Establishing a network to facilitate discussion and foster cooperation between religious communities, law enforcement agencies, local authorities and experts was one of the goals of the Second International Workshop under the EU - ISF project "SHRINEs - Raising Awareness for the protection of places of worship by pomoting interfaith dialogue on the use of advanced technologies."
The workshop, organized by Fondazione SAFE - Security and Freedom for Europe, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano and the University of Lodz, was held on 17-18/10/2023 at the Katowice International Airport and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Jasna Gora.
A conference session, study visits, practical exercises and networking discussions were attended by representatives of the European Commission (DG Home Counter-Terrorism Unit), the Counter-Terrorism Prevention Center of the Internal Security Agency, the Polish Police, Border Patrol and Fire Service, representatives of the Police from Sweden, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, the Netherlands and Cyprus, representatives of religious communities from Europe including the Catholic Church - Archdiocese of Lodz, the Third Order Regular of St. Francis from the Italian province of Umbro Picena, the Social Obesrwatorium Foundation, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Warsaw Jewish Community, the Diakonia Center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, the Evangelical Augsburg Church, the Scientology Church (European Office in Brussels), the Bosnian Islamic Community in Austria, the Congregation of the Pauline Fathers of Jasna Gora, researchers from the United Kingdom (National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership), the Tiberian Institute in Rome (Istituto Tevere), the Belgian Federation of Active Associations (Fedactio), the Polytechnic University of Turin, the LINKS Foundation (established by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation - Italy's largest banking foundation), the French Foundation for Strategic Research, as well as technology partners C&C Partners and Zanasi&Partners.
The workshop was an opportunity to present the work of the WSB Academy researchers internationally. Dr. Lukasz Szymankiewicz, assistant professor at WSB University, gave a lecture during the plenary session, as well as practical exercises, based on the monograph "Security by Design Guidebook for Religious Sites" published by WSB University's research team under the Prosperess project. The event was also attended by doctoral students of WSB University in the discipline of Security Science: Czeslaw Konieczny, M.Sc., spoke about countering the smuggling of works of art across the national border, and Artur Musial, M.Sc., conducted a demonstration of fire safety at the airport. On behalf of the University of Lodz and the "SHRINE's" project consortium, the workshop was organised by Adrian Siadkowski, PhD, AWSB Professor, a full-time researcher in the Department of Security Sciences at WSB University.
