Association des Scouts et Guides de Riaumont

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Scouting

The association des scouts et guides de Riaumont, (organization of the scouts and guides of Riaumont) is a small French catholic scouting organization related to the village d'enfants de Riaumont (childrens' village). They run three troops, one in Riaumont, one in Fontgombault, and one in Paris.

Its scouts are known to wear leather shorts.

Stemming from a troop of Scouts de France in the 1960s, the Association des Scouts et Guides de Riaumont (Association of the Scouts and Guides of Riaumont). It is today an association affiliated to the Eclaireurs Neutres de France (ENF), movement of Scouting founded in 1947, approved by the ministry for Youth and Sports. Each weekend, as well as at the time of the camp organized in July, the Scout units of Riaumont (willow, wolf cubs, guides, scouts, guides elder and lorry drivers) are opened to the children from outside. The village has some curiosities which milked with the Scouting, a such monument with the memory of the Scouts who died for France, a "Scout" museum which gathers many badges and parts of uniform resulting from various associations or, still, various vestments and objects having belonged either to Scout chaplains, or with chaplains of the trenches, lasting it First World War. In addition, for the researchers and academics, the "Scout laboratory" gathers many works, newspapers and writings various on Scouting.


The religious order

The religious community of Sainte-Croix (Holy-Cross) celebrates the liturgy according to the 1962 form of the Roman Rite, under the provisions of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Its statutes attribute a twofold origin to it: Benedictine (the monks are Benedictine Oblates) and the scout movement. The frieze and the dress of ceremony refer to religious military orders. The main symbol is the potencée, distinguished cross of the scouts of France and originating from the cross of kingdom of Jerusalem.


The village

The village d'enfants de Riaumont is a technical school for difficult boys located in Liévin, near Lens, in northern France. It is run by benedictine monks of the Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, created to fulfil a wish by father Jacques Sevin, the best known founding father of French catholic scouting.

In addition of being teached, boys also belong to a special troop called the "spahis". Spahis wear a blue shirt, a red neckerchief and a red "calot" (small hat), and only those able to understand what a scout Promise is are allowed to pronounce it.

Parts of the village have been decorated with paintings specially designed by Pierre Joubert himself.

Built for young people at the request of the DDASS (the French social services) and the judges of Pas-de-Calais, this centre and independent school ("Ecole hors contrat" - one of a small number of schools independent of the Education Nationale) accepts children with problems. The children have worked on the various building sites (reception centres, farm, chapel, scout building, monastery, etc.), sometimes as a practical application of vocational teaching courses, helping to transform the initial reception centre into a Catholic monastic centre. In parallel, Father Revet determined to set up a religious scouting movement.

In 1979, the DDASS decided to close the centre in April 1982. The establishment now accommodates children placed by their family, in particular children originating from South-east Asia. The village and religious community was directed since its foundation in the 1960s by Father Revet, until his death in 1986.

The boarding school

The children from sixth to ninth grade are accommodated with the boarding school Holy Jean Bosco, located in the building "Beaumanoir". The pupils have been prepared for more than ten years for the official examination of Brevet des collèges (first French diploma, obtained after 4 years of junior high school) in the general and technical topics. The children subscribe to the "Hattemer course" (mail-given / correspondence course) and the courses are given by the brothers of Riaumont as well as by external voluntary teachers. The classes are far from numerous (between five to about fifteen pupils) and the pupils are all "boys of Riaumont" but the courses of catechism are also open to the children of the surroundings. The extracurricular activities are numerous: do-it-yourself, froissartage, penmanship and printing works, film club, games in the castle, dealing with the farm and the animals, chorus, brass band and music, readings in the children's library, heraldic workshop, sports activities, etc.


The pedagogy of the school is presented in the form of a return to the Christian realism, inspired by scouting founded by Robert Baden-Powell. The teaching objective of the school is to carry out a fully Christian education ' ' taking as a starting point the realism thomist and the pedagogy of scouting ' '. It is a question of showing, by the practice, the benefits of the traditional scouting which joins again with the wisdom of philosophy thomist in an original return to reality, by the practice of the campism and manual work. Concerning pedagogy scoute itself, some compare it to the description given by the historian of scoutng Jean-Jacques Gauthé in an article of the newspaper Le Monde of September 2, 1998 entitled ' ' the Little Soldiers of scouting : "Defense of the true scouting, since they estimate that this one was denatured by the Scouts de France [...] defense of the true faith through the mass of saint Pie V [...] dispute of the values resulting from the Revolution of 1789 [...] constant references to the counter-revolution of which they marry the topics [...] the will to form a Catholic elite is manifest"


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