Grupa - wspólnota pielgrzymkowa (religijna) jako miejsce - środowisko i środek edukacji

A Religious Pilgrimage Community as a Site and Means of Education

Summary: At the turn of the 20th and 21st Century, young people grow up in social and cultural circumstances different to those of their parents’ or grandparents’. Political and social freedom accompanied by chaos and confusion in the value systems, the search of a reli-gious and ethical support, as well as the break-up of the family systems and subcultural experience are among the principal factors creating the need or necessity for a permanent involvement in religious communities such as foot pilgrimages. The phenomenon of a pilgrimage, particularly the foot pilgrimage, was mainly investigated in descriptions of pilgrimage centres. Foot pilgrimages have been subject of chronicles and diaries dating back a century (including those written by such eminent Poles as W. Reymont and M. Baliński), early social research (including work by L. Krzywicki and S. Czarnowski), and of sociological and religious studies carried out during 1960-1990 (e.g. W. Piwowarski, R. Jusiak, E. Ciupak and A. Krynicki). A pilgrimage is, however, also a place/community where a complex educational and informational activity is carried out. As an educational space, it can also be a means of educational processes.
This paper aims to describe, by using the example of a foot pilgrimage, the environment of a religious community, the ways and dynamics of the manifestation of participation, understood as a personal participation and not just "membership", and to underscore the formational and educational aspect of such religious communities.
The "meeting-dialogue" method was applied; the so-called "generation 2000" of active participants involved in their own development and in work for the common benefit was identified out of the anonymous turn-of-the-century generation. Interviews, questionnaires, photographs and films from the pilgrimage group and from neocatechumenal communities reflect the experiences of mainly religious nature. Nevertheless, by looking at them from the point of view of dynamic participation, one can see them as a place and means of active education and formation.
The research focused on participants of the Warsaw Foot Pilgrimages No 289 (6-15 August 2000) and No 290 (6-15 August 2001), who left the Warsaw Paulite Church for Jasna Góra in Częstochowa.
The discussed topic seems interesting in the context of the variety of concepts and forms of contemporary education, both practical and theoretical. In the so-called "participatory education", models of educational/formational processes for young pilgrims ought to be built on the basis of active participation (see: K.Wojtyła), understood not just as participation, but above all as a commitment in one’s own personal development and as an involvement in the entire social life (religious, political, economic, cultural etc.) for the common good. Indeed, if in the interpretation of participation one remains at the "participation" level only, without a commitment to personal development and thus without a prospect of personalistic activity to the full potential of human dignity, then the participation in a pilgrimage, a movement, an association or any other community, is a passive participation.
Manifestation of a commitment to a community, defined as a realisation of a person in relation to others, and experiencing affirmation for others and for the common good happen in a particular place, but also create a space, or an environment. The variety of descriptions of and interpretative approaches to the environment, ranging from the classical (H. Radlińka, J. Szczepański, A. Kamiński, W. Okoń, etc.) to the contemporary, define, along with the term environment, also the categories of space (A. Przecławska) and sacral space (A. Jackowski, J. Kłoczowski). Thus, the principal premise can be defined as meaning that the environment encompasses all social and cultural processes in a society, their mutual relationships and interdependencies. As a space filled with certain conditions, it constitutes a place of integral education and formation.
A pilgrimage group, used as an example of a religious community and defined as a place/environment and a means for personal involvement, shows a multitude of forms for the manifestation of active participation.
The research into a group of young pilgrims has shown that the external experience of a community is realised in two basic dimensions: the environment and the people. Together they might be called a "landscape".
"The manifestation landscape" - the environment. The first reality is something that could be called the "sacral landscape". It involves elements of the natural environment (local geography, the road, village, town, etc.), sacral buildings (churches, shrines, chapels, cemeteries, roadside crosses, rooms used for the holy mass), organisational framework, nature of the community (penitential, joyous, praying, brotherly, etc.) and other elements of community life (e.g. prayers, Holy Mass, listening to the Word of the Lord, conferences and testimonials), which constitute the basic structure of a place/environment where a manifestation of community takes place in a pilgrimage group.
People constitute the other dimension of the "manifestation landscape".
The pilgrims meet, talk to and see mainly the population of the towns and villages along the route (their traditions, customs and language). The people also include the participants of the community (people with certain duties such as pilgrimage managers, priests, surgeons, stewards, musicians, "senior citizens" and the youth, etc.). Both the sacral/natural environment and the people help community members experience personal encounter with God within the believing community of the Mother Church.
Social pedagogy sees in the contemporary youth religious groups, such as foot pilgrims, in their organisational phase, operation and systematic meetings, which maintain the community and pilgrimage experience, an environment and a mode of operation for educational and formational activity. Religious communities give their participants an opportunity for an integrated personal, religious and social development by being a place of a communal being-together (being in one place, prayer, work and various activities for the common good).
I would like to particularly focus on the foot pilgrimage community as a place/environment, on its historical and social conditioning, evolution and on its educational and formational meaning for the building of personal and social activity of young Poles, something often underestimated by educators. As an active participant of formational and educational activity, I had a chance to actively witness the whole wealth of the various forms and contents of the communal manifestation, to see passive, pathological and anti-participatory attitudes, as well as to notice with joy the first fruits of educational activities: attitudes of personal creative participation in young pilgrims.

Peregrinus Cracoviensis, 2002, z.12, s. 101-115.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1425-1922

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