Holy Family Er

Altar Boys, Young Parishioners & Scouts

Offers for children and young people have a high priority in all six parishes of the parish Holy Family: Scouts, Catholic Young Communities, altar boys and parish youth offer opportunities to participate in the church locally, at the city and diocesan level.

German Scout Association St. George . St. Bruno tribe
Catholic Youth . Golzheim . Lohausen . Stockum Contact (Contact person: Deacon Johannes Burgmer)

Youth events

There are regular special offers for children and young people, e.g. weekly group sessions and/or vacation camps.

Youth services

Regularly there are special offers for teenagers and young adults.

Winter camp

The KJG offers again a winter camp in the time from 28th – 31st December. This year we will go to the youth hostel Lindlar. The participation fee is 95 EUR. In case of financial difficulties please contact deacon Matthias Heyen. Registrations are now being accepted at the pastoral office.– KJG

Level up

Evening prayer for young people is held regularly at 6 p.m. at Holy Family. The series is entitled “Level up”. According to the motto “By young people for young people”, the prayers are prepared by committed people together with Deacon Matthias Heyen. All youth and young adults are invited. The prayers are characterized by modern music, partly from the worship scene, and a youth-oriented catechesis. The next dates areJanuary 22, March 26, June 11, September 3, November 19.

Gift for youth leaders

For all who are active in the catholic youth work in Düsseldorf (altar boys, leadership group, youth association), we offer a small gift – a tube scarf (also called Buff scarf) with a beautiful wheel beater design. If you want to have a scarf, you can register here: https://bdkjdus.de/wir-haben-ein-geschenk-fuer-euch/ Only while stocks last.

Playgroup for Ukrainian children

The mother-child group for refugee Ukrainian children in the premises of the parish center Holy Family is open. Here, in a protected space, the children are given the opportunity to forget their experiences and adventures of the past weeks for a short moment. In addition, the mothers can meet and exchange ideas. Work is currently underway to offer German courses as well. We are looking for parishioners who speak English and/or Russian in addition to German, so that they can accompany and advise the women during necessary official visits. Anyone who would like to get in touch or arrange a place for privately housed Ukrainian families here can contact Ms. Mila Remel, who can be reached via the homepage www.heiligefamilie-kids.de, by e-mail at [email protected] or by mobile at +49 172 7561221. Of course, you can also contact the pastoral office at any time: [email protected] or phone 0211/478050.

Youth activities for children and young people

Altar Boys in the Archdiocese of Cologne

Here you will find many great actions and events for altar boys and girls in the archdiocese of Cologne.

dasein

dasein is a community that is supported and co-organized by the youth ministry of Düsseldorf, Rhein-Kreis Neuss and Kreis Mettmann at: https://dasein.info/ and is aimed at all young people up to 29 years of age and offers many opportunities for “faith and community”!

BDKJ Düsseldorf

The BDKJ Düsseldorf consists of the member associations Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft St. Georg (DPSG), the Katholische junge Gemeinde (KjG), the Pfadfinderinnenschaft St. Georg (PSG) and the Arbeitskreis der Ministranten. Local political representation of the member federations and representatives in the youth welfare committee of the city Duesseldorf are one of the most important tasks of the BDKJ. It is also available for problems and questions concerning youth and community work. Contact, various offers and event information can be found here

