General Meeting of the Foyers de Charité

The Foyers de Charité gathered until Tuesday 21 June as part of the “General Meeting” in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure

250 delegates, priests or lay people, members of the 78 Foyers de Charité of the world, took part in this high point of the work of the Foyers over a period of two weeks.

The agenda for the meeting included the following :

prayer, sharing, reviews, reflection, discernment, organisation, making choices, voting, electing, etc…

The members of the meeting assembled like the “Cenacle”, in a climate of prayer and reflection, to review the life of the Foyers, to elect the “ordinary governance”, to integrate a new governance to meet the demands of the international development, to vote on amendments to the statutes, and establish the pastoral and spiritual guidelines of the work of the Foyers de Charité in the next four years.

• A new governance

This is an important step that will validate a new way of governing the work that will better respond to the international development of the work of the Foyers de Charité:
– The roles of head of the Foyer of Châteauneuf, the “central Foyer” of the Work, and those of the “Moderator Father” will now be separate.
– Consolidation of the collegiate and international mode of governance of the Foyers de Charité.
– Creation of a general secretariat dealing with the main fields of action and expertise (pastoral, legal and financial, communications, etc.) at the head of which lay people (men or women) are appointed.

• The election of the “Moderator Father” and the International Council

At the end of the meeting, the elected coordinators and representatives of the 78 Foyers de Charité in the world elected the “Moderator Father” and the “International Council”, which governs the work.

In 2016, the Foyers celebrated their 80th anniversary !

The year 2016 marked 80 years since its founding in 1936 by Marthe Robin and Fr Georges Finet.

The Foyers de Charité are an international Catholic Work formed in 1936 at the instigation of Marthe Robin and Fr Georges Finet which offer spiritual retreats that are open to all, believers and non-believers. Currently, the 78 Foyers de Charité, which are spread across four continents, welcome more than 50,000 people per year.

• Find reports and videos on the Catholic television channel KTO about the meeting and the Foyers de Charité : http://www.ktotv.com/foyers-charite