HistoRY

Years later, after World War II, when some were trying to build new popular educational initiatives, new educators went back to the proposals made by the founders of Catholic scouting.

On November 1^st, 1956 in Cologne, Germany, about thirty young German and French leaders met; they were Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. Their meeting gave birth to the “Federation of European Scouting”.

After a three day long discussion, they agreed on a document in ten articles, i.e. the Federal Statute. The first article says: “The Federation of European Scouting is founded. It is an international scouting association, made up of national sections. Its aim is to practise Baden Powell’s Scouting method, within the European frame and on the Christian bases included in the idea of a united Europe.”

As official emblem for all associations, the Federation adopted a Maltese cross with eight points and a golden fleur-de-lis. This choice was not made per chance. It was on All Saints’ Day, when the Church proclaims solemnly the eight Beatitudes to the whole world. For the FES, these Beatitudes are precisely symbolised by the eight points of its emblem.

Starting on November 1^st, 1956, the Federal Council met annually. It still does nowadays. At the Federal Council meeting of the following year, a second text was written, entitled “Religious Directory”. It developed the first article of the Federal Statutes and set the rules of religious life in the units. The Religious Directory of 1957 says in its first article: “The organisation called Federation of European Scouting recognises the full value of Christian faith. It acts and makes decisions according to the rules of this faith”.

With an extraordinary sense of symbolism, the young leaders gathered in Cologne chose a badge to be worn on one’s heart, summing up their entire ideal. 

The badge of all the scouts in the world is the fleur-de-lis, chosen by Baden-Powell because it used to point North on former compasses and sea charts.

With this symbol, Baden-Powell wanted to make clear his intention to train characters, i.e. to train men and women capable of making their way and keeping their lives on course, regardless of social and psychological background changes around them.

For the young people gathered in Cologne, the polar star pointed at by the fleur-de-lis of the compass was Christ, who died on a cross and resurrected for the salvation of all men. This cross, red with the blood of Christ, has eight points symbolising the eight Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, an exciting life programme for those who want to follow Christ.

General Commissioner, Karl Schmitz Moormann, from Germany, living in Paris in 1957 for his studies, asked Pierre Joubert, the famous scout illustrator and great heraldry expert, to draw the badge. 

For aesthetic reasons, Joubert looked for a cross thick enough in the centre to include the golden lily, and his choice fell on the eight-pointed cross of the Cistercian Abbey of Morimond, which later became the cross of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem.

A background paper written at the end of 1959 helps us to better understand the spirit of these young people.

“Some boys and girls agreed it was impossible to start fighting again every 20 years against one another and to have millions of war orphans just waiting for their turn to leave for a new war…

Because in front of destroyed cities, children burnt by napalm, children with only one leg left limping on between two crutches, and men with no hands, no eyes, something rose inside us and shouted “Enough!” (…)

Because, as we saw in camps, and in rallies we had shared, that nothing, absolutely nothing separated us, and friendship developed among French people, Austrians, Belgians, and Italians…

So, we engaged in this battle against those who want to make mistrust and hatred grow among us. And so, with our smile and our open hands only, and the little we possess, that is the heart of a free and loyal human being, we went towards one another, accepting the same cross superimposed with the golden lily…

So, Reformed, Catholic, Orthodox, we only wanted to remember that Christ died for all (…) and we wanted to see in the other a total Christian whom God loves. And beyond the divisions of men, we wanted to be therefore Scouts of Europe…”

These young leaders also dared to add something new and important to the text of the Promise: faithfulness to Europe. Thirty years before it was adopted by the European Union, the twelve golden star flag was flying on all FES camps. The first Guides and Scouts of Europe would also see in it a Christian symbol, i.e. the twelve stars of the Virgin Mary’s crown as described in the book of Revelation.

In its early years, the Federation included scout groups in Germany, France, England and Belgium. In number, FSE was still small but it carried out many international exchanges: its European spirit and the European contacts it developed in its units made European Scouting stand out from the other scouting organisations existing at the time. It multiplied visits, meetings, twinning activities and common camps. In the French publication Passat for scouts and guides we can read: “The Summer camp is above all an opportunity to get to know Europe and our brother scouts better. A troop or company NEVER goes camping alone but always with boys or girls from another country”.

