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Katholische Junge Gemeinde

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Abbreviation KjG
Formation June 17, 1970
Type German non-profit youth organization
Headquarters Düsseldorf, Germany
Location Germany
Members 80.000 members in 24 diocesan organizations
Presidents Anne Schirmer
Marc Eickelkamp
Praeses Eva-Maria Düring
Secretary-General Peter Dübbert
Website www.kjg.de

The Katholische junge Gemeinde (KjG) is a major German Catholic youth organization. KjG has a democratic structure and local groups throughout Germany, mainly in Catholic parishes, with a total of about 80,000 members. The KjG is a member of the Catholic umbrella of youth organizations, Fimcap, and the German umbrella of Catholic youth organizations, BDKJ.

History

[1]

  • 1896: The Katholische Jungmännerverband ('Catholic organization of young men') is founded. It is the predecessor organization of the Katholische Jungmännergemeinschaft (KJG, 'Catholic society of young men').
  • 1915: The national organization of Katholische Jungfrauenvereine Deutschlands ('Catholic organizations of young women in Germany'), the predecessor organization of Katholische Frauenjugendgemeinschaft (KFG, 'Catholic society of young women'), is founded.
  • 1938: Catholic youth organizations were forbidden in Germany by the Nazi regime.
  • 1947: The Katholische Jungmännergemeinschaft (KJG, 'Catholic society of young men') is founded.
  • 1954: The Katholische Frauenjugendgemeinschaft (KFG, 'Catholic society of young women') is founded.
  • 1970: The Katholische Jungmännergemeinschaft and the Katholische Frauenjugendgemeinschaft merge to form the Katholische junge Gemeinde (KjG, 'Catholic youth society').
  • 1979: The federal assembly of KjG decides that the organization will advocate for a nuclear power phase-out.
  • 1995: KjG adopts the Altenberg Declaration (German: Alternberger Erkärung). In the declaration, KjG emphasizes the importance of spiritual assistants being part of the organization's leadership, and that they need to be elected democratically.[2]
  • 2001–2002: KjG calls in their campaign "enjoy the difference" for more tolerance. In particular, the campaign emphasizes that no human being shall be discriminated due to their origin, appearance, race, possession, or other superficial criteria and takes a strong stand against xenophobia.[3]
  • 2005: KjG, along with Fimcap, organized a centre for international exchange during the 20th World Youth Day in Cologne named "feel the spirit" and visited by more than 20,000 pilgrims.
  • 2010: KjG hosted the General Assembly of Fimcap in Munich.
  • 2012: The diocesan branch of KjG in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising hosted the Fimcap EuroCourse 2012.
  • 2013: More than 100 groups of KjG took part with projects in the 72 hours campaign, the biggest social campaign of young people in Germany.
  • 2014: In an election year for the European Parliament, KjG organized the nationwide project YOUrope – Strippenzieher*innen für eine jugendgerechte EU. The aim of the project was to encourage young people to think about youth rights and to show them possible ways to participate in political processes.[1]

KjG and contemporary worship music

KjG had a significant influence on the development of contemporary worship music (German: Neues Geistliches Lied, NGL) in Germany.[4]

Patron and motto

The patron of KjG is Thomas More (1477–1535). The motto of KjG is "I never thought of consenting to a matter, if it would defy my morals." This quote is attributed to Thomas More.[5]

Emblem

The emblem of KjG is called Seelenbohrer, 'soul drill'. It was designed in 1967 by Alfred Klever, a designer based in the vicinity of Cologne, during a course on screen printing in Altenberg. It represents the motto of the joint Pentecostal meeting of KJG and KFG, the predecessor organizations of KjG, in Münster in 1968: Zur Antwort bereit! ('Prepared for the answer!').[6] At this national meeting the meaning of the emblem was explained as follows: "The dot in the center represents Christ, the Good News and the life. The bar moving around the dot symbolizes the humans who, inspired by the center, try to tackle problems and find and give answers. The arrow represents dynamic. Acting based on the solid ground of the Gospel means at the same time to move on and to pursue goals." Another (self-)ironic interpretation of the emblem is that it represents "beating around the bush, closely missing the goal and than move away quickly".[7]

