FISEC: Fédération Internationale Sportive de l'Enseignement Catholique (International Catholic Schoolsport Federation)
Presenting the FISEC flag, Hungary 2007.
FISEC was estabished in 1948 and is a professional organisation that organizes sports games every year for young people from its member countries. Through national schoolsport federations of its member countries FISEC reaches young people from within Catholic schools from all over the world. Although the FISEC Games are not a goal in themselves for our participants, they may well be an objective, which creates the opportunity for young people to experience sport at a high level within the context of school.
Opening Ceremony Hungary 2007
FISEC's Objectives
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to contribute to the promotion of physical education and sport
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to facilitate encounters and exchange between youngsters
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to contribute to the futher development of sport within the context of catholic education
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to study problems related to sport, within the context of international (educational) organisations
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to organise sports events which include cultural activities and exchange to support FISEC's aims
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to contribute to mutual understanding and friendship between adults and youngsters in the increasingly globalising world.
FISEC wants to offer more than just competition. In its activities the organization aims at stimulating sports by professional sports educators, within a well-defined pedagogical framework, including human values, fair play, social and cultural aspects. Apart from the professional set-up of the sports events FISEC aims at including in its Games the added value of cultural exchange and human interest.
Since 1992, FISEC has made it its objective to professionalise its organization and events by strictly defining the conditions in the so-called FISEC Handbook and by introducing an official "Contract for the Organisation of the FISEC Games" which is binding for both the Organizing Committee and the FISEC.
Mission Statement
“Sport … frees young people from the snare of apathy and indifference and arouses a healthy sense of competition in them … it contributes to the love of life, teaches sacrifice, respect, and responsibility, leading to the full development of every human person.” (Pope John-Paul II).
Sport is a leisure pursuit, an achievement pursuit, a show of obedience to the drive to self-display, a means for young people to meet on a supra-national level, and a means of symbolic cultural exchange.
Sport has ethical implications, especially as an international youth movement and as a symbolic cultural exchange. Recent writings on sport have explained that sport has an internal morality of its own that centres on the mutual quest for excellence through challenge.
For the world of sport still has its sound environments and still has generous people who are striving to reclaim the ideal of sport as a real school of humanity, virtue, and life. The first and the most important purpose of sport must be to foster the advancement of the person who practises it. For FISEC playing fair is the expression of these ideas.
The structure of FISEC brings forward the moral purpose of the organization. FISEC has a technical commission to organize sport, but it is unique in having a pastoral and pedagogical commission that puts at the forefront the values and ideals of the organization. Through this commission (abbreviated as CIRPP) FISEC will ensure that the whole meaning of sport is inculcated in our athletes. This commission is formed by delegates from each member country. The members of this pastoral team offer guidance and counselling, listening, community, and rehabilitation – not only as sports service providers, but as important pathways of life, that is geared to fundamental values.
The leaders and coaches of the teams should have a passion for education, which is a true concern for the lives of those entrusted to their care. They are developing the ‘whole person’, and not just a ‘sports person’. The passion for education is the unique aspect that characterizes voluntary youth sport. It distinguishes mere ‘service providers’ from true educators.
The members of FISEC are national organizations who promote school sport. FISEC is the link between schools to international level of participation. FISEC provides the opportunity for cultural engagement.
Beyond the sport FISEC offers other activities – religious and cultural – that further the values of educating the whole person. Our young people dream of great achievements. FISEC seeks to establish role models that influence the structuring of personalities through putting forward sports people and coaches who show good example. The code of conduct (see Appendix) is a practical application of our values.
All activities, including the activities of the pastoral and technical commissions, and the executive officers (the Bureau) are measured by how successful they are at promoting the values in our mission.
History of FISEC
Sport today is a field of Christian mission, in other words it is the frontier of the new evangelization. Our organization, FISEC (Fédération Internationale Sportive de l’Enseignement Catholique) is universal and all-embracing. It does not exclude any area of human life, personal or social. It finds its origin in the initiative taken by the French sports organization of Catholic schools (UGSEL) in 1946 under the suggestion of their secretary general Yves Bouvyer, in collaboration with Professor Pierre Paul De Nayer (Belgium) and Mr. Walsh (Great Britain). In those times, the promoters of the idea wanted to attract the attention of the participants in education, especially those working in Catholic education, to increase these activities in the physical and human formation of young people.
Following two soccer tournaments with English, Belgian and French participants in 1946 and 1947, FISEC came into being. In 1948 the first tournament for boys was organized in Monaco. FISEC was founded officially in 1947 in Brussels. The founding countries were Belgium, France, and Great Britain. In 1952 Spain joined FISEC and the first games for girls were organized in 1959 in Leuven (Belgium). During the following years several other countries joined. In 1980, the games for boys and those for girls merged into one organization.
FISEC provides sport for boys and girls under 17 years of age. The games include the following disciplines: athletics, swimming, football, futsal, handball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis.
In July 1995 the International Olympic Committee recognized the FISEC organization. Today FISEC comprises many countries from around the world.
FISEC will endeavour to encourage the search for pathways that can truly restore the true face of sport and lead it back to the lofty ideals in which sport has its roots. As it has always been stated by Catholic leaders, sport is an instrument for the moral and spiritual elevation of the human person.