An eight-member delegation from the KU, including President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien, met Pope Francis during an audience at the Vatican at the weekend. The occasion was a conference organized by the Uniservitate network. The worldwide association of Catholic universities pursues the goal of spreading Service-learning (learning through engagement) and anchoring it on an institutional basis. The Pope emphasized the importance of this pedagogical method "with which Catholic educational institutions live up to their name". Education and knowledge should not be reduced to intellectual abilities. Rather, they need to be complemented "by the skill of diligent hands and the generosity of a passionate heart".
The fifth Uniservitate Symposium was held at the LUMSA University in Rome and brought together around 250 representatives from Catholic universities on all continents who work together in the Uniservitate project led by the Latin American Center for Solidary Service Learning (CLAYSS). The highlight of the last day of the symposium was the meeting with Pope Francis in the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace, where the Pope usually receives larger delegations.
Francis called on the participants to promote an education based on contact with reality and a "culture of curiosity". He warned of the danger of globalization in the field of education, which today is far too often subordinated to political and economic interests. Behind such a "flattening of the educational program" lie "forms of ideological conditioning that distort the work of education and make it an instrument for goals that are very different from the promotion of human dignity and the search for truth", the Pope said. Service-learning promotes "a sense of community responsibility" among students through their involvement in social projects, emphasized Francis. The aim should be to promote educational projects "that bring students into contact with reality" so that they can contribute to making the world a better place by sharing their experience. "We can't change the world if we don't change education."
A particularly successful example of such an educational project supported by Pope Francis was recently carried out at the KU. The focus was on promoting the language skills of children whose mother tongue is not German. Students designed teaching units and tested their materials at three elementary schools in Eichstätt and Adelschlag. The seminar was led by elementary school teacher Kristina Löblein, who is currently on leave from teaching and works as a research assistant at the Chair of German Didactics at the KU. Löblein received the "Global Award" from the Uniservitate network for her project – and now had the chance to take part in the conference, including a meeting with the Pope.
"The days in Rome were not a normal scientific symposium, they rather felt like a meeting of good friends", enthused Löblein the day after her return. She was impressed by the passion with which the other conference participants implemented and presented their projects – "always with the aim of changing educational processes and thus society through sustainable commitment". The exchange and networking with other Catholic universities was incredibly enriching, said Löblein. "The fact that language is the key to social participation was more than evident throughout these days."
The KU delegation also included Verona Pircher, who is studying psychology in the Master's program. Pircher worked on the project to promote the language skills of elementary school children as part of the interdisciplinary teaching module "Studium.Pro". At the conference, she presented the award-winning Eichstätt project. "This international community has shown me how important it is to work together on social issues across national and linguistic borders and how strongly we are united by common values and goals", said Pircher after the award ceremony. The personal meeting with the Pope was of course "an unforgettable experience". "When I told him that I came from the KU, his eyes lit up and he told me that he had already been to Eichstätt himself. This personal connection gave our brief exchange about the project and my degree program a special depth", says Pircher.
All eight Eichstätt participants at the symposium had the opportunity to exchange a few words with the Pope in person. KU President Gabriele Gien led the delegation and not only conveyed greetings to Francis from the University, which an Argentinian Jesuit priest named Jorge Bergoglio had visited in 1986. Gien also presented the Pope with an art print from the "Hortus Eystettensis", the famous plant book from Eichstätt. The group also included Christiane Hoth de Olano and Olha Mykhailyshyn, who coordinate the Uniservitate project at the KU. As a “Hub” in the network, the KU has a coordinating function for cooperation between universities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. This regional network includes the Catholic University in Lviv in Ukraine, the University in Bethlehem and the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland.
Other members of the Eichstätt group were Prof. Dr. André Habisch, who teaches Christian Social Ethics at the Ingolstadt School of Management, Prof. Dr. Simone Birkel from the School of Transformation and Sustainability and research assistant Ann-Kathrin Bremer from the Chair of Geography Didactics and Education for Sustainable Development. All three had also designed and implemented teaching projects in the area of Service-learning. Together with students of Religious Education, for example, Birkel offered pastoral care at the Eichstätt "Open-Air am Berg" festival. Birkel also received an award for this project in Rome. The professor used her meeting with Francis to draw the Pope's attention to new study formats at the KU that focus on social transformation. Birkel is even more convinced after the conference: "Service-learning is an excellent way of linking social organization in the areas of sustainability and pastoral care with student commitment and individual learning processes."
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![[Translate to Englisch:] Gabriele Gien und Papst Franziskus](/fileadmin/_processed_/8/e/csm_Uniservitate_Gien_Vatican_Media_e3f332324b.jpg)
