PILGRIM in Dialogue with Sustainability and Spirituality

116 117 opens up an extraordinary opportunity for students and teachers to collaborate with other institutions, including those abroad. This is an extremely valuable experience that aligns perfectly with the ideas of PILGRIM. Above all, such collaboration enables the exchange of knowledge and experiences on sustainability and spirituality. Contact with different cultures and perspectives teaches respect for diversity and inspires a more conscious way of life. Collaborative educational projects that can be carried out within international cooperation are often more comprehensive and interdisciplinary. This provides an excellent opportunity to develop social and intercultural competencies. It is important to emphasise that contact with students who speak a different language helps improve the language skills of the participants. It is a natural way to learn and practise foreign languages. Collaborating with foreign schools also enables a better understanding and analysis of global challenges, such as climate change, migration, or cultural differences. An important aspect of embarking on the PILGRIM path is cooperation with Polish institutions, which strengthens ties at the national level and enables the exchange of experiences in the context of local challenges and initiatives. Thanks to this, students from different parts of the country can learn from each other, contributing to a rich and diverse educational environment. Collaborating with other schools, both Polish and foreign, is not only a valuable learning experience but also a practical implementation of PILGRIM ideas. It teaches responsibility for our common planet, develops intercultural skills, and strengthens bonds at the local and national levels. Promoting the PILGRIM ideology can be achieved through various initiatives and activities. Education plays a crucial role here, so organising educational events, conferences, workshops, or meetings is an important step towards integrating people not only with similar but also different beliefs and faiths. This creates a space for dialogue and exchange of experiences. Looking at these initiatives from a different perspective, it is impossible not to notice that organising joint prayers, ceremonies, or religious celebrations builds spiritual bonds and demonstrates shared values. Initiating dialogue between representatives of different faiths allows for sharing thoughts on universal values. Acting together for the common good creates bonds at both social and spiritual levels. Initiating projects related to environmental protection, promoting sustainability, and fostering respect for nature aligns with the ideologies of many faiths that advocate respect for creation. Organising workshops and meetings for young people that integrate aspects of spirituality, ethics, and environmental education can inspire young people to take action for mutual understanding and fruitful collaboration. Engagement in activities for those in need, regardless of their faith, not only promotes the value of solidarity but also demonstrates care for others and is an essential aspect of spirituality. PILGRIM is therefore a path to building a better tomorrow by integrating sustainability with spirituality, which is why it is worth being a part of it. Rev. Dr Robert Kaczmarek Katowice Ambassador of PILGRIM in Poland "So That the Earth Can Breathe Again" European Youth Meeting – PILGRIM in Katowice A week before the start of the United Nations Climate Summit COP24, which took place in Katowice from 2-16 December 2018, young people from several European countries arrived in the capital of Upper Silesia to express their concern and responsibility for the Earth. They represented various institutions associated with the International Education Network PILGRIM in 7 countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. They wanted to express their commitment to PILGRIM's guiding motto: "Living Consciously – Giving Future". The organisers of the meeting were the Catechetical Department of the Metropolitan Curia in Katowice and the Faculty of Theology of the University of Silesia, while cooperation was undertaken by VIII. M. Skłodowska-Curie Secondary School in Katowice and the University College of Christian Churches of Teacher Education Vienna/Krems. The meeting was inaugurated on Friday, 23 November, in the auditorium of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia. Its main part consisted of presentations of achievements by individual institutions in the field of sustainable development and the signing of a pro-environmental manifesto by their representatives, which was prepared in Polish, English, and German. In the evening, in the crypt of the Cathedral of Christ the King, an ecological prayer for respect for creation took place, followed by a prayerful reflection on selected passages from the encyclical Laudato Si’. Then, representatives

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzM2NTQ=