Structure

Local level

The 80,000 members are organized in various local groups spread all over Germany. Most local groups are based at a parish. However, local groups can be also located at other places such as schools. Each local group usually has a team of voluntary group leaders which prepare activities like e.g. weekly meetings or camps for children, adolescents and/or young adults. Furthermore, each local group has a board of two or more chairpeople (usually as many female as male chairpeople) coordinating the local group. The chairpeople are elected by the regular assembly of all members of the local group. Usually, all members regardless of their age are eligible to vote (some local groups however require a minimum age of 13 and a maximum age of 27).[8]

Diocesan organizations

Diocesan organizations of KjG
File:Wappen Bistum Aachen.gif KjG Aachen[9]
File:Wappen Bistum Augsburg.png KjG Augsburg[10]
File:Wappen Bamberg bis.svg KjG Bamberg[11]
File:Coat of Arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin.svg KjG Berlin[12]
File:Wappen Bistum Eichstätt.png KjG Eichstätt[13]
File:Bistum Essen Wappen.jpg KjG Essen[14]
File:Wappen Erzbistum Freiburg.svg KjG Freiburg[15]
File:Wappen Bistum Fulda.png KjG Fulda[16]
KjG Hamburg[17]
File:Wappen Bistum Hildesheim.png KjG Hildesheim[18]
File:Wappen Erzbistum Köln.png KjG Köln[19]
File:BistumLimburg-logo.svg KjG Limburg[20]
File:Coat of Arms of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.svg KjG Magdeburg[21]
File:Wappen Bistum Mainz.png KjG Mainz[22]
File:Wappen Erzbistum München und Freising seit 2013.svg KjG München & Freising[23]
File:Wappen Bistum Münster.png KjG Münster[24]
File:Wappen Bistum Osnabrück.png KjG Osnabrück[25]
File:BistumswappenPassau.JPG KjG Passau[26]
File:Paderborn-bistum.PNG KjG Paderborn[27]
File:Wappen Bistum Regensburg.png KjG Regensburg[28]
File:Rottenburg-Bistum.PNG KjG Rottenburg-Stuttgart[29]
File:Wappen Bistum Speyer.png KjG Speyer[30]
File:Trier Arms.svg KjG Trier[31]
File:Wappen Bistum Würzburg.svg KjG Würzburg[32]

Notable (former) KjG members

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 "Homepage der KjG: YOUrope". Archived from the original on 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
  2. Back to citation "Geschichte der KjG". www.kjg.org. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
  3. Back to citation "enjoy the difference - Home". www.enjoy-the-difference.de. Archived from the original on 2016-09-17. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
  4. Back to citation Frank, René (2003-01-01). Das neue geistliche Lied: neue Impulse für die Kirchenmusik (in German). Tectum Verlag DE. ISBN 9783828885738.
  5. Back to citation Homepage of KjG
  6. Back to citation Berichte von der Bundeskonferenz der KjG 2011: Freitag, 17.6. Archived 2016-09-19 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Back to citation KjG.de: Der Seelenbohrer
  8. Back to citation "Strukturen der KjG". kjg.de. Retrieved 2016-09-13.
  9. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Aachen
  10. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Augsburg
  11. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Bamberg
  12. Back to citation "Homepage of KjG Berlin". Archived from the original on 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  13. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Eichstätt
  14. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Essen
  15. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Freiburg
  16. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Fulda
  17. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Hamburg
  18. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Hildesheim
  19. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Köln
  20. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Limburg
  21. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Magdeburg
  22. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Mainz
  23. Back to citation Homepage of KjG München & Freising
  24. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Münster
  25. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Osnabrück
  26. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Passau
  27. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Paderborn
  28. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Regensburg
  29. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Rottenburg-Stuttgart
  30. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Speyer
  31. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Trier
  32. Back to citation Homepage of KjG Würzburg
  33. Back to citation "Jens Spahn über Katholizismus und Politik | DOMRADIO.DE". www.domradio.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  34. Back to citation "Lichtblick - Magazine of the youth council of the district Main-Tauber, p. 6" (PDF).
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