Israel. But the concept of human dignity neither ends there nor is this passage sufficient in itself. For Christians the value-added is so to speak what John Henry Newman says, when he is requested to reduce Christian doctrine to one central idea: “God became human in Jesus Christ”. The further development of the dignity-concept, among others, became as “imago-Dei-doctrine” one of the milestones in Christian medieval theology and philosophy which helped to offer clarifications and precise interpretations. The development of the Church, the formation of European thinking and the concept of human dignity are in fact closely interrelated. John Paul II. therefore demands:

“To give new impetus to its own history, Europe must ‘recognize and reclaim with creative fidelity those fundamental values, acquired through a decisive contribution of Christianity, which can be summarized in the affirmation of the transcendent dignity of the human person, the value of reason, freedom, democracy, the constitutional state and the distinction between political life and religion’” (109)

That this statement has certain raison d’être is witnessed by the fact that among the thinkers of the age of enlightenment the dignity concept was further elaborated. For example Immanuel Kant came to a similar strong position in favor of the human dignity, although his argumentation leaves out any theological implications. To shortly reconstruct Kant’s argument, every human being has a dignity, because every human being is an aim in itself as a bearer of reason. What Church’s doctrine renders additionally, is the concept of the human being as a person, considering not only his or her cognitive dimension such as reason, but also its emotions and weaknesses. In fact this approach does not exclude reason and offers Christians the possibility to discover overlaps between their own and different worldviews. The exhortation itself states:

“Because of its intrinsic connection with the dignity of the human person, the Church’s social doctrine is also capable of being appreciated by those who are not members of the community of believers.” (99)

Of course our European history does neither end in the age of enlightenment nor now. In today’s discussion we can basically find two competing theories on human dignity:

1)      Human dignity in the classical sense described above as the intrinsic and never losable value of human beings.

2)      Hinting at the fact, that human dignity – although not being losable as such – can be violated nonetheless, critics of the first position understand human dignity as an imperative to be realized again and again.

Both positions have their strengths. That is why John Paul II. figures out the relevance of an ongoing promotion of the value of human dignity:

“Given this state of affairs, it is necessary to serve the Gospel of life through ‘a general mobilization of consciences and a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life. All together, we must build a new culture of life’. This is the great challenge which we must accept as our responsibility, in the certainty that ‘the future of European civilization greatly depends on the resolute defence [sic.] and promotion of the life-giving values which are the core of its cultural patrimony’. This means restoring to Europe her true dignity as a place where every person is affirmed in his or her incomparable dignity.” (96)

How and with which means can this restoring function properly? The document goes on:

“By the body of principles which it sets forth, the Church’s social doctrine helps [to] lay solid foundations for a humane coexistence in justice, peace, freedom and solidarity. Because it is aimed at defending and promoting the dignity of the human person, which is the basis not only of economic and political life, but also of social justice and peace, this doctrine proves capable of upholding the supporting structures of Europe’s future. It contains points of reference which make it possible to defend the moral structure of freedom, so as to protect European culture and society both from the totalitarian utopia of ‘justice without freedom’ and from the utopia of ‘freedom without truth’ which goes hand in hand with a false concept of ‘tolerance’. Both utopias portend errors and horrors for humanity, as the recent history of Europe sadly attests.” (98)

After this short presentation of the highlights on human dignity which can be found in the Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa”, I would now like to contextualize this text in the concrete work and projects of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC to figure out, that the Christian concept of human dignity can indeed be action guiding in our everyday lives as student leaders.

What are our concepts and values in concrete and which activities do we use to implement them? I could refer to our website one more time, but I will leave this reference up to you and illustrate however some highlights from the recent past and those which are planned for the near future:

During our Colloquium in March we reconsidered a topic discussed already in 2004: Integral Education. We found out, that this more or less ambiguous term must not necessarily be associated with Hindu or New Age doctrine, but can also be based on Catholic views on the human being. Integral Education understood from this perspective aims at the whole person as image of God being learner and multiplier of skills, values and spirituality. Concerning the interrelatedness of individuals and society, Integral Education also aims at the person’s actions to make up communities. We established a plan of actions starting from this general concept as the general methodological framework to clarify HOW to work on different topics in future. Fortunately the European Youth Foundation awarded a Study Session in the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg for 19th-26th February 2012 on the theme ‘Creating Empowered Students in Human Rights through Integral Education’. This can be regarded as an exemplary activity which focuses at the value of human dignity from both a methodological and thematic point of view: Human Rights as an instance of applied human dignity conveyed by the means Integral Education. In the context of society the concept of Integral Education certainly promotes Active Citizenship. This was a core element of all JECI-MIEC activities throughout 2011. Active Citizenship is a long term objective, which has to be always viewed, evaluated and contextualized from different perspectives and with different focuses. It provides the indisputable precondition for tolerance, peace-building and conflict resolution. These generally in both religious and secular contexts decisive social aims were covered in our Study Session in July. This Study Session was an activity of JECI-MIEC Europe in cooperation with the international Level of IMCS Pax Romana. Using such an approach, we provided the opportunity to realise intercultural learning by experiencing the realities of different organizations all over the world and offered a platform for fruitful dialogue. The sessions covering these ideals went far beyond mere definition and theoretical reflection of tolerance, peace-building and conflict resolution, but tried to contextualize them within our students’ realities and aimed to make them practicably recognizable among the single National Organizations. As the Study Session shows, these values can be elementary achieved through Intercultural Learning. This was also addressed during our Colloquium in Kaunas in March. The way JECI-MIEC promotes Intercultural Learning is mostly informal: A lot of learning experience flows from the participants’ diversity itself; further activities such as intercultural evenings appear to be pleasant and informative. Among all participants the general willingness for intercultural exchange was recognizable throughout all activities.

