The FIMCAP, which is short for Fédération Internationale des Mouvements Catholiques d'Action Paroissiale (French for "International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements"), is an umbrella organization for Catholic youth organizations. Its 31 member organizations are based in 28 countries. The FIMCAP was founded in 1962 and is recognised as an official Catholic organization by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.[1] FIMCAP is also a full member of the European Youth Forum.[2]
Already in 1959, French, Belgian and Dutch youth organizations had been working on the project of an international pooling, adopting a joint proposal in Lucerne in October 1959 during the National Presidents' Conference of European Movements affiliated to the International Catholic Youth Federation (ICYF).[3] In 1960, the first delegate conference was held in Munich in the course of the 1960 Eucharistic Congress. On 7–8 October 1961 eleven youth associations officially founded FIMCAP in Munich.[3] The foundation was proclaimed in public on Easter 1962.[4] Since its recognition through the Holy See in 1976, the FIMCAP is an "International Catholic Organization" (ICO) and registered at the Council of Laity in Rome. Since 2006 the FIMCAP is being recognised as an International nongovernmental organization by the Belgian government.[5]
A previous organization had been set up in 1921 in Rome under the name of "International Secretariat of Catholic Youth". The International Secretariat of Catholic Youth was reorganized on 15 September 1948 and renamed to "International Office of Catholic Youth – Bureau international de la jeunesse catholique" and another time reorganized in October 1954 and renamed to "International Federation of Catholic Youth (ICYF)". On 25 April 1968 merged with the "World Federation of Catholic Young Women and Girls" (WFCYWG) to form the "World Federation of Catholic Youth" (WFCY). WFCY ceased to exist in June 1981. Its activities were taken over by FIMCAP, making FIMCAP the biggest international umbrella organization of Catholic youth organizations.[3]
Activities in Europe[7]
FIMCAP and its members have defined for themselves the goal that they want to work together politically to identify and advocate the interests of children, adolescents and young adults within church, society and politics. FIMCAP argues that this is necessarily a part of their work, as FIMCAP is an international association of youth organizations for children, adolescents and young adults throughout the world and that as young people, youth organizations and youth work are confronted with different challenges. FIMCAP argues that this involvement is motivated by the Christian beliefs and shared values. FIMCAP argues that in this way it wants to guarantee and improve the quality of the youth work of their member organizations and FIMCAP, and to participate in shaping the future world and society, preserve our planet for future generations, and improve the prospects in general for future generations. FIMCAP sees sustainable and responsible planning and acting, fair social and economic chances, quality education, peace, charity, and solidarity as elementary requirements to achieve this.[13] Pursuing this purpose, in recent years FIMCAP has defined in particular the following positions:
FIMCAP Europe
Source:[37]
The highest committee of the FIMCAP is its General Assembly which comes together every three years. Every member organization sends a delegation to the General Assembly.
The administration and management of the FIMCAP is being handled by the intercontinental presidium which consists of two presidents, a Praeses and a Secretary-General. The presidents should be one man and one woman, but if there are no candidates of one gender the jobs might also be given to two women or two men.
The intercontinental bureau (ICB) is composed of the Presidium and representatives of the Continental Conferences. It acts as the FIMCAP Board of Directors.
Beneath these globally working establishments, the FIMCAP is also structured into continental conferences, bureaus and presidiums.
All Catholic youth organizations can apply for membership in FIMCAP. The General Assembly of FIMCAP needs to confirm the membership of an applying member organization in a vote. Non-Catholic youth organizations can obtain the status of associate membership in FIMCAP.
At the General Assembly in Switzerland in 2016 FIMCAP further clarified the criteria of eligibility for membership and updated the membership categories. To become a Full Member of FIMCAP an organization needs to fulfill four criteria:
Organizations fulfilling three out of the four criteria can apply for becoming an Affiliate Member of FIMCAP. Organizations only fulfilling two out of the four criteria can apply for becoming a Sustaining Member of FIMCAP. Full Members have full voting rights, Affiliate Members limited voting rights.
An organization whose name is written in bold is a founding member.
The presidium of FIMCAP Europe is elected by the delegates of the European member organizations at the EuroConference which takes place every three years. The presidium of FIMCAP Europe consists of four members: three members of the pool of presidents and a spiritual assistant. The elected members of the pool of presidents distribute the responsibilities of the presidium among themselves. These tasks include the representation of FIMCAP Europe in the Intercontinental Bureau Meeting, coordinating activities of FIMCAP Europe, and representing FIMCAP Europe externally. The spiritual assistant consults FIMCAP Europe concerning spiritual and theological issues. The current members of the presidium of FIMCAP Europe are:[38]
Over the years the statutes of FIMCAP Europe have been adapted and the profiles and names of the different positions in the presidium have been changed. Until the pool of presidents was introduced at the EuroConference in Malta in 2017 the presidium of FIMCAP Europe consisted of a president, a vice-president, an activity coordinator and a spiritual assistant. The president was responsible for the representation of FIMCAP Europe in the ICB, the vice-president for the external representation of FIMCAP Europe, the activity coordinator for coordinating the activities of FIMCAP Europe and helping the member organizations with the preparations. The role of the activity coordinator had been introduced at the EuroConference in Switzerland in 2014. It replaced the position of a secretary of FIMCAP Europe.[52]
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