(ANS – Rome) – We have now reached the finale edition in the series "What kinf of Salesians for the youth of today?", on the Action Guidelines for the Salesian Congregation after the 28th General Chapter, something that has aroused great interest throughout the Salesian world –  during this year alone  views on these have reached about 10,000 people. On Saturday, 13 April  2024, Fr Flaviano D'Ercoli, Rrector of the Gerini Salesian House, Rome, will interview Dr. Anna Sansoni, Salesian Cooperator from the Salesian oratory in Siena. The theme of the meeting will be: "The presence of women in communities: Mamma Margaret today".

(ANS – Messina) – Creation, as our Common Home, requires more and more care, and it is necessary to respond to this challenge starting from an educational commitment: through the beauty and goodness of music, we can reach a deeper awareness of ecological spirituality. This was, in summary, the message launched during the pedagogical formation seminar that took place on 9 April at the San Tommaso Salesian Theological Institute in Messina. Sponsors of the initiative, in addition to the Institute itself, the  Don Giovanni Cravotta Centre for Religious Pedagogy and the group of Salesian Cooperators from the Local Centre.

Turin, Italy – April 2024 - "Take your life in hand and make a masterpiece of it". This phrase of John Paul II drove the theme of the SYM Day held on 7 April 2024 in Valdocco: "Impossible things – thief of souls". And the approximately 500 young people and entertainers saw many impossible things: fire-eating men, works of art, incredible acrobatics... but how does God speak to us through passion, art, creativity and how can we use it to reach others, as Don Bosco did? To try to answer these questions, there was the testimony of three guests: Silvia, a painter formed in the Salesian Youth Movement who is establishing herself as a decorator of churches; Fr Gianmarco, a Salesian very skilled in juggling; Rocco, founder of the Giullari di Dio Association who through magic and clowning gives consolation to youngsters hospitalised in Piedmont hospitals. The participants experienced together another important moment of the day, the Eucharistic celebration with the delivery of the Missionary Mandate.

Source: salesianipiemonte.info

Rome, Italy – April 2024 – Students from the Institute of Spiritual Theology of the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) who specialise in the history and spirituality of St John Bosco visited the offices and archives of the Postulation for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian   on 9 April. They did so as part of the course/ seminar on the holiness of the Salesian Family. They were accompanied by Fr Gabriel Cruz Trejo, collaborator of the Postulator Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, and Spiritual Animator for the primary ADMA. In Salesian Studies curriculum, students delve into various aspects of the history, spirituality and pedagogy of St John Bosco. Taken into account are aspects of the spirituality and history of St Francis de Sales, of St Mary Mazzarello, of the groups of the Salesian Family, of Salesian pedagogy and the preventive system, of Don Bosco's spiritual proposal for young people, the development of the Salesian Congregation. During the seminar on the holiness of the Salesian Family, students learn about the progress of the processes leading to canonisation; together they study the case of Don Bosco's canonisation. Students from Japan, Angola, Papua New Guinea, India and Congo, individually delve into the case of one of the holy candidates: Blesseds, Venerables and  Servants of God of the Salesian Family. A tradition that has disappeared for some years has thus been recovered thanks to the new headquarters at the Zefferino Namuncurá community in Via della Bufalotta in Rome, a few kilometres from the UPS.

Torre Annunziata, Italy – March 2024 - Twenty years since the murder of Matilde Sorrentino, twenty years of life of "Mamma Matilde" Childrens Community in Torre Annunziata and the"Small steps, big dreams" Association who are members of Salesians for Social Matilde Sorrentino was a woman and a mother from Torre Annunziata (Naples), who in 1997 denounced a pedophile ring in her son's school. He was also a victim of abuse. In 2004, she was killed, shot in front of her son. In that same year we were finishing the work of the "Small steps big dreams" in the childrens community in Torre Annunziata. "It seemed right to us to call it Mamma Matilde: here we welcome many young people who do not have a mother and we have chosen to make Matilde Sorrentino ‘enter’ the community with her courage, her dignity and her practicality", explains Rino Balzano, social worker in the Community. A few days before Matilda's murder, Annalisa Durante was killed in Naples. Twenty years later, the Salesians in Torre Annunziata wanted to remember Annalisa and Matilde with two conferences. The first, on 22 March with young people from the communities and the oratory at Torre Annunziata who met some relatives of the victims and at the end gave rise to a procession to Matilde's house. On 26 March, the Salesian house in Torre Annunziata hosted the conference twenty years after the death of Matilde Sorrentino to keep the memory of ‘Mamma Courage’ alive. It was sponsored by the Municipality of Torre Annunziata, involving various personalities, during which the story of Matilde was remembered and the importance of the work of anti-violence centres was stressed.

(ANS – Catania) – The "Educational poverty: the Salesian presence and proposal in Sicily" Conference was held on Saturday, 6 April at the Don Bosco theatre in the Salesian Institute at Cibali, in Catania, promoted by the Salesians of the Saint Paul Province of Sicily (ISI) and by the Sicilian Territorial Committee of "Salesians for Social APS". At the end of the conference, this committee held its own meeting in order to renew its commitment and qualified dedication to the service of its beneficiaries.