A short history of the MCR Suisse romande
Arrival in Switzerland
After its foundation in Paris in 1962, La Vie Montante quickly spread to the dioceses of France. Subsequently, it arrived in Switzerland in 1964/65 thanks to the support of the leaders of Vie Montante France, such as Mr André d'Humière, founder and Mgr Courbe, auxiliary bishop of Paris. Local personalities quickly took over, such as Bishop Barras and Canon Albert Catto, to ensure its development.
The first groups established themselves in the major cities of French-speaking Switzerland such as Geneva and Lausanne, then in the cantons of Valais, Fribourg, and Jura. The canton of Neuchâtel will follow a little later.
In its early days, meetings were exclusively led by priests, few lay people being ready to assume these responsibilities. In 1970, the bishops of French-speaking Switzerland, aware of the development of the VM, assigned Canon Albert Catto the function of chaplain in French-speaking Switzerland. The latter, assisted by cantonal chaplains, not only maintained what had been achieved, but also recruited lay people, trained them and gave them responsibilities, while continuing to create groups. Finally, he set up a French-speaking team responsible for the movement, relying on local and cantonal teams. His efforts were crowned with success and in 1976 he created a committee and a secretariat in French-speaking Switzerland responsible for the direction and development of the movement as well as liaison with the steering committee of Vie Montante France.
These first structures were flexible and were intended to facilitate relations between the cantons and thus create unity in the vision of objectives based on the three pillars defined by the founders: Fraternity, Spirituality, Commitment.
The problem of facilitating meetings quickly aroused the attention of those in charge. The aim was to recruit and train facilitators for local and regional groups. Since 1977 training courses have been organized and since 1978 all the groups of the cantonal associations have been working with a common theme of reflection. Initially, this theme was borrowed from the VM of a region of France. At that time, a small Romand bulletin was also published, which came to be inserted in the French newspaper "Vie Montante".
Transition to independence.
The year 1990 marked the entry of VM Suisse romande into its 25 years of existence. On this occasion, a great feast was organized. More than 3000 people, including a hundred priests and 5 bishops, gathered at the Malley ice rink in Lausanne.
In this dynamic, the movement created its own newspaper - which still appears five times a year. Then, the following year, the annual theme came from France, but was developed in collaboration with the Belgian VM. This collaboration continues to this day, and every year the Belgian-Swiss editorial group meets for a week to finalize its content. Six chapters with biblical texts and examples taken from everyday life are developed. The aim is to provide a framework for reflection and a path for the meetings of the various regional groups.
It was in 1994 that VM Romande adopted the name Mouvement Chrétien des Retraités while keeping VM: MCR-VM.
After these various developments, our movement has achieved a certain stability in its organization. Even today, we can see that the movement has still not crossed the language barriers of our country, which is made up of four different language communities. The MCR-VM exists only in French-speaking Switzerland.
Among the specificities of the movement in French-speaking Switzerland, we can point out a particular approach to ecumenism; indeed, in the regions where the Reformation had imposed itself in the past, the Catholic minority nevertheless founded MCR-VM groups, and these were enriched by a significant number of Reformed who proved to be faithful and committed members.
Therefore, in the 1990s, following the interest of Pastor Ecklin, it was decided, by mutual agreement between the churches, to delegate a pastor to the side of the priest for the spiritual accompaniment of the groups concerned. The French-speaking committee welcomed this situation with great interest and decided to involve pastors in its deliberations, but also to join the Belgian-Swiss group for the drafting of the annual theme. Our Belgian friends having accepted this decision, we have managed to make fruitful what brings us together while respecting our differences.
Thus, the life of our movement continued by marking the great passages such as the 40 and 50 years that were celebrated in the various Swiss cantons. On the eve of the 55th anniversary, the French-speaking committee, in order to strengthen cohesion between the cantons and give more visibility to the movement, had prepared a large gathering in Fribourg for June 2020. But this beautiful project, which had aroused the enthusiasm of our members, had to be abandoned because of the pandemic. The ensuing periods of confinement undermined the activities of the groups, although contacts between members were maintained, thanks in particular to modern means of communication. The long-awaited resumption of meetings was enthusiastic. However, we must note that many members have been weakened by the disease, have left us, or have joined retirement homes.
The problem of recruiting young retirees has become increasingly difficult. We certainly have to offer them different activities, because they are no longer ready to join the elders of the old age for meetings, not feeling old enough...
In order to try to meet these expectations, for the past ten years some parishes have offered a more dynamic formula: they give interested members the opportunity to exchange on the theme of the year, while walking, with a discovery component of religious or secular heritage. This animation meets with some interest, but it requires an additional team of managers to recognize the course, prepare the historical commentary and the animation of the exchanges.
How can we give the retirees around us the desire to join the MCR-VM, to share what we have received, what we are experiencing? How can we convey the message that the time of retreat is also a time of deepening our faith, that we have our place in society and in the church? We all have a long-life experience that we can pass on. This is the challenge we face today and, in the years, to come, so that our movement can continue to fulfil its mission.