The news about the decision of the Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts Association (AGESCI) to remove sexual orientation and gender identity as criteria for discernment for those holding educational responsibilities has landed like a bombshell in certain sectors of the scouting world, in Europe and in Spain.
And its gravity calls for a much deeper reflection than the mere chronicle of an organizational change.
What is at stake is not an administrative issue or a matter of how scouting is practiced (what scouts do).
What is at stake is the very nature of scouting in general and of Catholic scouting in particular.
Because scouting was not born as a simple youth leisure activity. Robert Baden-Powell created an extraordinarily effective pedagogical method to shape character, awaken a sense of duty, cultivate personal responsibility, and educate in the virtues that make a mature adult life possible.
More than a century later, no one can deny the enormous educational contribution of that project born in England.
However, the true qualitative leap in the scout method came when Father Jacques Sevin understood that this method could become a formidable tool for evangelization.
It was not about superficially baptizing outdoor activities or adding a few prayers at the end of meetings.
It was about integrating the Christian vision of the human person into the entire scout pedagogy.
Father Sevin knew Baden-Powell personally and was able to discover the enormous compatibility between the scout method and Christian anthropology.
From that fusion was born modern Catholic scouting, which for decades formed generations of young people in love for God, neighbor, country, and service.
Precisely for this reason, it is especially painful to see how many of the major scout associations that were born under Catholic inspiration and were welcomed by the Episcopal Conferences of their respective countries in the 1960s have gradually moved away from their roots.
The problem is not new.
It has been brewing for decades, throughout Europe and also in Spain.
First, they relativized the spiritual dimension and then forgot it completely.
Later, character formation was replaced by dynamics of emotional self-expression.
Then educational demands were abandoned in the name of a false inclusion.
And finally, the language, anthropological categories, and ideological assumptions of the contemporary cultural revolution have been accepted.
What human model does Catholic scouting propose today?
The fundamental question is not whether certain people can participate in a scout association.
The question is quite different: what human model does Catholic scouting propose to children and adolescents through its foundational documents and, above all, through the models of educators who work directly with children and adolescents?
Because the scout method is not neutral.
It never has been.
All education necessarily starts from a particular conception of the human person.
And Catholic scouting can only be called such if it fully takes into account Christian anthropology and the educational and evangelizing mission of the Church, offered concretely through the forms and methods of scouting.
When these foundations disappear, the method is emptied of content.
The uniform may remain.
The camp may remain.
Even traditional terminology may remain.
But the educational and Catholic essence is no longer there.
No scout association excludes anyone because of their sexual tendencies.
What every Catholic youth association must do is ensure that the educational role models who work directly with children and adolescents can truly serve as references for them.
And it is precisely on this point that the AGESCI decision is especially serious.
During childhood and adolescence, young people seek references.
Parents remain fundamental, but all educators know that there comes a stage when adolescents begin to look beyond the family sphere to find models that help them build their own identity.
That is why the Church has always considered that those who perform formative roles with minors must offer not only technical competence, but also and above all moral coherence and clarity in their way of living.
It is profoundly irresponsible for an organization that presents itself as Catholic and is recognized as such by its Episcopal Conference to explicitly renounce evaluating the anthropological and moral suitability of those who will become role models for children and adolescents.
The issue is not the personal dignity of anyone, which is undeniable and must always be respected.
The issue is whether a Catholic educational institution can behave as if the Christian vision of sexuality were irrelevant for those who hold formative responsibilities.
Because when an association states that sexual orientation or gender identity are completely indifferent matters for educational discernment, it is implicitly saying that Catholic anthropology is also indifferent.
And that represents a frontal rupture with the educational tradition of Catholic scouting.
It is no coincidence that the new document approved by the Italian scouts also includes training programs on gender identity and sexual orientation and promotes the adoption of the new language imposed by contemporary political correctness.
What is presented today as inclusion ends up tomorrow becoming a profound transformation of the entire educational proposal.
The alternative of the Scouts of Europe
Fortunately, not all European Catholic scouting has followed that path.
The International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe was born after the Second World War to unite the new European generations through the method of Catholic scouting of the Jesuit Fr. Sevin, now in the process of beatification and already recognized by Benedict XVI as Venerable.
The Scouts of Europe were recognized as an International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2003.
In Spain, the Spanish Association of Guides and Scouts of Europe, belonging to this federation, has been present since 1978 and was recognized by the Spanish Episcopal Conference as a Private Association of the Faithful in 2007 and is part of this international federation.
Its educational proposal continues to defend without hesitation what made Catholic scouting great: character formation, a sense of the concrete, service, health, and the search for God through its original intuitions: differentiated education, outdoor life, personal demands, careful liturgy, hands-on work, coherent living of the faith, etc.
Perhaps that is why many parents are turning their gaze today toward this Spanish association.
Because they sense that young people do not need more confusion.
They do not need more anthropological experiments.
They do not need more concessions to ideological fashions.
They need convinced educators.
They need solid role models.
They need truth.
Return to Baden-Powell, return to Father Sevin, return to Christ
The real question that many European scout associations should be asking themselves today is simple: do they want to continue being Catholic scouts or become just another youth organization adapted to the spirit of the world?
Because history shows that every time a Catholic institution tries to make itself acceptable to the dominant culture, it ends up losing what made it valuable.
Catholic scouting does not need to reinvent itself.
It needs to return to Baden-Powell, return to Father Sevin, and thereby return to Christ.
Those who remain faithful will continue to form generations of free, strong, and holy young people.
Those who do not will be able to keep the uniform, but they will have lost the soul and therefore should also completely lose the name so as not to confuse anyone.