CLC Europe Forced Migration Network meets in Barcelona

The CLC migration network is going to hold its next meeting 7-9 April 2017 in Barcelona (Spain). Members of the national communities are kindly invited to participate and join establishing  a structure at the level of CLC in Europe that allows the coordinated work and development of the apostolic line of migrations in Europe.

According to G.P. 8 “aware of the pressing need to work for justice through a preferential option for the poor, and a simple lifestyle that manifests our freedom and our solidarity with them.”

The objectives of this meeting are:

  • Defining and establishing  a structure at the level of CLC in Europe that allows the coordinated work and development of the apostolic line of migrations in Europe. (Within this objective the new designation of the coordination of this line is established).
  • Establishing priority lines of action in the area of ​​migration for CLC in Europe (A Community Apostolic Plan)
  • To concrete what actions are planned to develop as CLC in Europe to develop and concretize the action of the Apostolic Plan.

 

Recipients: The people who attend the meeting will be sent by the Ex-co of each national community. They will bring information on the reality of the migrations of their country and the action of CLC there. After the meeting, they are expected to facilitate the interrelation between the European network and its National Ex-co.

 

Working material: In order to achieve these objectives, a work is requested prior to the meeting between the National Ex-co and the persons sent. This preparation will help the discernment in the meeting respond to the calls of the reality of migration and be rooted in the reality of our communities.

A document based on the information provided by the national communities for the Luxembourg 2014 meeting will be sent in advance.

 

The price of the stay is € 100 per person. The economic issue should not be an impediment to the participation. It is a sending from the Nationals Ex-co, so they should assume the expenses of the people sent to it.

If you need financial support, write formal solicitude on behalf of the National Community to Ann Sieuw treasurer of the euro team :

clc-cvx-euroteam@googlegroups.com

 

Registration: Before 1 March 2017, we ask that you:

  1. Fill in the form by entering this address: https://goo.gl/5Dli8D (change)
  2. Make a bank transfer to the account of CVX-Spain indicating in the concept: “Meeting Migrations Europe + name and surname”.

Account number: ES63 0049 4832 80 2395071627

Entity: Banco Santander Central Hispano

Holder: Community of Christian Life in Spain

You’ll find attached the meeting schedule.

For any query or clarification you can contact through María Morales:

migrantsnetworkcvx.e@gmail.com

 

PROGRAMME

7th CLC Migration Network Encounter in Europe

Barcelona 8-9 April

Saturday

09:30 Welcome and Presentation of objectives

10:00 Start – Presentations.

10:45 History and current moment of the European CLC migration network.

11:15 Work in groups.

            – Courses of action of the network.

– Knowing and learning about the actions of Nationals CLCs.

– Future Proposals

BREAK

13.15 Personal Prayer

14:00 Lunch.

15:30 Plenary session on priority lines and their future challenges.

16:15 Fair of projects for the network.

– Ragusa and other projects proposed by the national communities.

17:15 Presentation of the structure renewal proposal.

17.45 BREAK – GROUP PHOTO

18:15 Dialogue in groups and in plenary about the new structure.

20.15 Day’s exam.

20.30 Dinner

Evening: Social evening.

Sunday

 08:30 Prayer

 09:00 Breakfast

09:30 Collecting the ideas from the previous day

09:45 Work in groups. Priority lines and actions, network projects and structure.

10:30 Plenary. Validation of priorities and structure of the network.

11:30 BREAK

12:00 Election of the new coordination team

12:30 Eucharist and sending each one back to their Communities.

14:00 Lunch and farewell

   Preliminary thoughts for preparation and encouragement

“When we forget compassion, forget God. God is a God of compassion” Nicholas P.

  In 1999, the CLC National Communities in Europe met in Slovenia to prioritize the promotion of justice for the marginalized, identifying the field of forced migration as the priority area in which to fulfill that command.

Two years later, in July 2001, the communities met in Malta, shared experiences and produced a working document that reflected CVX’s positioning and possible actions in this field. The communities assumed the migratory phenomenon as a priority field of mission and the creation of an European CLC Network on forced migration.

In November 2014 in Luxembourg we met 28 people from 8 European CLC Communities: Austria, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Spain and Hungary. They shared with us their work experiences as members of CLC related to migrants and for us it meant being aware that our communities should think globally and act locally. We may not be able to change the deepest gaps in our society or the macroeconomic system, but from our mission we must find a way to find and accompany the disinherited on earth, discovering in them the image of God.

Denis Dobblestein, consultant to the World CLC Executive Council, a member of the Community in Belgium, shared his thoughts on the mission of CLC in Europe in the field of migration, on Migration Network and its place on national communities’ lives and possible criteria and tips to grow as an Apostolic Body.

Adelaida La Casta, Eurolink of CVX in Spain, shared that from the World Exco, CLC was asked in Spain to encourage and coordinate the Migration Network in Europe, which until now had led the community of Luxembourg through Agnès Rausch. And after a discernment in the National Migrations Team, we offer to continue the work done so far by Agnès.

At the same meeting, CVX Italia put forward a proposal to organize at European level a volunteer experience in southern Italy in contact with the refugees and asylum seekers who are arriving in their territory.

We have already organized and coordinated two editions of this project. For the first time, CLC Europe have managed a common project, offering an experience of nearness of the refugee’s reality. Only few of us were there in person, from different national Communities, but much more of us have been participating by mean of our CLC National’s support to the experience and by their prayers. It’s been an enriching experience but we had to give an urgent answer without a previous reflexion as an European network.