International Catholic Conference of Scouting

The ICCS has had, since 1994, the status of consultative body of the WOSM (World Organisation of the Scout Movement) World Committee. It meets together with other religious organisations with a consultative status in the Inter-religious Forum of World Scouting:

• The Council of Protestants in Guiding and Scouting (CPGS)
• The International Link of Orthodox Christian Scouts (DESMOS)
• The International Forum of Jewish Scouts (IFJS)
• The International Union of Muslim Scouts (IUMS)
• The World Buddhist Scout Brotherhood (WBSB)

The consultative status states that the World Scout Committee can consult the ICCS on any subject of both common or specific interest impacting the life of the Scout Movement.

In that respect, the ICCS is capable of enriching reflections and supporting World Scouting through actions in the domain of spiritual fulfilment of the young Catholics who practice Scouting.

Within the WOSM, it contributes to the reflections which have been started to specify the aim and contents of spiritual development, propose plans of action and programmes to assist young people and help them in their spiritual development.

During the last world conference in Baku in 2017, the ICCS has determined, thanks to the votes on certain resolutions, the strengthening of the spiritual dimension within the Scout method, especially by guaranteeing the educational notion of spiritual development and the fundamental scout principle of duty to God. The ICCS and its member associations have been key actors in the evolution of these texts, together with other spiritual and religious currents represented within the WOSM. The ICCS continues its attention and dialogue work, it preserves the amicable links and active cooperation between the various religious organisations within the WOSM. This has happened, for example, when writing documents published by the WOSM on spiritual issues, such as: Guidelines on Spiritual and Religious Development, March 2010, and Guidelines on Spiritual Development, December 2020.

The ICCS enables its members to develop friendly links while working towards and active cooperation between the different religious organisations represented within the WOSM.

It is also in this sense that we need to continue working with the WOSM to find simple and pragmatic solutions which enable the Catholic Scout Associations which want to become part of the World Scout Movement to do so, and to specify even more the status of the Catholic committees within “open” associations.