All of the named concepts can again be found theoretically reflected in one more passage of John Paul II. Apostolic document:

“While restating the ethical criteria which must guide the marketplace and the economy in scrupulous respect for the centrality of the human person, the Church will not fail to engage in dialogue with persons involved in political life, unions and business. This dialogue should aim at building a Europe seen as a community of peoples and individuals, a community joined together in hope, not exclusively subject to the law of the marketplace but resolutely determined to safeguard the dignity of the human person also in social and economic relations.” (87)

The everyday work and administration of the European Coordination is done by the European Team, which is annually elected during our European Committee. At the moment the position of the European Coordinator is occupied by me, whereas the newly elected Executive Board will start its work from the 1^st of January 2012 on. Namely the members are Laura Sopon from ASTRU-Cluj Romania, Ryan Merceica from MKSU Malta, Nuno Wemans from MCE Portugal and coming from Obnova fortunately – Romana Mysula. Till then Fani Freri form EKNE Greece works closely together with me.

The Coordination sees one of its essential roles as a sort of link between National Organizations and external partners throughout Europe:

As it regards the member organizations, JECI-MIEC Europe strives for maintaining internal contacts and stability by doing visitations, helping with concrete problems and offering programs for students as well as young student leaders. Moreover the Coordination keeps contact and strives for collaboration with the international levels of IYCS/JECI and IMCS/MIEC Pax Romana as well as with the academics’ organization ICMICA/MIIC Pax Romana. The communication with the movements is regularly done via e-mail, Google groups of movements and through the participants in the Committees.

As it regards other partners on European level, the work is mostly about external representation: We for example represent our Coordination towards the “European Youth Forum” (YFJ) during the annual Councils of Members and General Assemblies.

Also these representational and contact tasks undertaken by the Coordination can be led by suggestions we can find in the words of John Paul II.:

“At the same time, it is a matter of becoming involved in the processes of social communications, in order to make them more respectful of the truth of information and of the dignity of the human person. In this regard, I invite Catholics to contribute to the establishment of a code of ethics for those who work in the field of social communications, letting themselves be guided by the criteria […] listed as follows: ‘respect for the dignity of the human person, for his or her rights, including the right of privacy; service to truth, to justice and to human, cultural and spiritual values; respect for diverse cultures to avoid their disappearance within the majority, protection of minority groups and of the weak; pursuit of the common good, over and above particular interests and the predominance of economic criteria alone’.” (63)

Apart from the Study Session in February, which I mentioned already, the European Coordination JECI-MIEC will finally hold a European Congress in September 2012, where the working guidelines for the next four years will be elaborated jointly and afterwards adopted in the following European Committee as the highest decision-making body.

At this point I would kindly invite you to our Study Session in February 2012 and especially to the European Congress in September 2012 to bring in your ideas on how the future work of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC should look like, to take part in discussions and decisions and finally to meet students from all over Europe who share similar values, tasks and challenges and come together in the unity of Catholic faith.

Summarisingly I would again like to quote one more statement from the Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa”, which joins the concept of human dignity as conveyed by John Paul II. and the youth work to be done on European level. It illustrates in my eyes best what our Coordination – which again consists of its member organizations – should strive for. I do not claim to have achieved these ideals already, since it would sound vain:

“[…] we need to rediscover the authentic meaning of Christian volunteerism. Born of and continually nourished by faith, Christian volunteer work should combine professional skills and genuine love, impelling those engaged in it ‘to lift their feelings of good will towards others to the heights of Christ’s charity; to renew every day, amid hard work and weariness, their awareness of the dignity of every person; to search out people’s needs and, where necessary, to set out on new paths where needs are greater but care and support weaker’.” (85)

The Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa” can be found in English on:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_20030628_ecclesia-in-europa_en.html