Germany. From November 24 to 27, a gathering has been held in Spaichingen, with representatives from the major Organism of Central Europe: Germany, France, Italy, Poland and United Kingdom.
It has been useful for the mutual knowledge of the personnel and of the missionary projects of the Organisms.
The Central Europe Conference (CEC) has thus tried to take one more step in the journey after the periodical gatherings of the major superiors and the specific encounters of apostolate that will start a greater interaction. We were aware that this required continuity and overcoming the problems coming from the difference of languages and cultures. The
mutual knowledge has helped us discover some common elements in our Organisms: the effort to understand and bring closer the reality of the youth, the shared mission and the theme of multiculturality with which all of us feel, more or less, committed to the missionary service as well as to community life.
We decided not to elaborate any document at the end of this encounter, but only to assume three simple decisions that we share:
1. That each Organism will make known to the others its own initiatives.
2. That we will think of a second encounter of CEC like that of Spaichingen, after about two years, after the General Chapter.
3. That a team be formed among the Organisms for the youth ministry, starting from the common preparation run for the coming World Youth Day (Madrid 2011).
They are small steps that can be very valuable for the future.