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Xavier de Verchère ECAM Lyon class of 1999 AML - New General Chaplain of the Scouts et Guides de France

30 September 2020 Portrait
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Xavier de Verchère : ECAM Engineer, General Chaplain, Writer...

A NEW CHAPLAIN GENERAL FOR SCOUTS ET GUIDES DE FRANCE

On September1, 2020, Xavier de Verchère will officially become the new Chaplain General of the Scouts et Guides de France, taking over from Benoît Vandeputte after six years in office. Appointed by the Conférence des évêques de France, in agreement with the association's Board of Directors, the Chaplain General's mission is to oversee the promotion and education of the faith within the movement. Involved in governance, he is both a member of the General Delegation team and a permanent guest on the Board of Directors, and liaises with the dioceses and their bishops. A rich and important mission for Scouts et Guides de France, a popular education and church movement.
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A NEW MANDATE UNDER THE BANNER OF SALESIAN VALUES AND THE SCOUT METHOD

A native of Lyon and a Scout de France from the age of seven, Xavier de Verchère studied engineering before leaving on a mission to Côte d'Ivoire in 1999, to teach in a school inspired by the pedagogy of Don Bosco. In the 19th century, St. John Bosco dedicated his life to the education of disadvantaged young people and founded the congregation of St. Francis de Sales. It was this heritage that inspired Xavier de Verchère to join the Salesian Congregation in 2001. He then spent a number of years as a scout leader with the Rillieux-la-Pape group, north of Lyon. He then returned to Africa, still with the Salesians, to help children scarred by civil war to aspire once again to a normal life.

For the future Chaplain General, the Salesians and the Scouts have much in common, starting with a missionary ambition to reach out to young people from all walks of life, to give them the opportunity to become committed citizens. Both educational methods aim to enable young people to take their place in society, to live out the values of fraternity and solidarity, and to aspire to ethics and the awakening of spirituality. These are values he was keen to pass on as National Chaplain of the Pioneers-Caravelles (2015-2018), then as Chaplain of the International Department (2018-2020). This new mandate as Chaplain General of the Scouts et Guides de France is a great opportunity for Xavier de Verchère to continue on this path for the next few years: " in a world profoundly marked by change, it is necessary to advocate a system where young people are not simply spectators, but actors in their education and in the world in which they live."

(source: Youtube - émission des livres et vous - RCF Lyon[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf8WWvnT0es])

"Always ready! "This call from Baden Powell, the founder of scouting, echoes in the heads of millions of
young people around the world. On the road, in contact with nature, and witnesses to fraternity between peoples, scouts are Christ's heirs on the march. For if "God has pitched his tent among us", isn't Jesus the Pathfinder, the Guide par excellence, the first Scout? In his light, Scouting transforms itself from a simple school of life designed to train peacemakers, to a school of spirituality from which emerge Christians with a living faith. Commitment and incarnation, living together and roaming, service and communion with creation... Scouting's spirituality carries with it a promise to help young people grow and nourish their faith.
A book to live by!

A priest and Salesian of Don Bosco, Xavier de Verchère is an engineer and teacher by training."

(Source: Les éditions du Cerfs[https://www.editionsducerf.fr/librairie/livre/18417/jesus-le-premier-scout)




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