Which values connect us in Europe? And which values connect us as Kolping Youth? In August, 41 youngsters from 15 European countries dealt with these questions in Nuremberg. The Youth Week 2017 was hosted by Kolping Youth Bamberg. “Even though the participants stem from so different parts of Europe, the week showed that some values are shared by all of us”, said Sven Messing (Kolping Youth Leader in the Diocese of Bamberg) who prepared the event together with Johanna Gärtner, Natascha Künkler, Johannes Mayer, Christoph Will and Theresa Straub.
The participants from Albania, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine worked on answering the questions raised at the beginning of this article. While discussions, workshops and outdoor activities the topic of Human Rights came up to be relevant, also for Nuremberg. As it is widely known, during the Third Reich the city was very important for the National Socialist Party due to celebrating their annual party conferences. The group visited the Congress Hall, the biggest preserved National Socialist monumental building, which nowadays houses a museum that shows the times when rights were violated. As a contrast to the sad history, the participants went to the “Street of Human Rights”, a place in the city centre that was created to promote their importance.
But how can we influence the future while having our values in mind? In order to answer this question the youngsters took part in a political role-play as campaigners. They were divided into different parties, were given an election program and were asked to present it to others. In this simulated election campaign, it was striking that a persuasive presentation with manipulative argumentation can influence one’s opinion – even if that person does not share the values promoted by the party.
During the week, the international group had the chance to get to know interesting personalities. One of them was the Mayor of Nuremberg, Dr. Klemens Gsell, who welcomed the group in the Historical City Hall. Another significant person was the Auxiliary Bishop of Bamberg, Herwig Gössl, with whom the group explored the importance of Christian Values in present and in future.
At the end of the week, the participants of the Youth Week celebrated a Final Event together with members of the local Kolping Youth. During the event, the international guests showed previously made posters informing about their home countries and their Kolping activities. Afterwards, the young people took part in fireside chats with Prof. Dr. Klaus L. Wübbenhorst (Economic Head of the Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg), Lisi Maier (Head of the Catholic Youth Associations in Germany), Anna-Maria Högg (Head of Kolping Youth Germany) and Simone Detzlhofer (Head of Kolping Youth Bavaria).
An international Holy Mess summarized the week. The interior of the church was dominated by a 7-meter-high cross on which the flags of all participating countries were placed. It had a very metaphorical meaning as the cross was made of puzzles highlighting the fact that all our countries are unique but connected. During the Holy Mess, the participants put twelve yellow stars on a blue cloth that was placed at the foot of the cross. Each star contained one value that we identified as being shared by us as Kolping Youth. This led to creating the flag of Europe symbolically referring to the topic of the week, “Europe – Common values?!”
This project was funded by the European Union (Erasmus+), the Catholic Funds, the Citizen Movement for Human Dignity in Middle Franconia and the Doris-Wuppermann-Foundation.
