France
The walk of hope
From a historical region of Central France, steeped in Christian history and in nature, a Catholic association calls young Europeans to live a spiritual and cultural experience in summer 2012, along part of the trail that traditionally took French people to Santiago. In an interview with SIR Europe, Stefan Lunte, member of the association “Friends of Saint Jacques en Bourbonnais”, describes its most outstanding traits (www.chemin-esperance.eu). What is the walk of hope?“It is an initiative for young people from different countries and with different ages, who are given a chance to walk together for seven days in summer 2012 along part of the Santiago trail in France. As they will be able to walk through some very beautiful places and meet particularly interesting Churches, we hope this will also be a deep spiritual, European experience”.Who are the organisers of the event?“The initiative is organised by an association called “Friends of Saint James” in Bourbonnais, with the support of the bishop of Moulins, mgr. Pascal Roland, and the archbishop of Clermont, mgr. Hippolyte Simon. The association has taken responsibility for all the logistics (meals, dormitories, accommodation, luggage transport, etc.) so that these people will be completely carefree and may walk peacefully, living such an intense experience and discovery”.How many people are expected to join in?“There are six dates they may go, from 21 to 26 July, and up to 50 people a day may go. The organisers will try to arrange things so that there will be people from different countries, languages and cultures in every group that goes, so that it may be something truly exceptional”.How did you think this up? What is the purpose of all this? “I think that, wherever we live, we should all ask ourselves: what could we propose to Europeans, to Christians in Europe, today? Since that area is very beautiful and one can see, in its Romanesque churches and in its monasteries, that Europe does have a Christian heritage, this just occurred to us”. Work: the young for the youngThe “Mouvement rural de jeunesse chrétienne” (Mrjc) is launching a nationwide campaign for access to youth employment with the slogan “Va y avoir du taf” (Get into the work world). The campaign has been inspired by the results of a survey conducted by such Movement in November, which estimated that approximately one million young people are unemployed in France, and 20% of the young population live under the breadline. “Quite neglected and misunderstood – a press release from the Rural Movement states -, the young are alone, if not actually forgotten, faced with the problem of unemployment, which has now become a massive, complex phenomenon, as well as with the uncertainty that is often the most ordinary side of youth unemployment”. Hence the decision to launch the “Va y avoir du taf!” campaign. “Rejecting any form of fatalism – the press release goes on -, the Mrjc Movement is targeted to all political, economic, social and trade-union decision-makers. The ‘Va y avoir du taf’ campaign is a collective call to everyone to do their utmost to reflect on this phenomenon, to bring it into the political arena in the run-up to the presidential and legislative elections of 2012, and, above all, to take action”. All through November, the Movement will organise meetings and debates in the light of the survey about unemployment in France and will promote a specific “research workshop” which will bring together about one hundred young people (17-21 December) to find effective lines of action. “Young acting for the young”, concludes the Movement, which “thus intends to take action to enable the young to express their claims and above all to be listened to, giving powerful messages to the public scene as well as submitting, as a youth movement, effective initiatives on a local scale”.