News // News

The Holy Family and its ambiguous image of the father

Already the Holy Family is characterized by an ambiguous image of the father. Mary is pregnant, but Joseph is not the father. Today, the concept of social parenthood is gaining ground. Düsseldorf. Joseph, Mary’s husband, has to deal with a conceivably diffuse competitor. His wife is pregnant, but he is not the father. “For what she has conceived is of the Holy Spirit,” an angel tells him in a dream. At least this is how the story is told in the Gospel of Matthew. Joseph complies – and stays with the pregnant woman whom he had actually already wanted to leave. Photo: dpa Later, at the baptism of the growing young man, a voice from heaven will say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And the young man himself, in turn, will call God his Father. Joseph, the foster father, the stepfather, the adoptive father, on the other hand, disappears into the nowhere of biblical oblivion. The adolescent rebellion of his pupil Jesus against his mother Mary and the younger brothers already happens without Joseph’s presence. Once they stand outside and want to talk to Jesus, he snubs them by holding out his hand above his disciples and saying, “Look, this is my mother and these are my brothers!” Practically nothing has been handed down about the relationship between Joseph and Jesus. After all, both were carpenters, or so the Gospels tell us. Some kind of imprint of the younger one by the older one will have existed. And the relationship between the two can thus be a point of contact for many modern patchwork families, which are especially at Christmas in the area of tension between biological and social parenthood. The plurality of lifestyles is shaking up not only the traditional image of marriage, but also that of the family. “Where there are children, there is family,” said the then German President Horst Köhler at the beginning of 2006. But the conceivable manifestations of this family are becoming more diverse. Even though the nuclear family with biological parents on both sides still accounts for by far the largest share, namely about 70 percent, there is also a steadily growing number of stepfamilies as a result of separations and divorces. On the other hand, the number of adoptive families is declining, and there are more and more foster families who temporarily or permanently take in children from other parents, usually through the local youth welfare office. In addition, new reproductive technologies are leading to an increase in the number of ways of realizing children’s wishes – and with them the so-called reproductive families, including same-sex partners. The question of who feels responsible and who is responsible for the well-being of children can no longer be explained solely in terms of bodily or genetic descent. “Consanguinity, in any case, which has been the decisive factor for applicable law as ‘presumed biological descent,’ no longer provides a firm anchor for a comprehensive definition of parenthood,” writes Karin Jurczyk, head of the “Family and Family Policy” department at the German Youth Institute (DJI). The latest issue of its research magazine “Impulse” is devoted entirely to the challenges of social parenthood under the title “More than Father, Mother, Child.” Of course, there have been non-birth parents in the past as well. But those in a partnership tended to take the place of a deceased parent. This succession of natural and social parents has long since developed into a coexistence in the course of the pluralization of life forms: The natural father, for example, remains involved in the children’s lives even after separation and moving out, but at the same time a possible new partner of the mother seeks his role. If the new partner also brings children of his or her own into the new relationship, the network of adult caregivers for the children “in the pool” becomes increasingly complex. Managing this web of diverse expectations and needs is an enormous challenge for the families involved. In a comparative study of the families of about 6,600 children, the DJI concludes “that the vast majority of parents in all family forms cooperate well, but that parents in simple and complex stepfamilies are somewhat more often confronted with problems in cooperating on parenting than parents in nuclear families: decisions, for example, are made together less often and discussions about parenting end somewhat more often in arguments.” Interestingly, modern Western society, with its individualization, breaks with tradition, and split partnership models, is again approaching parenting ideas of the kind that have long been practiced in rural areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America in particular, via the idea of social parenting in child care: It is not the biological parents alone who assume responsibility, but an entire social (village) community. The extent to which the multitude of caregivers succeeds in meeting the child’s need for reliability and security depends to a large extent on the trust and willingness of the adults to cooperate with each other. As a rule, however, social parents are still in the weaker position, which in many cases does not correspond to their increased social importance. Put simply, in the daily family madness between job demands, child care and household duties, they are welcome with their support. But when it comes to basic educational questions and decisions, they often move back into the second row, legally anyway. This can also make their relationships with the children more unstable: If things go well, social parents are accepted; if there are conflicts, the relationship is more quickly called into question again. “Striking a good balance between the rights and interests of biological and social parents, and not least the children, is no easy task, however,” write DJI deputy director Sabine Walper and psychologist Ulrike Lux in their essay “Shaping Social Parenthood.” Protecting only genetic-biological parenthood, however, runs the risk of unfounded imbalances “that do not do justice to the tasks and achievements of lived parenthood beyond biological descent relationships.” Under German law, a maximum of two people can hold parental custody. The recognition of social parents is found to be very deficient in many individual cases. In England, for example, it is possible to transfer parental responsibility to third parties by court order if they have been caring for the child for a long time and this is in the best interests of the child. In the Netherlands, stepparents can also be granted joint parental responsibility. In Germany, recommendations for a reform of the law of parentage have been on the table since the summer. This reform will probably not do justice to the special constellation of the Holy Family. But the tradition shows: Without Joseph, the family happiness would have been short-lived. When Herod wants to get rid of the newborn king of the Jews sought by the three wise men, Joseph is again warned by an angel in his sleep. “Then he arose, and took the young child and his mother with him by night, and escaped into Egypt.” Holy Family Er.