Testimony of faith. Commit yourself where you live

“The doors of the presbytery are open, come! I was not surprised by the invitation launched to young people by the new priest of the village, Jean-Marie Kauffmann, from his first mass. Also interested: I will go, but not alone. My mother made an apple cake, her specialty, because we are not going to someone empty -handed, especially with the parish priest, and I took my sister and my neighbor. I was 17 years old. A path opened, that I was far from imagining.

With other young people, I set up the presby-club (we met at the presbytery) to “move the town”. Father Jean-Marie introduced us to the youth Christian worker (JOC). We voted and decided to join this popular education movement. Meetings, life revisions from the “see, judge, act” method, training weekends … The JOC has forged my convictions, opened my life on the world, on the place of the most precarious.

My faith grew up. I became responsible for the village group, then for a federation. Take responsibility in terms of a sector, the region, then on a national level left me from my comfort. By walking with people from other cultures and religions, I discovered the universality of the Church. Awakened to union and political engagement, I acquired skills. Alongside nuns who lived in the cities, workers’ priests, my faith was rooted in the life of those called “the little ones”.

After four years of national engagement at the JOC, back home, in Moselle, I invested myself in my parish: choir, preparation of the sacraments … To help me answer the questions of people, I passed a license in theology. In each person, I try to see features of Christ. I like to say that we are like the disciples of Jesus on the path of Emmaus. Sometimes we recognize it, sometimes doubt wins. A few months before the end of a third mandate to the municipal council as deputy mayor, I remember a word from Cher Jean-Marie Kauffmann, who had deceased since: “No matter where you live, where you work, hear the calls that are launched to you, start there. Today, I see how much my commitments with others fill my life as a single.