FSE organised “federal camps” or “Jamborettes”. In 1959, the first federal camp was held in Wasserfal, Germany, with about 150 German, French and Belgian participants. The following year, a second federal camp was held in Saint-Loup de Naud, near Provins, in the Paris region, with 200 German, French and Belgian participants, plus British participants who had recently joined FSE. In 1962, a third federal camp in Botassart, Belgium, rallied 250 scouts and guides. In 1964, a fourth camp took place in Marburg, Germany, with 400 scouts and guides. Another one was organised in Kergonan in Brittany, France, in 1968.

In 1962, Perig Géraud-Keraod and his wife Lizig joined the French FSE association. In a few years, they passed on to the movement a specific spirit and a living dynamism, in a word, a soul. They were the French association’s general commissioners for almost 25 years. They were also in charge of FSE at the European level. Thanks to their action and despite external difficulties, FSE experienced a considerable development in France and throughout Europe. In 1986, when the couple stepped down, FES counted more than 50,000 members. Therefore, we can truly consider them to be the real founders of FES.

Perig Géraud-Keraod (1915-1997) was a scout when he was young. During World War II, he took an active part in the French Resistance. After the Liberation, he was an active member of the Breton Catholic Mission in Paris.

In October 1962, Pierre Géraud-Keraod (Perig in Breton) and Lucienne (Lizig in Breton) joined FSE with their 7 groups of the “Bleimor Scouts Community”, from the Breton Catholic Mission.

Perig Géraud-Keraod gave new momentum to the French association and to the whole FSE. He wanted to make Father Sevin’s Catholic Scouting revive, integrating a European spirit and dimension into it. Thanks to the couple’s action, the Religious Directory was revised in March 1963. A large part of the Charter of Catholic Scouting, which the Holy See had promulgated on June 13^th, 1962, was incorporated. At that time too, the ceremonial and the uniform were defined, and the first training camps for leaders and for patrol leaders took place. Perig and Lizig also launched a wide-ranging reflection process on the Scouting principles, leading to the writing and signature by the federated associations of the « Charter of Natural and Christian principles of European Scouting » in June 1965.

In 1974, the Canadian association was founded. In 1976, a Catholic association was set up in Germany. Associations were also set up in Italy and in Luxemburg.

In order to take these new developments into account, and to prepare for the future, the Federation structured its organisation on more appropriate bases. The Federal statutes were updated. With the new Federal statutes, the official name became the name known today, i.e. ”Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d’Europe – Fédération du Scoutisme Européen” (International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe – Federation of European Scouting). From then on, FSE became UIGSE-FSE.

In 1977, the German Protestant association and the Swiss association were set up, and then the Spanish and Portuguese associations in 1978. The Austrian association appeared in 1981.

On March 12^th, 1980, the Council of Europe granted to UIGSE-FSE advisory status within the Conference of International Non-Governmental Organisations. Now, it has participatory status. On November 9^th, 1989, the news of the Berlin Wall fall broke during the meeting of the Federal Council in Rome. From then on, the development of UIGSE-FSE began to spread beyond the former “Iron Curtain”. The main architect of this development was the new Federal Commissioner, Gildas Dyèvre, strongly supported by the French, Italian, German and Belgian associations.

For 50 years, communism worked vigorously and relentlessly to wipe out faith from the lives of the peoples from Central and Eastern Europe. But it failed and UIGSE-FSE received information and help requests from many countries where people wanted to know about Christian Scouting so as to be able to act through it to evangelise youth. This led to the birth of new scouting associations that joined UIGSE-FSE, i.e. in Hungary in 1990, in Romania in 1991 and in Lithuania in 1992. In Poland, the Catholic scouting association ZAWISZA, founded clandestinely in 1982, joined UIGSE-FSE in 1995. In the following years, new groups were set up in Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Latvia, the Czech Republic, in Slovakia and in Ukraine. In 2003, the Russian association ORIOUR was admitted as “observer”.

Nowadays, UIGSE is composed of more than 67,000 members in more than twenty European countries, extending to Canada, the USA, Mexico and Argentina.