Udział Polaków w Europejskim Spotkaniu Młodych w Lizbonie 2004/2005

Participation of Poles in the European Youth Meeting, Lisbon 2004/2005

Summary: The Ecumenical Community of Taizé adopted its name from the spot where it is based: a small village in Burgundy, in south-eastern France. The Community was established in 1940 on the initiative of Brother Roger Schulz. It presently gathers over 100 brothers of various nationalities and rites. In many countries of the world, there are fraternities, and brothers who deal with aiding the poorest people. Almost from the very beginnings of the Community's existence, people interested in the Taizé philosophy started going there, particularly young people joined by the common idea and prayer for the unity of Christians. Late in the 1970s, the Taizé Community decided to launch a new stage of youth meetings. They initiated European Youth Meetings, organised annually, at the turn of December and January in various European cities. The first meeting took place in 1978/1979 in Paris; later this city welcomed young people four more times. Other meetings took place three times in: Barcelona, Rome; twice in: London, Wrocław, Budapest, Vienna, Milan; and once in: Köln, Prague, Munich, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Hamburg and Lisbon. Twenty-nine meetings have already taken place; each year they gather many young people. At the first meeting in Paris, there were 15,000 people, and at the meeting in Vienna fourteen years later, in 1992, there was a record attendance - approx. 105,000 people, including the majority (69,697) from Poland. The percentage of Poles in all meetings is high, varying from 22.5% in Milan in 2005/2006 to 67% in the aforementioned Vienna. The programme of the European Youth Meetings is composed of several elements: a) morning meetings at the parish b) noon meetings at city centres, in prayer halls. In the case of Lisbon, these were facilities erected in 1998 for the EXPO exhibition c) a common evening prayer with the Brother Roger meditation, followed by a prayer around the cross. The 26th European Youth Meeting took place in Lisbon. During this meeting, the author carried out a survey among the Polish participants. The total number of participants was 19,117 (official statistical data of Taizé), including 6,000 Poles. The majority (59%) were people who had already participated in meetings previously. A large share had been to Paris in 2002/2003 (25%) and Hamburg in 2003/2004 (22%). Among the pilgrims surveyed, 79% used the opportunity of overnight accommodation during the trip to Lisbon, most in French cities: Toulouse (20,5%), Lyon (16%), Avignon (13%), Bordeaux (8%), Lourdes (7%). The long journey and the required bus stops allowed for visiting European cities. Most pilgrims visited Lourdes (39%) and Fatima (15%), which are renowned pilgrimage destinations in the Catholic Church. The most frequent motives for taking the journey, as listed by the people surveyed, included: religious-cognitive (35%) and religious-cognitive-social (35%), purely religious motives were indicated by 15.5% of participants, and just cognitive by 8.5%, purely social motives were not mentioned. The majority of people surveyed included women (61.5%), people aged between 21 and 25 (59%), students (56%), mainly from Kraków (15%) and Warsaw (14%), as well as the inhabitants of the provinces of Małopolska (16%) and Mazowsze (15%). The Community of Taizé, in organising these meetings, helps youth to overcome their fear of the future, stimulates their activity for the service of their brothers, and makes them aware of the need for peace and unity.

Peregrinus Cracoviensis, 2006, z. 17, s. 101-112.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1425-1922

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