After 2 years of postponement because of the Covid, the 12-star camp 2022 finally took place ! In the beautiful city of Assisi, in the footsteps of one the great saints of scouting, St Francis of Assisi, and of his spiritual sister St Clare of Assisi.
18 participants and 12 volunteers from 11 different countries (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Lithuania, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland) came to spend 6 beautiful days in Assisi in a scout brotherhood, from 1st to 6 August.
In a red-branch spirit, we left the campsite everyday to walk and discover beautiful and important places in the life of St Francis and St Clare:
- Rivortorto, where St Francis met and embraced a leper
- the Porziuncola, where St Francis asked mercy to the Lord for all our sins
- Eremo delle Carceri, where St Francis used to retire from the world to praise the Lord through the beauty of Creation
- San Damiano, where the Lord asked San Francis to rebuild his Church, and where then lived St Clare of Assisi
- And the Basilic of St Francis where St Francis is buried
Besides discovering these meaningful places, strenghtening our brotherhood and live a real red-branch camp, we deepened our knowlegdge of our DNA, thanks to various speakers who came to talked to us on various themes:
- Catholic Scouting – the Earl Mario di Carpegna (Attilio Grieco, former President of the UIGSE)
- The UIGSE (Martin Hafner, former Federal Commissioner)
- Europe, its Christian roots and values, particularly through the importance of the family (Vincenzo Bassi, President of the Catholic Family Associations in Europe)
- The specific paths of men and women within their universal vocation to holiness (Father Filip Bohac, Religious Adviser of the Czech Association)
Thanks of all these special guests and the fruitful exchanges of participants, we reflected on today’s issues to better anchor our pedagogy in our contemporary society with all its challenges. As Nathalie Flama, Federal Commissioner, said in her introduction to the camp: “We are not alone, because we belong to a ‘community of faith, prayer and action’ (statutes). And this community is growing day by day: there are almost 70,000 of us in Europe and America and it goes on! We have a role to play in Europe and in the world: to allow more and more young people to live the scouting we propose, because it is true, beautiful, respectful of all creation, deeply rooted in faith and turned towards the future in which we believe!”
We also naturally had Mass everyday thanks to our 3 priests present, we learned about the places thanks to Marisa, we sang and improved our campfire skills thanks to Reyn and Lorène, we enjoyed good Italian food thanks to the wonderful Italian cooker team, and had lots of fun! We had also the joy to conclude the camp with the Scout Promise of Luca, our translator volunteer, in front of the Basilic of St Francis.
Thank you so much to all participants, volunteers and speakers who contributed to this camp!
To conclude, let us meditate on the theme of our 12-star camp, that reminds us that, as scouts, we are here to serve and give our time to others through scouting:
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you take nothing with you that you have received – only what you have given” (St Francis)